Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid

Do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, into your home– these words from today's Gospel sound like a motto for the final days of Advent. We can also read them as words for our entire lives.

After all, Advent is precisely this, the waiting for the final encounter with Jesus after our death. How can we understand this call and apply it to ourselves?

For Joseph, Mary becomes a problem. After the wedding, before they even moved in together, Mary is expecting a child. This news must have shocked Joseph. This wasn't how he imagined his relationship with Mary! Perhaps he began to harbor suspicions about her. He wants to resolve his problem as quickly as possible and distance himself from Mary.

However, he hears a different solution from God: acceptance rather than separation. God often comes to us amid our problems, worries, and troubles. He contrasts our human solutions to the troubles we face with his divine ones. Their defining feature is that, in order to bear fruit, they require our trust in God. They require us to believe that God can cope with what is beyond us. This is a difficult task for us because it means losing control of our lives. We don't know God's plans precisely—we can only rely on the fact that God is their author. It is much easier for us to stay within the circle of control and directly influence what happens.

However, this kind of problem-solving makes our hearts grow smaller and smaller, overwhelmed by problems we can't face. We become increasingly distrustful and joyless, increasingly sad. We feel as if we're left alone, that we have to deal with everything on our own. Our hearts then experience something for which we can only say: "This is too much for me! I can't cope!" In such a moment, we can either lower our hands in despair or stretch them out to God in a gesture of trust and acceptance of what He has prepared for us. Joseph chose the latter. In a gesture of trust, he welcomed Mary.

May Joseph be our patron saint in situations that overwhelm us, perhaps even terrify us. May he be the patron saint of our darkness and of our December nights, when we can hear God's gentle voice: "Do not be afraid!"

fr. george