Some close friends of mine are a happily married couple who told me one day their marriage was nothing like they had planned. They listed all the ways in which their plans had failed to materialize and I remember well how we all laughed. Then they listed the ways God had blessed them instead and we became rather serious and admitted to each other how marvelous God is. It was proof of the saying: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
St Joseph was a man of honor. Tradition tells us he was rather older than Mary at the time he decided to marry. The story goes that the elders could not decide amongst the many who put in for the hand of Mary who had lived in the Temple from an early age. Finally the elders asked God to intervene and required each of the suitors to leave their staff in the Temple overnight. In the morning, the staff of Joseph had sprouted lilies, the sign of purity. Needless to say he won the hand of the fair maiden.
The tradition also speaks to us of Mary. She had promised God from her earliest years to remain a virgin. When the Temple elders determined she should marry she put all her trust in God whom she was convinced had, nevertheless, accepted her vow.
Joseph must have praised God that he had been found worthy to become the husband of Mary. We can all imagine his gratitude.
What were his plans for the future? We don’t really know. What we do know is that very soon this man bumped into the plan of God in a way he could never have foreseen.
The first thing he discovered was that Mary was pregnant and he was not the father. Oh, dear, what a calamity! It would be hard to think of worse news for a young man preparing to be married. This was definitely not in the script he had been working from. What should he do?
The options were several. The most obvious was to express his hurt and get even. She had shamed him, now he would shame her. She had wrecked his dreams, now he would wreck hers. She had pretended to be holy; he would show the world what she was really like.
Instead, Joseph decided to show the world what he was really like. He decided to divorce her informally, so she would be spared publicity. What a man! No wonder Jesus had chosen him for his father – someone who could fear God that much and treat his mother with such dignity.
Joseph listened as Mary had listened and did what Mary had done. He set aside his plans for himself and submitted to God’s plans for him. He did it without a word. He did it with total faith. He did it immediately.
When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord told him to do.
It’s almost a shame, after meditating on so sublime an episode, to insinuate banal considerations for ourselves and our own lives, nevertheless, please forgive me for making just one point.
Every day I meet people who have received bad news – news about their health, their marriage, their children, their work … occasionally I receive bad news of my own. There is just so much incomprehensible suffering in the world.
If only I can live to see my grandson. If only I can be at my daughter’s wedding. If only .. if only …
The news for Joseph was devastating, disastrous – his wife-to-be was pregnant! Things can looks so dark, so bleak, so hopelessly awful that we can imagine there is no God, or that he has forsaken us. Yet this bad news of Joseph’s turned out to be not just good news but the best news the entire universe has ever heard – the coming of the Savior – the One who would bring us eternal life.
Our bad news is never bad news if we trust in God.
But come, let us be still! Tonight, as the conductor raises his baton and holds it motionless over the little town of Bethlehem, the orchestra of the old dispensation falls silent and centuries of rehearsal come to an end. Let us, too, be still.
Anticipation grows – the infant is to be born – the Woman is already in labor. Creation strains to hear the first sound, the first cry of its Redeemer. The moment is joyful, inexpressibly joyful, and full of excitement. He is nearly here – Emmanuel, God with us!
On this holy night the Church invites us to celebrate with joy the great event of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
We know the details well:
- born of the Virgin Mary in a stable because there was no room in the inn
- wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger
The outward circumstances are of poverty and anonymity but they conceal a mystery.
This great mystery would have gone by unnoticed and unknown had not heaven opened and the angels come down to sing of Jesus’ birth. After all, as Luke says further on in his Gospel: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a tub or hides it under a bed.
Jesus was God’s light, the light for the whole world, and God his Father wanted him to be seen and known by all. And so he sent the angel to the shepherds tending their sheep in the fields nearby: Listen, I bring you news of great joy … today a savior has been born to you…
After many years of reflection by the Church we now know that in this child, God himself, has come down to humanity. God has become man in order to give man a share in God’s own divinity.
This is the good news of salvation, the message of Christmas, the best news the world has ever heard – the birth of a baby.
But did you notice the first words the angel said?
Do not be afraid!
Of course, in an immediate sense the angel is telling the shepherds not to be afraid of him because the angel’s sudden appearance would certainly have startled them. But the angel is speaking also to us, here and now in Kalispell. That’s why the Holy Scripture is so powerful and relevant; its spirit-filled words are spoken to every people in every age. Do not be afraid!
- Firstly, don’t be afraid of God.That may seem like a funny thing to say but I truly believe there are many people who are afraid of God, and yet there is no need. God is our loving Father, our loving Creator. He loves us with a deep and faithful love. He understands us, our weaknesses and our broken dreams, our sinfulness and our failures, and yet he loves us. I believe this is one of the main things wrong with humanity today – we don’t understand God’s love for us. And because of this we don’t know how much we are worth. What a sad situation!
- Secondly, do not be afraid of the Gospel.The Gospel is indeed Good News of great joy! Do not let your fear block your ears or harden your hearts. Don’t be afraid to believe these words from heaven. This is God’s word to you.
- Thirdly, don’t be afraid of this child;don’t be afraid of Jesus – he means you no harm. Don’t be afraid to open the doors of your heart to him, to give him access to your inner self. Don’t be afraid to let him into your relationships, your marriage, your family, your private life. Talk to him, trust him, confide in him because that is why he came. He is looking for you. He wants you to approach him. He already knows you, every detail of your life, and yet he loves you with a love no other person can equal. Don’t be afraid of his love; it will bring you healing, completeness, joy, peace and life.
Let me finish off by telling you something which I think is so little known that one could almost call it a secret. On Christmas night God gives us a saving message, yes, of course. He gives us a saving truth which we must believe, yes. But most of all God gives us this night a saving relationship, a relationship he invites us to enter.
Yes, we are saved by entering a relationship. Today we should ask ourselves? Do I have relationship with God, how this relationship looks like? How it expresses itself! Would non- Christian know from the way I live my life that I believe in God? That I have relationship with God?
In the child of Bethlehem God enters a love affair with mankind, a love affair which saves us from our own evil and the evil of others.
He presents himself before us in the manger as a gift of total love and invites us to respond. It is our response that is crucial.
What the angel is saying to us tonight is ‘Do not be afraid! This helpless child in the manger is the one you have been longing for, the one who loves you as you need to be loved, as you long to be loved. He alone can satisfy this hunger of yours for love and life. Do not be afraid to enjoy his gift in his presence.’