The Solemnity of St. Joseph, Saturday, March 19, 2022

Matthew 1:16, 18–21, 24a

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. 

I have written a few times already on the proper translation and understanding of this passage of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  Those who are interested may look for reflections on this feast in the archives.

Above all, St. Joseph was a man of obedience.  He was also a man who sought the will of God so that he could be obedient to it.  If he had not been, he would have acted quickly when he learned, from her lips, that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Whether he took her into his home as his wife or left her as knowing his unworthiness of the mystery of the Incarnation, he would have acted quickly, assuming that his will was God’s also.  But he pondered and he prayed.  The counsel of the angel in his dream decided him, and he obeyed.  The obedience could not have come easily because his feeling of unworthiness persisted, but he obeyed anyway.  The obedience was not a single act performed once, either, but one which he continued to perform throughout his life.  

St. Joseph, then, is a wondrous model of seeking out the Lord’s will and adhering to it.  In this, he imitates the Prophet Jeremiah, who was called as a youth to prophesy to the Israelites.  At the time of his call, he presented to the Lord good, solid reasons why he should not prophesy, among them that he was too young.  But the Lord insisted and off Jeremiah went to do the Lord’s work.  He did so throughout the rest of his days despite his own doubts, imprisonment, threats, and beatings.  Towards the end of his life, after the fall of Jerusalem, he remained behind to console the Israelites not taken into Israel.  A band of them approached him, 

led by a man named Azariah, and asked him what was God’s will for them.  Azariah, speaking for the group, promised to obey whatever God told Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 42, 2-3).  Instead of giving his own opinion, which must have been tempting, the Prophet prayed for ten days, and the end of which God spoke to him.  Jeremiah then told Azariah and the others that God did not want them to go as refugees into Egypt but to stay in the land of Judah, where he would prosper them.  However, Azariah had made up his own mind that he was going to Egypt.  “You lie!” he accused the Prophet (Jeremiah 43, 2).  He then made up a silly accusation that Jeremiah’s secretary Baruch had turned him against them.  We are told that he took his band to Egypt despite what the Prophet had told them, and there they disappear from history.

We are all tempted from time to time to sidestep God’s will after we have ascertained it when it does not accord with what our “gut” tells us, or when it goes against what other people say or what we fear they will say.  But as important it is to seek God’s will, it is for us to obey it and to obey his laws as well as his inspirations.  We ought to shun the self-serving behavior of Azariah and gladly follow the example of St. Joseph.