"Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.” - MT 1: 20-23
09/08/2014 Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Joseph was a righteous man, and according to the law of Moses, when she was found with child, he had the right to not only divorce Mary, but 'expose her to shame'. Anyone familiar with the story of the woman caught in adultery knows what that would mean. Mary could have been stoned to death. But Joseph didn't want that for her and was going to divorce her quietly to spare her not only embarrassment, but quite likely her life as well. I guess you could say he was merciful like Jesus before it was cool to be merciful like Jesus.
Then Joseph has this dream and the angel tells him that everything is part of God's plan and he has an extremely important role to play. Most of us, if not convinced that the dream was the result of some goat's milk that was past the expiration, would probably have been pretty intimidated in that day and age to take Mary into our home as our wife. Without a doubt, Joseph knew they would be the talk of the ladies around the well in Nazareth. And who knows what kind of stigma would have followed their son? Yet he woke and did as the angel said, taking Mary into his home as his wife.
Since Mary was chosen by God, before her birth, as the vessel that would bring him to his people, it was also important that God chose a righteous man with compassion to protect and take care of her. Joseph was that guy. Not only was his faith strong enough to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit without hesitation, he protected and provided for Mary and Jesus everywhere they went and he supported her holiness and her calling.
This is a great model for all husbands not only with regard to our mission when it comes to our wives, but also with regard to how we see our wives. Some men see their wives as an obstacle to something or a burden, some see their wives as a means to and end, a tool to implement when they need satisfaction. But in following Joseph's example, we should our wives as women of God, as princesses; not like Disney princesses, but daughters of the King of Kings.
As men, can we honestly say we've treated them this way? If we want to know the answer, we just need to look at what our society tells women they need to be, it's a direct response to what they think men value. When I look at advertisements, movies, tv sitcoms, etc. I see a society telling women they need to be strong and smart, but not too strong and smart. They need to have a body like a stripper, a libido like a porn star and they need to fill themselves with chemicals to be sexually available to us at any time. Oh, and we have convinced them that if the chemicals don't work right, it's okay to 'choose' to destroy the life growing inside them.
We, as a society, are not seeing women as daughters of God or as spiritual sisters, we are looking at them as tools to our own satisfaction. We are falling miserably short of St. Joseph's model and damaging the value and self-esteem of our wives and our daughters.
Mary was chosen from the moment of her conception to be the one who delivered the Word made flesh to walk among us. Our wives and daughters have spiritual destinies as well. Are the things we do helping to direct them to those missions or are we a distraction, guiding them away from God's plan?
God bless,
P.D.O.
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