Fourth Sunday of Advent

When choosing Christmas cards, I always look for nativity scenes that include Joseph. This Sunday’s gospel, portraying “Joseph’s Annunciation,” reveals how Joseph, like Mary, was willing to place his life at the service of the Heavenly Father’s redemptive plan. His “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5) was essential in the society in which the Holy Family lived. Joseph, like St. Paul, was “called and “set apart for the gospel of God.” (Romans 1:1) We can imagine that from the moment Joseph received his expectant wife into his home he would have had to encounter his town folk with Spirit-guided words and actions of courage, faith and love.

As we set up our crèches, and make our last-minute Christmas preparations, St. Joseph invites us to be open to an unexpected “grace of apostleship” (Romans 1:5) that will enable us to receive an unlikely person into the home of our heart “for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles.” (Romans 1:5)