18 December 2021
Saturday of the Third Week of Advent
Earlier this week it was those who were seemingly the most devout, most religious, most faithful that took offense at Jesus and would not, could not listen to Him, nor accept Him. The same people had rejected John the Baptist. Today, however, we hear the story of the first person who had to choose whether or not to believe, whether to take offense at Him or not. You might say, “But Father, would not Mary have been first?” Perhaps, but being without sin, being that she loved God with her whole heart in a way we perhaps never will this side of Heaven, she wanted deeply to do His Will. When the angel asked if she would bear the Son of God, she merely asked for help understanding how it would be possible. She was satisfied with the angel’s answer; never did she take offense at God.
But Joseph, though he was righteous—a rare title in Scripture!—was yet a sinner, yet one who would wrestle to embrace a God who would bring scandal beneath his roof, and break his heart with thoughts of infidelity and stoning, or perhaps divorce…what would he do? At first he intends to show mercy and divorce her quietly. But when an angel—perhaps the same angel that greeted Mary—appears in a dream, the angel encourages and fortifies him, and he not only accepts Jesus but embraces Him as his own Son, and Mary as his own wife. He heeded the messenger of God, and received God not merely into his heart, but his home, even having the later honor of giving the Son of God a human name: Jesus.
What would Mary have done had Joseph took offense at her pregnancy, or took offence at God for seeming to toss aside Joseph’s dreams of a family and wife all his own? Praise God we need not speculate, for Joseph believed, and God who Is With Us then had a home, a family, a place in this world in which to become more like those He came to save. Thus he teaches us this simple and priceless lesson: be willing to put aside who you think God is, how you think He must act. Let Him show Himself to you, reveal Himself and His Heart to you. Take no offence when He forgives your extremely sinful neighbor as though they had never done a thing wrong, take no offence when He seems to answer this person’s prayers and not your own. Trust Him: trust Him! He takes no offence at you, for He knows you through and through, and you cannot disappoint or surprise Him. Can we not return Him the same openness of heart, give Him the same benefit of the doubt: can we not permit Him to love us as we are, as He is?