A Protector we can count on

Advent 4 Year A

This year on the 4th Sunday of Advent the Church invites us to contemplate a different facet of the the events that preceded the Lord’s birth. So often, and rightly so, the focus in the story is on the Blessed Virgin Mary, her willingness to say yes to the Angel’s invitation to be the Mother of the Saviour, her visitation of her cousin Elisabeth, her difficult travel in the later stages of her pregnancy to Bethlehem for the census. But there is another person involved in this drama who shared a experience similar to hers. I am referring to Joseph, who took Mary as his wife and served as the foster father of Jesus.

So, to use the colors often featured in artistic depictions, let us move from the blue which so typical of Mary to the brown typical of Joseph.

Who is Joseph for us? Firstly he is the principal patron saint of Canada, venerated by the early founders of the Canadian Church, who named him patron in 1624. The Jesuits who build an outpost among the Huron Indians near Midland ON named their chapel after him. And who does not know about the intense devotion to St. Joseph of Saint Brother Andre of Montreal, a devotion which gave rise to St Joseph’s splendid basilica, known as St. Joseph’s Oratory on Mount Royal, visited by over two million pilgrims a year. This basilica began as a small chapel Brother Andre started in 1904, but his devotion to St. Joseph kept on overcoming obstacles and doing wonders. I lived in Montreal for ten years before I joined the Society of Jesus, and it was one of my favourite places for prayer and eucharist. You go there and you hae a sense of being in good hands, of knowing that God provides and cares as an exemplary father, because that is the image projected by St. Joseph.

Who is Joseph in the scriptural record? We do not know much about him. He is often portrayed as an older man, some say a widower, but we have no way of verifying this information. But we do know that he was a man of faith and trust. Just like the Blessed Virgin accepted the mission of being the mother of God in absolute trust and surrender, not knowing how that would take place or what she was getting into, so too Joseph accepted the mission of protecting Jesus and her child. It appears that after a period of exile into Egypt, they settled in Nazareth, and that Jesus learned the trade of carpenter from his foster father.

Today’s Gospel story tells us about the spiritual struggle of Joseph. He was engaged to Mary, but, in accord with the custom of the day, had not yet moved into married life together with her. He found out – would Mary have told him? – that she was with child, but that the child was not his. In accord with Jewish law, this would have been a sufficient reason for him to dismiss her. Some authorities would say that the Law prescribed this gesture.

He was ready to follow this law, but wanted to dismiss her quietly rather than make a public splash about this incident, again showing his thoughtful and protective nature. For him to marry a young girl carrying a child not his own would lead to a lot of finger pointing and gossip. Life would get messy and complicated. Dismissal was the way out. But then, just as Mary received the visitation of the Archangel Gabriel, so too in a dream Joseph received an angelic visitation, and he was informed of God’s plan for Mary and for him. “Do not be afraid” was the theme of the message. We are simply told: “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him: he took her as his wife.” What do we find? Obedience and trust, and a readiness to protect a vulnerable young woman and the new life mysteriously implanted within her womb. Let us also consider the years they spent together as Jesus grew up. He had both a father and a mother to care for him, and who he was as an adult, just as happens to us, is in good part the result of his wholesome upbringing. Like all of us, he grew in wisdom, age, and grace.

It was important for Jesus to have a father who could give him a name, just like Zechariah gave John the Baptist his name in Luke’s gospel. That way he would not be stigmatized as the child of an unwed mother. It was also important, since Jews calculated ancestral relationships through the father, for him to be recorded as the son of a descendant of David, as the long genealogy found at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel points out. Thus he could be singled out as the mysterious descendant of David evoked by the prophets who would bring salvation to Israel. The name he would receive from Joseph, Jesus, would echo this prophecy. Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, a name which means “God saves” and which recalls the one who ushered the chosen people into the promised land. This point is amplified by the attribution to him in today’s Gospel of the surname “Emmanuel”, God-with-us.

What does St. Joseph mean for us today? We know little about him; he remains in the shadows. Many people known only to a circle of intimate friends and relatives are likewise in the shadows, but those of us in the know recognize their importance in the lives of those around them, their quiet influence. They do not advertise themselves, they do not make a lot of noise, but when it counts they are there for those who need them. Such was St. Joseph. His role in the holy family was discreet. He was there to protect, to foster, to nurture, and to deflect attention from what would made Jesus’ early life more difficult by accepting the role of being his father. He agreed to take care of a child which was not his own rather than seek a spouse with whom he could have his own children. Protecting Jesus meant Joseph being the head of a displaced family for a period of time, but he stood by Mary and Jesus. A steady, calming presence they could count on. A steady, calming presence we can count on, in a time full of uncertainty and risk. Just as he took care of Jesus, he is there to take care of us. And during this season of Advent we know he is present to our longings and struggles for peace and love in our fractured world.