“We venerate blessed Joseph, Mary’s spouse”

(Eucharistic Prayer I)

St. Joseph together with the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist are Advent saints for prayerful reflection during this time of preparation for the birth of the Lord.  Earlier this year as a continuation of Vatican II’s remembrance of Joseph’s role in the mystery of salvation, Pope Francis added his name to the list of saints in the Eucharistic Prayers.   We begin Advent, in Year A of the liturgical cycle, by reading the Gospel according to Matthew who focuses his infancy narrative on Joseph.  Benedict XVI in The Infancy Narrative, a prologue to his two volume, Jesus of Nazareth, notes that Matthew places Joseph with the “great figures of the Old Covenant”.

In Matthew’s Gospel, an angel visits Joseph in a dream.  Joseph is greatly troubled by his discovery that Mary, to whom he is engaged, is pregnant.  He is very aware that this is not his child.  Such news would be distressing to any fiancé as it is for Joseph.  As he tosses and turns in his anxious need for the escape of sleep, the thought of breaking the engagement brings with it an acute awareness of what this will mean for Mary, his beloved.  The mother of a child with no known father will be ostracized by her own family and friends, and could become an easy victim to the Roman occupying force.

 In his dream Joseph’s reasonable doubt and fear for Mary is contradicted by the angel’s intervention and reassurance of God’s will for her.  “The child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit”.   What further perplexity and turmoil must these words have caused.  Joseph must choose:  to believe and trust, or to doubt.  The Scripture doesn’t elaborate on this struggle, but in prayer we can imagine it.  What Matthew does tell us is that “when Joseph awoke, he did as the angel commanded.”

 Joseph’s faith in God’s promise and trust that Mary’s child is God’s willed creation has extraordinary consequences for us and for all humanity.  By consenting to become Mary’s husband and Jesus’ foster father, Joseph allows Jesus to be named a descendant of Abraham and David.  As Elizabeth Johnson points out in her book on Mary, Truly Our Sister, Jesus becomes a descendent of men and women who were not only great saints, but also great sinners.  Beginning with Abraham and then David, Jesus becomes one with sinful humankind – sinners and victims of sin – truly one with us, Emmanuel.  This is the result of Joseph’s belief and acceptance, in a way his fiat joined to Mary’s.  The incarnate Word springs forth in history as human  so that we in our turn through his life, passion and death can share in His divine life.   The great mystery of God’s love to ponder.

Happy Advent!