Compassion over pain and shame

Good morning, happy Saturday and blessings my dear Holyrood family. I remind you that tomorrow Sunday we will have our Community Masses and Eucharist ‪at 10:00 am‬ in English & ASL and in Spanish ‪at 12:00 pm‬. 
 
During the sermon I want to take a moment to consider the faithfulness of Joseph. We hear a lot about Mary, and rightly so. She was, after all, the mother of Jesus, the only person constant in the life of Jesus from the cradle to the grave. But what do we know about Joseph? So, in the sermon we are going to take just a moment to give Joseph his due.
 
Let us not forget that, when Mary was engaged to Joseph, she discovered that was pregnant, and Joseph was not the father. Matthew tells us that before the angel of God appeared to him in a dream, Joseph was contemplating how he should divorce Mary. It is important to remember that since an engagement was legally binding, a divorce was necessary to break it. It should also be noted that Joseph was not contemplating if he should divorce Mary, but how. If Joseph does not divorce Mary, he faces one of two possible dilemmas. Mediterranean society viewed with contempt the weakness of a man who let his love for his wife outweigh his appropriate honor in repudiating her. The other possibility is that, if Joseph followed through with the wedding, then it would be an admission that he had slept with her. Either way, Joseph would experience the shame and contempt of his society. 
 
The fact that Joseph is willing to put Mary away privately suggests that he is a man who puts compassion above his own hurt and shame. For Joseph to be considered a “just” man, he must divorce Mary, and this is what he would have done had God not revealed himself in a dream.

During the sermon I’m going to argue that Joseph’s compassion shows to be a man with a heart like God’s, and that this is precisely why God chose Joseph to be an earthly father for Jesus. And I’m going to challenge you with the following question: would you put compassion above your own hurt and shame?
 
See you Sunday.
 
Blessings
 
Fr. Luis+