4th Sunday in Advent - A Reflection by Fr. Leo
Joseph seems to be the major character in today’s gospel. Like Mary, he plays a role in Christ being born into time as we know it. He is guided, it says, by a dream to take Mary as his wife as it is the will of God for him to do so.
I think it is important to understand what it means when it says Joseph was visited by an angel in a dream. It would be misleading to suggest that Joseph’s dream was a unique event that is so out of the ordinary that we could not have a similar experience. I think there is a broader understanding of what it means that Joseph had a dream and not some singular miraculous event.
Obviously Joseph was struggling with what to do about his relationship with Mary. He was probably torn apart in side to no end and going over and over it in his mind to try and reach a decision of what to do. His mind and heart were in a horrible wrestling match. Slowly he came to his decision and clarity came to him after a nights rest. It was then that his deeper self (his God self) showed him the answer he was looking for.
This same process of coming to clarity can happen in our lives too. I remember when I would be writing papers for school, I’d be working late and just could not seem to find a way to clarify and present the thoughts and ideas I was writing about. Then, when I would be waking up in the morning and my mind turned to my work, there was this clarity of thought, and I knew what do.
That creative process is part of all of our lives. As long as we actively search for God, there will be graced moments of knowing God; ordinary, but miraculous at the same time, knowing of God’s love, beyond what our minds alone can grasp. Like Joseph, we need to search out God’s will for us, but we can also trust that God will grant us the clarity we need to be faithful.
God is actively drawing us to himself at every moment and seeks our consent in contemplation to live in us so that we may live in him. Emanuel is with us and in us. So let us seek to live in him.