17 January 2021
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Beginning on December 8 of 2020 and lasting until December 8, 2021 marks the “year of St. Joseph” in honor of the 150thanniversary of the foster father of Jesus being named patron of the Universal Church by Pope Leo XIII. Even though Joseph doesn’t say anything in the bible, much actually can be said of him. Unfortunately, he is frequently portrayed, especially in renaissance painting, as an old man asleep in the hay. But, examining this image, we must recall that Joseph, like the protagonist in today’s first reading, Samuel, heard God speaking to him in a dream. Discourse with divine in dreams seems to be the common way God communicates in the Old Testament, noting how others in the Bible heard God’s word in a dream. Matthew describes Joseph as a man of dreams, which is no surprise since Matthew has the greatest number of references to the Old Testament. Thus, by situating Joseph as receiving a divine revelation in a dream, Matthew associates Joseph to all those in the Old Testament who heard the word of God and acted upon it. We do not know much about Joseph, but according to Matthew, he heard God’s will and acted on it even though that message seemed to be both impossible and difficult. Joseph, like Mary, cooperated with God’s invitation and for these actions both Joseph and Mary deserve our imitation.