Finally, just six years ago, in 2013, Pope Francis decreed that St. Joseph should be included by name in the Eucharistic Prayers, when we mention Mary, the apostles and martyrs and all the saints whom we wish to join in the glory of heaven.  It’s about time that we recognize his extraordinary place in Salvation History; we hear about it today.  Just like Mary, we hear very little about Joseph in the Bible.  Outside of Matthew and Luke’s infancy narratives, Joseph is mentioned only in the Gospel of John where nothing is said of him except that he was reputedly the father of Jesus.  Yet, we can learn a great deal from these few references, especially as we find them in today’s Gospel.  Let’s examine this passage a little for insight into Joseph’s role in the coming of our Lord.

We all know that Matthew’s Gospel, which will be featured throughout this liturgical year, was written to Jewish converts to Christianity who were suffering persecution both at the hands of their fellow Jews, who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, as well as the Romans who really wanted everyone to worship their gods but begrudgingly allowed the Jews to worship their own God as long as they kept it quiet.  The Jews who had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah just couldn’t keep quiet and it was causing problems for the Roman governors in ancient Israel.

As we listen to this morning’s gospel passage, we see that Matthew’s nativity narrative emphasizes Joseph, the patriarch of the family.  Matthew, writing to his fellow Jews, presents Joseph as a bridge figure from one covenant to another.  His name – Joseph – recalls an earlier Joseph, the son of Jacob, the dreamer who saved his family from famine.  You will recall that Joseph was despised by his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt.  Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dreams that foretold seven years of abundance and seven years of drought and was put in charge of filling the grain bins so that the people would have enough to eat during the drought.  Remember, that’s how the people of God got to live in Egypt, where the Exodus began.  It was with the descendants of this earlier Joseph that God would make a covenant at Mt. Sinai, where he gave them the Ten Commandments and renewed the promise he had made with Abraham: he would be their God and they would be his people, faithful to him alone.  Like Joseph of Egypt, Joseph of Nazareth would meet God in dreams that revealed how to save his own family.  Through his son, whose birth we eagerly anticipate, God would give us a new and eternal covenant, established at the Last Supper; we celebrate it here every time we gather around our Lord’s Table to celebrate the Eucharist.

Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man – remember, to be righteous means to be in a right relationship with God.  So, Joseph, who is in a right relationship with God, finds himself with a terrible dilemma as he learns of Mary’s pregnancy.  The law allowed him to have Mary stoned and, at the least, obliged him to divorce her, annulling the marriage contract lest he sully the line of David.  

On the other hand, the Jewish scriptural tradition also acclaimed the God who was known for having mercy.  When ancient Israel was unfaithful, for example, worshiping false gods, we hear the Prophet Hosea portray God as luring the people back to the covenant saying “I will espouse you in love and in mercy” (Hosea 2:21).

Joseph’s religious heritage offered him no single answer to the dilemma presented by his pregnant spouse.  The demands of the law seemingly contradicted the divine practice of mercy.  But, with the guidance of an angel appearing in a dream Joseph discovered how he could work within the law and make the child of God his own.

Much like the overture for an opera or a musical, Matthew’s nativity account is the overture to his Gospel.  As it announces coming themes through the details of a story with deep roots in the past, it bequeaths to us a narrative that is truer than any simply factual account could ever be.  Matthew presents Joseph not only as a dreamer, but also as a son of David which means he is the heir of God’s promise of a kingdom that would last forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16).  Thus, there is a wonderful paradox in the angel’s comforting message.  Joseph is called, precisely as the son of David, to allow an unknown into this Davidic lineage, trusting that Mary’s child has been engendered through the work of God’s Spirit and carries its own purity, a holiness beyond what any ethnic lineage could assure.

The angel of the dream instructed Joseph to call the child “Jesus,” a common name in that day that spoke of their hope in God’s saving power.  The name means “God saves.”  In the act of naming him, Joseph both claimed Jesus as his own and foreshadowed his adopted son’s divinely determined vocation.  As a last word, just to bolster him, the angel made the first evangelical reference to the fulfillment of prophecy.  Joseph should not worry, the angel assured him.  Isaiah the prophet had spoken of this day as the time when God would dwell among the people, as we hear in today’s first reading: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.'”

The time of Emmanuel had come.  With a lovely double entendre, Matthew goes on to relate that Joseph awoke and did what the angel had commanded.  Mary’s predicament and the best of his tradition had awakened him to the new work that God was accomplishing in his day.  God’s mercy would prevail and, with the cooperation of Mary and her faith-filled husband, Joseph, God would come to be among us in a new and unique way – in the flesh!

As we make our final preparations for Christmas, let us remember what we celebrate – God coming among us – and let us, like Joseph and Mary, awaken our minds and keep our hearts open to his continued working through us.  After all, each of us has a unique role to play in God’s plan for the world.  So, let us put our trust in God and bring his love and mercy to everyone we encounter in our daily lives.