“Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.”
“Do not be afraid” This phrase was the theme of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. “We should have known, from his first words as pope that the world was in for something different. He began with ‘Be not afraid,’ the exhortation of prophets and angels--and God himself--uttered whenever history had taken a momentous turn (see, for example, Genesis 46:3 and Luke 2:10).” [1] This phrase, spoken by the Angel to Saint Joseph, did mean a momentous turn both for the life of Saint Joseph and for all of humanity. Saint Luke speaks of the angel, bringing God’s message, sent to Our Lady. Saint Matthew tells of the angel, bringing God’s message, sent to Saint Joseph. Both parents are notified of the child’s greatness and both parents respond with trust. The responses of Mary and Joseph are examples for us on how to respond to the message of God.
We all put our trust in a lot of things everyday. We trust that our alarms will wake us up in the morning, we trust our vehicles will start right up and drive smoothly, we trust our electronic devices to work properly every time, and we trust labels on products to give us the most accurate and factual data. What are some other things that we trust on a daily basis? And yet, when it comes to trusting God, the Creator of all of these things, do we fully trust him?
ACTIVITY – Labels
Take a Snickers bar or a can of beans. Ask everyone, “How many of you think this is really a Snickers bar or how many of you think this is a can of beans?” What if it is really a can of corn and someone, tricking you, took the corn label off and replaced it with a bean label? What if someone carefully opened a Snickers wrapper and slipped a Milky Way bar in the Snickers wrapper? Sometimes, when we begin to doubt too much, we become skeptical and fear that people are tricking us.
Why might it be difficult to trust in God? It is difficult for us to wait, we want to hear right back. Each Advent season we are asked to wait in anticipation for the coming of Jesus. In one sense, it is hard to take this seriously since we already know that Jesus came to the earth, and praise God for that! However, we forget that for four thousands years the people waited for the promised Messiah. Each week of the four weeks of Advent represents 1000 years of the four thousand years of waiting. We heard in the first reading, they waited and waited and some grew weary. They grew so weary they begin not trusting God, and doubting his promises. So the Lord gave them an even better understanding of what was to come by stating He was to be born from a virgin, and He shall be called Emmanuel. [2] Trust is the key to accepting all the grace and strength God’s wants to give us. How was it that Saint Joseph was so strong? How was it that he kept Mary as his wife? How was it that he escorted and protected the holy family to Egypt and then back? He trusted! The strength Joseph had in life was in proportion to the trust he had. Those who have great trust will be given faith and strength. "He [Christ] protects their faith and gives strength to believers in proportion to the trust that each man who receives that strength is willing to place in him." [3]
When we have to wait to receive an answer, we can become discouraged, and completely miss when the answer does finally come to us, just as almost everyone did when Jesus came into this world. Jesus tells us the story of the five virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom.
Search: Waiting and Watching
The five wise virgins took not only lamps but oil too. They would only bring oil (fuel) if they thought they might be waiting a while, and thus needed to be prepared to wait patiently. It was the five foolish ones who did not bring oil that had to go out and buy more oil. When they left, guess what happened? The bridegroom came. This happens all the time
Why are we cautious in trusting God right away? It is understandable, being cautious in trusting others. When it comes to God and putting our faith and trust in him, we can be just as (or even more) cautious than we would be with anyone else. There is an American proverb that says, “He who hesitates is lost”. St. Joseph, in today’s Gospel, does not hesitate. He puts his full trust in God’s message. By not hesitating the Old Testament was fulfilled and the fullness of Salvation could be fulfilled! [4]
With God, we know He will never let go. He is like a father standing in the water with outstretched hands who asks us to jump in, and promises to catch us. We may be scared and cautious but if we fully trust Him, we will dive into the water. As it says in Scripture, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths.” [5]
[1] Scott Hahn; The Biblical Vision of Pope John Paul II
[2] Isaiah 7:14
[3] Saint Cyprian
[4] St. Jerome Biblical commentary Gospel of Matthew pg. 67
[5] Proverbs 3:5-6