a consumer culture, righteousness easily becomes a commodity to be earned or bought. For many people, going to church is like making a deposit in the bank. Sinning is like taking out some of the funds in one’s heavenly savings account. In effect, this is salvation by works. No trust in God is required, since each person has his or her personal account.
Paul argues that righteousness is a gift offered by God to us. Abraham is the first person to have trusted God’s reliability. Joseph is another. God makes the first move, and we respond in faith to God’s offer of grace. God declares us righteous, to be in a healthy relationship with him. With each response we make, more grace—God’s own life—is given to us, hopefully, evoking another response. According to Paul, this is how God draws us into righteousness.
Meditation: What was your first response to God’s grace? Can you trace your growth in trust of God as you have kept responding to grace through faith?
Prayer: Father, you declared your servants Abraham and Joseph righteous through faith. Make us ever more aware of your daily offers of grace that we may grow in deeper trust of you, who raised Jesus Christ, your Son, from the dead. He lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit as one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Dreamer
(1) Matthew 1:16, 18–21, 24a
Scripture: “. . . Jacob [was] the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah” (Matthew 1:16).
Reflection: Most biblical scholars agree that Matthew’s Joseph character is modeled on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) Joseph. The Joseph of Genesis has a father named Jacob; the Joseph of Matthew’s Gospel is the son of Jacob. The Joseph of Genesis is the recipient of divine direction through dreams; the Joseph of Matthew’s Gospel receives divine direction through the appearance of an angel of the Lord in his dreams. The Joseph of Genesis goes to Egypt; the Joseph of Matthew’s Gospel takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
A dreamer comes to understand that he or she is part of something that is bigger than he or she. In the case of Joseph from Genesis, he comes to understand that his dreams got him to Egypt in order to save the world from famine. In the case of Joseph from Matthew’s Gospel, he comes to understand that his dreams are a part of God’s plan both to save Jesus and to save the world.
What we might not understand is that God works through our dreams to accomplish his will. A young man may marry the girl of his dreams, thinking that they are his dreams; later he discovers that his dreams were God’s dreams, the Holy One’s way of bringing children into the world, of fulfilling a mission of some kind, of being a living witness to the divine purpose.
The young woman meeting the man of her dreams thinks that she will fulfill her dreams by marrying him. However, her dreams may be God’s dreams for her. She may be entrusted with more dreams that include adoption, teaching religion, hospice ministry, etc.
Our hopes, our dreams, mature gradually and come to fulfillment over the course of a lifetime. What the author of the Joseph story in the book of Genesis understood and what the author of Matthew’s Gospel gleaned from Genesis is that God works through dreams. God’s will or purpose unfolds only gradually in our lives. The dreams we have are most likely God’s dreams for us. Bringing those dreams to reality means doing God’s will.
Meditation: What do you think is God’s dream for you? How has that understanding been revealed to you through your dreams?
Prayer: Ever-living God, you guided Joseph through his dreams to do your will. Fill us with the Holy Spirit to guide our dreams to do your will. Hear us through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Father
(2) Luke 2:41–51a
Scripture: [Jesus’ mother said to him:] “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety” (Luke 2:48).
Reflection: The second choice of a gospel passage for the Solemnity of St. Joseph is the second of two unique childhood stories about Jesus found in Luke’s Gospel. The first is commonly known as the presentation in the temple, and the second is called the finding of the boy Jesus in the temple.
The story is set on the occasion of Passover, the Jewish commemoration of the death of the firstborn son in Egypt. As God’s, Joseph’s and Mary’s firstborn son, Jesus will not return to Jerusalem until he prepares to mark his last Passover. Furthermore, Jesus is twelve years old; twelve is a sacred number, the product of three—the spiritual order—and four—the created order.
The twelve-year-old boy stays in Jerusalem, unknown to his parents, after the festival is over. When his parents fail to find him in their caravan, they turn around and go back to Jerusalem, searching for their son for three days, a holy time. They find him in the temple, sitting with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. This dialogue is a foreshadowing of the encounters that will occur between Jesus and the teachers throughout the rest of the gospel.
When Jesus’ parents find him, his mother asks him why he has put them through the anxiety they have felt during their three days of searching for him. He replies with his own questions, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (2:49)
Luke stresses Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that the child she will conceive in her womb will be called “Son of God” (1:35). In today’s passage, Jesus declares that he is in his Father’s house, the temple. However, Luke also regards Joseph as Jesus’ earthly father, who presents him to God in the temple and takes him to the temple on his twelfth birthday for Passover. Thus, “Father” refers both to God and to Joseph.
We address God as our Father often in prayer. Today, we honor Joseph as Jesus’ father. While the role of fatherhood is always changing, today’s pericope presents a few characteristics that are worthy of our reflection. First, as his earthly father, Joseph exposes Jesus to the traditions of his people. Passover is the most important feast on the Jewish calendar, and when he is old enough to understand it, Joseph takes Jesus to experience it. Modern fathers need to share religious feasts with their sons in addition to those associated with sports.
Second, Joseph trusts his son to be with the group of travelers. Trust remains an important virtue for fathers and sons to share even though it may be violated often by twelve-year-old boys. However, they will never learn trust if they are never trusted.
Third, the innocent wisdom of a child is not to be dismissed. A son may say some amazing things. Fathers should ponder those truths, even if they do not understand them.
And fourth, obedience is to be insisted upon, but not abused. Jesus went home to Nazareth and was obedient to his father, while his mother treasured all these events in her heart. A son’s obedience to his father provides the boundary for growth in both human and divine wisdom.
Meditation: What virtues does/did your father possess? How did they help you grow in both human and divine wisdom?
Prayer: God our Father, you entrusted the care of your only-begotten Son to St. Joseph. Help us to imitate his virtues that we may grow in knowledge of your ways. Guide us with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns with you, Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, forever and ever. Amen.
March 25: Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Immanuel
Isaiah 7:10–14; 8:10
Scripture: “. . . Isaiah said: ‘. . . [T]he Lord himself will give you [, King Ahaz,] a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel’” (Isa 7:14).
Reflection: The biblical text for today’s first reading on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is chosen for two reasons. First, it is an annunciation by the prophet Isaiah. Second, this is the fulfillment