Yes

Not far from Nazareth, the body of a young woman was found.

She had been about four months pregnant.

And evidently, that was her crime.

She had been killed by members of her family or her community.

Because she had brought dishonor upon them.

Barbaric as it may seem to us today, such killings were the accepted practice in ancient times.

And a practice that hasn’t been ended.

This incident near Nazareth took place in April of this year!

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 5,000 of these honor killings each year.

Perhaps many thousands more—many by stoning.

Fathers, uncles, brothers and other community members often join in the killing.

Most are committed in the Middle East.

But last year there were dozens right here in the United States.

In most countries, including Middle Eastern countries, these killing are now illegal.

But in some areas they’re still condoned because of strong cultural and religious traditions.

In First Century Israel such killings were sanctioned—even demanded—by the law.

Remember the woman caught in adultery and dragged to Jesus for judgment.

The law of the land called for her stoning.

With that background, Matthew’s words in today’s Gospel seem quite the understatement.

Joseph was unwilling to expose her to shame.

That could have been the shame of dying by public stoning.

It’s not clear how often the law was actually carried to that full extent.

But Joseph did have the right to demand that the law be enforced.

That punishment be meted out for the broken contract and the disrespect that he had suffered.

And that the community be ridded of the offender.

But Matthew tells us Joseph was a righteous man.

He was humble, he was compassionate, he valued mercy over justice.

His ego didn’t need to see Mary suffer extreme punishment to salve his wounded pride.

So, even while believing that she had done wrong, he decided to divorce her quietly.

To let the matter end there.

But then Gabriel came onto the scene.

Our recent Gospels show that Gabriel had been busy lining everything up.

He visited Zechariah some months earlier to announce the coming birth of John the Baptist.

He visited Mary just weeks earlier to secure her agreement to be the mother of Jesus.

And now he comes to Joseph in a dream.

And assures him that Mary had done no wrong.

That her child was conceived through the Holy Spirit.

We see from Joseph’s quick reaction that he was a man of strong faith.

A man who knew God well enough to hear Him and trust Him in this extraordinary situation.

He accepts the message from his dream and drops the divorce plan.

He continues with his marriage to Mary.

And takes on the responsibility of foster father, supporter, protector and teacher to her child.

This miraculous child who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and who would save his people.

We often hear of the importance of Mary’s Yes to God’s call.

If she had not said yes, where would we be today?

Would God have kept preparing and asking other young women?

Would any have yet said Yes?

Today we also see the importance of Joseph’s Yes.

If he had ignored Gabriel, where would we be?

Would God have quickly found another willing foster father?

Worse yet, what if Joseph had demanded strict enforcement of the law?

Would there have been a stoning?

But Joseph did say Yes.

And assumed his important role in salvation history.

Providing support and protection and care for Mary and Jesus.

Moving them away from the danger of Herod to the safety of Egypt, and back again.

Guiding and teaching Jesus through his early years.

This is St Joseph.

We don’t know much more about him than that.

Some early non-biblical writings tell us more—but they’re not reliable.

One says Joseph was an old man, 90 years old, when he married Mary.

That he’d been previously married and had adult children from that prior marriage.

(Those could explain the Gospel references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters).

But we really don’t know; he could have been a young bachelor when he married Mary.

Joseph most likely died before Jesus began his public ministry.

The Gospels don’t mention his being present for any event past the trip to Jerusalem,

When Jesus was 12 years old and was lost in the temple.

During this Advent and Christmas season we hear about Joseph more often.

This is the season when we celebrate those early years of Jesus’ life.

Those years when Joseph was around.

Soon, after this season, Joseph will step into the background.

We may know little more about him than the few facts mentioned above.

But that’s enough.

Enough to make him patron saint of the Catholic Church, the Americas, parishes like our own,

And many other places, groups, occupations and causes.

Enough for us to know that he was righteous, just, merciful, and humble.

That he listened for God and said Yes to God’s call.

That like Mary, he devoted himself to Jesus, and shows us the way to Jesus.

God is calling all of us to our own particular roles in salvation history.

We may not be visited by Gabriel, or called to so great a mission as Joseph.

But our Yes to God’s call is still of vital importance.

And we’re blessed to have a patron who’s an ideal model of virtue and attitude.

A patron who can help us get to our own Yes.

4th Sunday of Advent
Mt 1:18-24           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Grab Their Attention

Grab the audience’s attention with your opening words.

It might seem that Matthew is ignoring that literary advice.

He opens his book with the simple words …

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

But actually, those are shockingly powerful words for Matthew’s initial audience.

Eight words into the book and he’s already claimed that Jesus is the Christ—the Messiah.

Then he sets up the background for the story he’s about to tell.

His initial audience is the Jewish community.

And ultimately, his story will claim fulfillment of Jewish Scripture as a proof of credibility.

So he starts out by positioning his story within Jewish history and Scripture.

He links Jesus directly to Abraham and David, two of the greatest figures in Jewish history.

And then he provides a detailed genealogy of forty-two generations.

The precision of that genealogy can be questioned.

But Matthew’s goal wasn’t exact precision.

It was to show Jesus as an integral part of Jewish heritage and Scripture.

And Matthew throws a few twists into the genealogy.

There were other genealogies in the Old Testament.

But typically they didn’t include women.

Matthew mentions five women in his genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.

Jews who knew their scripture would already be familiar with those first four.

And recognize that all came to bear their children under unusual circumstances.

Tamar disguised herself to trick her father-in-law, Judah, into fathering a child with her.

Rahab was probably the same Rahab presented in the book of Joshua.

A prostitute of Jericho who helped the Israelites conquer the city.

Ruth was an outsider; like Rahab she was a gentile.

Bathsheba may have been a gentile too, and the wife of the soldier Uriah.

Not a likely candidate to bear one of Israel’s greatest kings—Solomon.

Matthew uses these women in his opening verses as a hint at things to come.

He signals the listener that this will be a story filled with new and unusual things.

A story beginning with Mary and the unusual circumstances of Jesus’ birth.

And continuing through his often surprising teachings and encounters.

His most-uncommon miracles, and his unique death and resurrection.

A story that many would find unbelievable.

A story that has to overcome the Jewish listener’s preconceived image of the Messiah.

A story that has to overcome the Gentile listener’s sense of incredulity.

Throughout this newly begun liturgical year, we’ll read our way through Matthew’s Gospel.

We’ve heard it all before, most of us many times; we know the story.

This year we might try to listen as if we’re those First Century Jews hearing it for the first time.

But however we read or listen,

We’ll be receiving the living Gospel—the Word speaks still.

And indeed, we’ll find that there’s always something new to grab our attention.

Something to strengthen our faith and take us deeper in understanding.

Tuesday, Advent, December 17th
Mt 1:1-17           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Watchmaker/Watchkeeper

When we take the time to look around us, it’s pretty clear that there is a God.

And that seems to be the conclusion reached by nearly every civilization known to us.

There is a being or a force out there that orders and controls the universe.

Whether we look outward into the vastness of space.

Or inward into the intricacies and complexities of our earthly surroundings and ourselves.

The more we learn about science and how things work,

The clearer it becomes that all this had to be created by some initial mover.

One analogy popularized in the early 19^th Century was that of the watchmaker.

If you look at a watch, you realize that there had to be a watchmaker.

You know it couldn’t have just come into being by itself.

It had to have an intelligent designer.

If you look at nature you realize the same thing.

It too had to have an intelligent designer and creator.

A popular theology during that Age of Enlightenment was Deism.

Some of America’s founding fathers, notably Thomas Jefferson, had Deist leanings.

Deists believed that there was a God who created everything.

The Great Clockmaker who set everything into motion.

But who then had no further involvement with that creation.

He left it to operate on its own.

We might sometimes tend to feel that way ourselves.

Is God really listening to our prayers?

Does God really care what we do?

Why would God listen to us?

And even if he did, would he ever intervene?

Why would he trouble himself with our little personal problems?

As Christians we know that we shouldn’t muddle for long in that kind of doubt and despair.

Of course God gets involved in our little lives.

What greater show of involvement could a creator give,

Than to become physically part of his creation?

Just as God did when he came to us on that Christmas day 2000 years ago.

We’re now in the midst of Advent, our preparation to celebrate the anniversary of that coming.

And today we celebrate one of the preparations that God Himself made for His arrival.

He intervened; He got involved in the personal life of Mary.

At the instant she was conceived in the womb of her mother, Anne.

He exempted Mary from the taint of original sin.

That hereditary defect that all the rest of us bear from the instant we come into existence.

Clearly, God does get directly involved and intervene in our human lives.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception and God’s own Incarnation at Christmas are just two examples.

And he continues today to interact with us in our lives, and to keep watch over us.

We Christians can take comfort in knowing, our God is not only the Great Watchmaker.

He is also the Great Watchkeeper.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Lk 1:26-38           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Crazy

Our Scripture readings today point to this underlying problem.

Isaiah foretells the qualities of the Messiah:

He shall judge the poor with justice

And decide aright for the land’s afflicted.

The Psalmist adds:

Justice shall flower in his days,

And profound peace, till the moon be no more.

He shall rescue the poor when they cry out,

And the afflicted when they have no one to help them.

Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.

Well here we are, two thousands years into “his time”.

Anno Domino—in the Year of Our Lord—2013 AD.

And where is that flourishing justice?

Where is that fullness of peace?

Jesus came and started the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

And called on us to nurture and spread that Kingdom.

By word and act and example.

Working with the rest of his Church, and with the help of his Spirit.

After all these centuries, why aren’t we closer to a world of full justice and peace?

In large part, it may be because of what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel.

The Father has hidden these things from the wise and learned,

[And] revealed them to the childlike.

Who doesn’t want to be wise and learned?

That’s certainly sounds like something we should all strive to be.

The wisdom of the world tells us to be practical.

Peace and Justice have actually made some progress from our more harsh and brutal times past.

And we’ve been around long enough to know:

We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.

We can’t solve all the problems of the world.

Our first responsibility is to look out for ourselves and our own.

The wisdom from learning those lessons can help us attain a degree of comfort in this life.

But it doesn’t promote speedy growth of the Kingdom.

It makes us too wise to make the same crazy, impractical mistakes Jesus made.

Tuesday, 1st Week of Advent
Lk 10:21-24           Read this Scripture @usccb.org