Advent calls us to: WAIT, HOPE & TRUST!  St. Paul reminds us that “…we are called to belong to Jesus Christ … called to be holy.”

But as you know being holy is demanding work.  We have to live The Beatitudes, we have to Pray, we have to Praise God, we have to receive the Sacraments, we have to do Good works, and we must Conform our will to God’s will; and we must do what God wants us to do no matter the cost.

Look at what God asked Joseph to handle.  The angel told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.”  Joseph probably did a lot of soul searching before he chose to follow God’s will. 

 

Think for a moment about Joseph’s Yes and Mary’s Yes;

compare their Yes to Adam & Eve’s No!  Two followed God’s will; two did not.  God asked Joseph to take on a difficult job, sometimes God asks us to take on difficult jobs.

Let me share this story with you called, “Joseph in 10,000 places”.

He taught his young son how to follow the grain of a piece of olive wood,

how to plane it, how to square it and join it firmly to another piece of wood to build a table or chair …; he also taught him patience, kindness and justice, … the value of earning a fair day's wages for a fair day's work in order to put bread on the table.

Joseph, to paraphrase Gerard Manely Hopkins, "lives in 10,000 places":

the man who rises at 2 A.M. to plow deserted snow-clogged roads;

the nurse who works the night shift & then a day shift;

the (policeman) who keeps us safe;

the mother with the autistic daughter or paralyzed son;

the office worker biting his lip at some slight … subtly directed at him because he, too, has to put bread on his family's table.

Joseph lives in the sales rep with photos of his wife and kids hanging on the wall inside his cubicle, telling a customer that, as much as he'd like to sell him another car, the customer can still get another couple of years out of the one he's got.  Joseph lives in the teacher who gives hours of her/(his) time to help the struggling student.

Joseph lives in the clerk, … the secretary, the contractor, who approach the people they encounter with kindness & respect because they, too, share the God-like work of putting bread on their family's table.  The invisible, almost anonymous Joseph: chosen by God to provide for his Son,

to watch over him, to teach him, to shape him, to protect and love him and the boy's mother.

Matthew’s version of Jesus’ birth depends on Joseph and Mary saying Yes! And our road to God’s Kingdom in a similar fashion depends upon our Yes. (Connections, December 2010)

Saying - Yes and accepting the challenge of living a life based on the Gospel.  Our Advent preparation is about wonder, about life, about love and about being vulnerable to allowing God not only into our life, but be our life! 

For a few moments in silence think about what brings you to Bethlehem? 

Think about your Yes!

 May God Be Praised!