Galatians 1:11-19
Psalm 128:1-5
Matthew 2:13-23

Joseph of Egypt

Although he was a Hebrew, a son of Jacob, he departed into Egypt and later would be called great. His purity of heart enabled him to interpret dreams aright. He would be entrusted with world-changing decisions and responsibilities. His name was Joseph.

The Joseph we read of in Genesis served one of the great potentates of his age: Pharaoh. His purity marked him as special in his father, Jacob's eyes and would be tested by the wiles Pharaoh's wife, which he resisted.

The Joseph we read of in the Gospels served greater figures still: the God-infant and the Mother of God. God favored him for his purity, which enabled him to see and hear directions from on high, interpreting dreams rightly. As the first Joseph of Egypt saved Pharaoh and his people by predicting seven years of famine through interpretation of dreams, so the second Joseph saved the world repeatedly by interpreting dreams that would ensure the safety and guardianship of the Mother of God. He, too, would go into Egypt, entering this symbol of power and high civilization as the consort of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Mother of God.

As a carpenter, living in a world of wood — wooden bowls, spoons, chairs, tables, houses, even temples — Joseph was a "maker." As the first state of so many things, wood would have been analogous to the atom, the first and indivisible state, which by the way was posited by Democritus in the fourth-century, B.C. The carpenter thus teaches the God-boy a fitting earthly vocation — fully God, Eternal Word of Creation, and fully boy, maker of things below.

Together with his great predecessors, Joseph, was tempted. The Joseph of Genesis was seduced by Pharaoh's wife though did not swerve from the true path. Moses, of course, was seduced into luxury by the royal household of Pharaoh, choosing instead, though, a despised race of slaves. As several Nativity icons depict, St. Joseph the Betrothed was also tempted by the devil (shown on our website as an old man with furled wings). Indeed, the road of faithfulness for Joseph the Betrothed would be marked by temptation. And here we come to the subject of our reflection: God has not, and will not, take over human history imposing His laws and Heaven's standards with military legions. In like measure, He does not choose superheroes, wielding supernatural powers, to carry forward His plan of salvation for humankind. Rather, He chooses ordinary people whose powers are those within reach of every human: virtue, the love of moral goodness, and steadfastness. And he looks for purity of heart, that indispensable faculty for hearing the promptings of Heaven.

It is well here to pause and remember that while St. Augustine invented Original Sin during the fifth century, to blame Adam and Eve for his longtime habits of promiscuity and nightly drunkenness, the ancient Catholic Church has never taught that doctrine. We are born with all our "super powers" intact. We are born to hear and to see Heaven. It is only when we cloud the clear lens of our eyes and befoul the pure tuning fork of our ears through our choices for evil that we grow dull to Heaven's promptings and clear direction. After all, no one need give in to temptation.

As we read in the Protoevanglion of St. James, written down by Joseph's son, St. James the Just (who accompanied his ancient father into Egypt with his ward), St. Joseph was an elderly carpenter. Just as God awaited the consent of a twelve-year-old girl to carry forward His plan of salvation, so He also relied upon a lowly carpenter, a widower, a father of six grown children, to consent to be guardian to Mary. By tradition Righteous Joseph was eighty-years-old when he reluctantly accepted what would turn out to be an exhausting and dangerous office of sacrificial love.

As we learn from this Gospel of St. James (the Lord's stepbrother), a group of older, respected widowers were gathered at the Temple to resolve a holy dilemma. You see, fulfilling a vow that had been made by her parents, Joachim and Anne, Mary had lived in the Temple from the age of two "as if she were a dove that dwelt there, and she received food from the hand of an angel" (Protoevanglion of St. James, 8). But now, as she was reaching the age of menstruation and could no longer remain in the Temple, what is to be done? Who then shall become her guardian? An angel of the Lord instructed the High Priest to gather widowers from all over Judea asking each to bring a rod. Summoned to the Temple and gathered in prayer, each man then received the rod that he had brought. In each case, nothing happened. But when Joseph received his rod, behold, a dove, symbolizing purity, emerged from the top of the rod and alighted on his head.

The realism of James' Gospel speaks to our own human hearts. Joseph resists, saying that he is too old to take on such a responsibility. After all the Psalmist teaches that

Yet, after this Joseph's temptations continued and deepened. After he had brought the girl to his house, he had constructed a special place for her to dwell, so that she would have appropriate quarters: peaceful and set apart. Meantime, at the Temple in Jerusalem life went on. Four years after Mary's departure, it was decided that a new veil should be made for the Holy of Holies, which would have to be spun and woven by virgins of Israel. But a special girl must be chosen to spin the royal purple, and the High Priest remembered Mary of the House of David. And she was sent for receiving all that she needed to complete this task.

It was then, whilst spinning the royal threads, that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary saying, "Ave." When her womb began to expand, Joseph was plunged into dark temptations once more. "Is this the special virgin of God?! Yet, now she is pregnant ... by whom?! By a man of the Temple? By some other man? I will put her away quietly lest any scandals befall?" But again his impulses and haste are tempered by God. In a dream to Joseph is revealed mind-bending, incomprehensible things. The All-holy God has impregnated my virgin ward? But it is Joseph's purity — deep calling unto deep, light illuminating light — that enables him to receive and understand this information, too much and outlandish for most human ears. For here was the furthest extreme of purity: Holy God filling a most pure vessel with the greatest purity ever to touch the earth: the Immaculate Son, the God-infant, alone free of sin .... and all made possible by frail human means through faithfulness, the simple, day-by-day decision not to give in to temptation.

Here is the cause for our Hosannas at Christmastide. Yes, God has given His Only-begotten Son to dwell with us: Emmanuel. But it is always God's wish to dwell with us. This is not the remarkable thing. This is the norm for which all humans were made. What is extraordinary here is our desire to dwell with Him, to turn away from all that repels Heaven and which dulls our own hearts. And we must ever hold St. John's words before us:

And this is so today. Do we not see that God's entry into our world still must come through the gateway of human life? These are the royal doors though which God comes into our midst ... wonderfully, by our consent. Yes, we live in daunting times. But so did they. And as the archangel Gabriel is wont to say, "Be not afraid!" Behold the courage of a twelve-year-old girl. Behold the quiet sacrifice of her guardian and spouse. The struggles we face are the same that they faced. Either we trust in God, however unreasonable it may seem, however outlandish it may appear, however humiliating it may be (by the world's standard) or we mock God by our insolence and disobedience and at the very moment He needed us most.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.