The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year A 2010
Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-24
If you have been participating at Mass and listened to the Bible readings during these past 3 weeks, you have done a lot of spiritual travelling. You have climbed the Lord's mountain and hiked into the desert for John the Baptist's baptism at the river Jordan.
Today we meet Joseph, the hidden member of the Holy Family of Nazareth. St. Matthew mentions that he is a carpenter. So today we enter into the simple home of Joseph, the carpenter in Nazareth.
We have heard that he will have a son who will become a helper in his carpentry work. Joseph does not speak a word in the entire Bible. What we know about him comes mostly from Mary. But certainly in the small village of Nazareth everyone would have known that Mary and Joseph are engaged to be married, and she is pregnant. Mary and Joseph are not yet married. Jewish culture had little tolerance for an engaged woman who was pregnant by someone other than her intended. Joseph is a righteous man, faithful to all the demands of the Jewish law. The Jewish law would call for the death of the apparently adulterous Mary. But Joseph is unwilling to denounce her publicly and searches for a way out. There cannot be a secret divorce; two witnesses are needed.
Joseph’s first solution is to avoid a public trial and leave Mary quietly without declaring the reasons. This solution would preserve Joseph’s reputation, but Mary would still be exposed to public shame. The only way to preserve Mary’s honor would be for Joseph to complete his marriage to her and adopt the child as his own. In order for Joseph to make this choice he has to shift focus away from concern about his own righteousness and reputation and turn empathetically toward Mary. Only when he can make her the center of his attention, allowing himself to feel her distress, can he make the divinely directed choice that will uphold her honor at the price of his own.
In so doing, Joseph mirrors the divine action of empathy with humankind manifested at Christmas. Just as the Holy One rectifies the broken relationship with humanity by becoming one with us, so Joseph rescues a dishonorable and potentially deadly situation by choosing to unite himself completely to Mary. Joseph exemplifies what their son Jesus will later teach his followers: one must go far beyond what the law requires in order to fulfil it truly.
As a foster father Joseph cared for Jesus, his foster son. A few weeks after Jesus' birth Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to Egypt so that Herod would not kill him. As Jesus was growing up Joseph taught Him the trade of carpentry. In his workshop of Nazareth, Jesus would have learned about the raw materials of his craft: which wood was best suited for chairs and tables, which worked best for yokes and plows. Joseph would have taught Jesus the right way to drive a nail with a hammer, to drill a clean and deep hole in a plank, and to level a ledge or lintel.
Joseph also passed on to Jesus the values required of a good carpenter. Values like patience in waiting for the wood to dry; the need for judgement to ensure that your plumb line is straight; the need for honesty in charging the people a fair price; the need for persistence in sanding until the table top is smooth. All of these qualities which Joseph taught Jesus for about 18 years of Jesus life helped Jesus as he began to do the work that God had sent him to do. Joseph helped to fashion Jesus into the person most needed for the salvation of the world.
As a father Joseph with his wife Mary were also Jesus' first teacher in the Jewish faith. Joseph introduced Jesus to the great men and women of the Jewish religion. He taught him the Hebrew Prayers. He prepared him for his bar mitzvah, and encouraged him to listen to the rabbis in the synagogue.
But almost as soon as Jesus started his own work as Our Saviour Joseph disappears. By the time that Jesus began his preaching Joseph has died. Joseph is not listed among the guests at the wedding feast of Cana when Jesus first began teaching.
Years ago I visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. In the church there is a huge portrait entitled The Death of Joseph by the Spanish artist, Francisco Goya. The sick Joseph is lying in a bed. Standing beside the bed is a young Jesus, probably 16 or 17 years old. Jesus is without a beard, staring at Joseph. Sitting by the bed is Mary. It is an unusual picture of the Holy Family capturing the death of Joseph. It is much like death today where the family gathers as one of the family leaves in death.
Like Joseph, many people --maybe we ourselves -- come to face a dark night of fear, of pain, of confusion and frustration. Maybe all of our efforts to do something good has failed in spite of our best intentions. Maybe the physical and emotional suffering that we thought had by-passed us catches up with us when we are least expecting it.
It is when we feel saddest and are in our worst moods that God tries to talk to us most directly. It is right there in the dark night of doubt and anguish, that God directs our hearts to follow God's will. Even today nature reminds us of this as we are in what is known as winter solstice -- when night is longest and daylight is shortest. But in a few days we begin a day of longer brightness -- a pattern of our life.
The hidden life of St. Joseph is shared by many people. The middle age unmarried woman who looks after her aged mother; the loving parents of the autistic child; the single mother who has to work two jobs to provide for her children; the caring wife who feels unappreciated by her husband; the teenager who struggles to be good.
Let us pray that the spiritual sawdust from the hands of St. Joseph will bless them and us as it did Jesus.
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