(Audio)
That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Joseph too is said to be righteous.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
We can see the Joseph acts in faith, trusting in God even when he himself doesn't and cannot understand.
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
How do we respond when we learn something that shakes up our view of the world? Even the initial response of Joseph showed a concern for Mary that was beyond what might be expected.
yet unwilling to expose her to shame
But the situation was not what it seemed. Even this response which was good from the perspective of the merely human was insufficient. Joseph was being invited to a new level of faith and trust in the plan of God, not only abstractly, but concretely in his own life and the life of Mary.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
We see the real righteousness and faith of Joseph in his willingness to believe and to obey the new perspective that he receives from the angel. It is this faith that makes him the fitting parent of Jesus. This is because in Scripture fatherhood and faith are so closely interrelated.
For this reason, it depends on faith,
so that it may be a gift,
and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants,
not to those who only adhere to the law
but to those who follow the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of all of us, as it is written,
I have made you father of many nations.
There is something that the Father is revealing to all of us today by choosing Joseph to be the foster father of Joseph. It shows how all true fatherhood, all family bonds, and all love are rooted by faith in the Trinity.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (see Ephesians 3:14-15).
When we see the fatherhood that results from faith and not simply from flesh and blood lived out we see something about the Father's heart revealed. Joseph does not want to interpose himself between Jesus or ourselves and the Father. He wants to be transparent to him. His faith lets him do this.
May Joseph help us to see the great love of our Father in heaven. Following his example and aided by his prayers may we too reveal God to the world.
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