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David

2 Samuel 7:4–5a, 12–14a, 16

Scripture: “. . . [T]he word of the LORD came to Nathan [the prophet]: Go and tell my servant [King] David: Thus says the LORD: Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:4, 16).

Reflection: The short, pieced-together passage for this Solemnity of St. Joseph is part of a much longer discourse given by the prophet Nathan to King David. The king proposes to build a house for God, that is, a temple in Jerusalem into which the ark of the covenant will be placed. However, instead of David building a house for God, the LORD declares that he will build a house, that is, a dynasty, for David.

Biblical theologians refer to this as the “everlasting covenant.” God promises David that there will always be a king from David’s family ruling in Jerusalem. The promise made to David around 1000 BC continued until 587 BC when the last king of Judah went into Babylonian Captivity. After this, the everlasting covenant became a messianic expectation; God would provide a messiah, who would rescue the people and restore the Kingdom of Judah politically and religiously. Historically, this never happened.

One of the earliest writers about Jesus of Nazareth believes that he is that hoped-for messiah. Around 80 AD, the author of Matthew’s Gospel began his book with a “genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). Joseph, to whom Mary is engaged, is addressed by an angel of the Lord in a dream as a “son of David” (1:20). Thus, the author of Matthew’s Gospel presents Jesus as the fulfillment of the messianic expectation ignoring two problems. First, if the Holy Spirit is the father of the child in Mary’s womb (1:18), Joseph is not the father and the genealogy back to David does not work. Second, Jesus did not restore the Kingdom of Judah; he died at the hands of the Romans occupying what had once been that nation.

However, if Joseph is understood as the legal father of Jesus, then the author of the first gospel has made his point. Carefully, he declares through the angel of the Lord that Jesus “will save his people from their sins” (1:21). Like the other unexpected people listed in his genealogy, especially the four women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, wife of Uriah), the author of Matthew’s Gospel proclaims Jesus to be the messiah through whom God fulfills his promise.

The author of Matthew’s Gospel understands that God works in ways that people often do not understand, and Joseph, husband of Mary, is one prime example of that. When we hear about someone who has had her cancer disappear unexpectedly, the LORD has fulfilled a promise to heal his people. A marriage that was about to end in divorce may be saved by God through a friend’s advice. A woman’s alcoholism may provide the Holy One the occasion to draw her closer to himself. We cannot name all the ways God saves his people, but we can declare that the LORD keeps his promise.

Meditation: In what unexplained way has God worked in or through your life to save you or another person?

Prayer: Almighty Father, you raised up Joseph, a righteous man, to be the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster father of your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us the grace to see your saving work in our lives that we may praise your goodness. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Righteousness

Romans 4:13, 16–18, 22

Scripture: “. . . [T]he promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom 4:13).

Reflection: “Righteousness” is a very important biblical word, especially for Paul. Righteousness defines a state of being in a healthy relationship with God. In his letter to the Romans, Paul argues that Abraham’s trust of God was a response to God’s offer of a relationship with him. In accepting the free gift, God declares Abraham righteous apart from the Torah, which had not yet been given to Moses. This enables Paul to conclude that anyone who accepts God’s offer of grace with an appropriate response is righteous.

This argument is important for Paul, because he wants to include the Gentiles—non-Jews—among those to whom God has offered righteousness through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jews and Gentiles who accept God’s grace and respond through faith that God raised Jesus from the dead are righteous. God has invited them into a healthy relationship with him, and they have responded.

Paul is declaring that God’s promise to Abraham was not the result of any works that Abraham did; in other words, Abraham did not earn righteousness. Righteousness was a gift offered to him by God. If righteousness can be earned, then there is no reason for faith, trust in God’s reliability. In Pauline understanding, Jesus is the model of trust. He was handed over to death and raised by God. Anyone who believes in the God who raised Jesus from the dead is declared righteous by God.

In the context of this solemnity, the pericope from Paul’s letter to the Romans is chosen to highlight the righteousness of St. Joseph. According to Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph was “a righteous man” (1:19). He did not understand Mary’s pregnancy, but after divine intervention, placed his trust in the words of the angel of the Lord. According to the Torah, he should have divorced her— and he would have been declared righteous by works—but following the angel’s directive, he took her as his wife, trusting in God’s reliability. Thus, like Abraham before him, Joseph is declared righteous by faith.

In 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.