Dare to take risks

Good morning, happy Friday, and many blessings.

In Luke’s Gospel, the story of the infancy of Jesus (chapters 1 and 2 of Luke) centers around Mary. However, in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 1:18-24), the infancy of Jesus (chapters 1 and 2 of Matthew) centers around Joseph, the promised spouse of Mary. Joseph was a descendant of David. Through him, Jesus belongs to the line of David. Thus, in Jesus, the promises made by God to David and his descendants are fulfilled.

This is the setting for this story. Joseph is engaged to be married to a young, teenage, virgin girl named Mary.  Now, in this time in history, engagements were a lot different than they are today.  Today, if you’re engaged, and things kind of go weird, then you can just break off the engagement. Back in this time, an engagement was actually a binding agreement.  You would be engaged for a year’s period of time, and in that time, if you wanted to break off the engagement, you actually had to file for divorce.  So, the only way to get out of an engagement, during this time, would be to get divorced, or to die.  And the engagement was so serious that if one of the two people died, the other one would be considered a widow or a widower.  So, this was what the engagement would mean.

With that in mind, we pick up the story in Matthew 1:18, and this is Matthew’s version of how the birth of Christ came to be.  Joseph did not understand what was happening and God explained it to him in a dream. When we are puzzled about situations do, we turn to God in prayer for light? The name Jesus means, The Lord saves. It is what Jesus does, he saves us. To understand what is meant we need to acknowledge our failings, as we do at the start of every Mass.

Joseph is faced with a heart-breaking dilemma. His life is in turmoil because he loves Mary so much. Let me imagine for a few moments how welcome the angel’s message must have been to him! How quickly he acts, allowing himself to follow his heart and not allowing his sense of legal obligation to rule. Joseph occupies a central place in this gospel. His decision is made. He will be kind and sensitive towards Mary and divorce her in secret. A dream upturns his original decision. God intervenes, more is asked of Joseph. He is called to revisit and revise his original intentions.

God, I thank you for Joseph’s generous, courageous risk-taking. He trusted completely in your words “do not be afraid” and allowed his carefully made plans to be unraveled. May I too be open when you invite me to risk.

Joseph is being taught a lesson about the surprising ways in which God works. Surely God is saying something here about the divine ability to bring good even out of situations the world thinks scandalous! ‘Nothing is impossible to God.’

Taking risks in life implies a challenge that some of us have to live with frequently, those who do not take risks do not win anything or lose, but if something goes wrong, you will not have the dilemma that you could have taken the opportunity. Dare yourself!

In the eyes of the scribes, the justice of Joseph would be disobedience and in our male chauvinistic culture, a ridiculous man. Is there a message for us in this?

Blessings,

Fr. Luis+