Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
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.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him”
Fr. Pere GRAU i Andreu (Les Planes, Barcelona, Spain)Today, the liturgy of the Word invites us to consider and admire St. Joseph's character, a truly good man. About Mary, God's Mother, it has been said that she was blessed among women (cf. Lk 1:42). About Joseph it has been written he was a righteous man (cf. Mt 1:19).
As people made after God's image and semblance, we all owe our individual identity to God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, with actual and radical freedom. And as a response to that freedom we can glorify God, as He deserves, or we can also make, out of ourselves, something quite unpleasant to God's eyes.
We have no doubt that Joseph, through his job and personal commitment to his familial and social surroundings, won our Creator's “Heart”, by considering him a man to be trusted in the collaboration of human Redemption through His Son, made a man as we are.
Let us therefore learn from St. Joseph his allegiance —already proven from the very beginning— and his good behavior during the rest of his life —closely— correlated to Jesus and Mary.
We make him patron and mediator of all fathers, whether biological or not, that in our world must help their sons to provide a similar response to his. We make him patron of the Church, as an entity intimately linked to his Son, and we keep on hearing Mary's words when she finds that the Child Jesus was “lost” in the Temple: “Your father and I...” (Lk 2:48).
Therefore, with Mary, our Mother, we find Joseph as the father. St. Teresa of Avila wrote: “I took for my advocate and comforter the glorious Saint Joseph, and commended myself fervently to him (...). I do not remember at any time having asked him for anything which he did not grant”.
Exceptional father for those of us who have heard the call of our Lord to fill up, through the priestly ministry, the place Jesus Christ has handed over to us to carry on with his Church. —O glorious St. Joseph! Do protect our families, our communities, all those hearing the call to vocational priesthood... and let us hope there will be many of us
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“He, who had the power to create everything from nothing, had refused to rebuild what had been desecrated if Mary had not agreed to it.” (Saint Anselm)
“Saint Joseph was the model of a ‘just’ man who, in perfect harmony with his wife, welcomed the Son of God made man in an attitude of total availability to the divine desires.” (Benedict XVI)
“‘God sent forth his Son’ (Gal 4:4), but to prepare a body for him, he wanted the free co-operation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, ‘a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary’ (Lk 1:26-27). The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of death, so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 488)
