Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 18, 2022: Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him...

Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him…

Are we ready to trust in the Lord’s promise?

    In the eighth century before Christ, king Ahaz had a hard time trusting in the Lord. When God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign from the Lord, your God, Ahaz resists: I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord! Ahaz is only willing to put his faith into what he can immediately see before him. But God’s promise does not rely on Ahaz’s willingness to ask for a sign, and the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that the Lord himself will give Ahaz a sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. For Ahaz, this son will be the righteous king Hezekiah who will, as Psalm 24 exhorts, seek the face of the God of Jacob, and desire to be in right relationship with God. Of course, Christian readers of Isaiah (including the evangelist Matthew) read God’s promise to send his Son back into the story told in Isaiah, Jesus, the king of glory referred to in the psalm, God-with-us, Emmanuel. 

    Joseph might have been tempted to quietly divorce his betrothed, Mary, when he learned that she was with child, and indeed Matthew tells us that that is his intention, but the angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and explains that it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. The child is to be named Jesus or Yeshua, which means God saves. We never hear Joseph speak aloud in the gospels, but he does speak profoundly by his actions: Joseph is willing to violate the law for the sake of this woman because he trusts in the Lord’s promise that this child is the Messiah who will save his people from their sins. Joseph is a model for all who come after him, including St. Paul who, in the Letter to the Romans, speaks of the obedience of faith, for the sake of Jesus’ name, a faith brought about by the grace of apostleship to all those called to be holy. 

    When Jesus walked the earth, most could not conceive of God sending his Son as Messiah; this truth comes to be understood only much later, following his death and rising. But they trusted, as we are to trust, and were obedient to the Lord, as we too are called to be, embracing that obedience of faith shared by so many who have come before us. The Incarnation is near – let us trust in Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, to save us all, his people, and rejoice in his coming birth! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

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