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St. Joseph
In the Book of Genesis, there is a touching scene where God takes Abraham outside on a starry night. You can almost picture the Father with his arm around the perplexed man, telling him: “Look up at the sky, and count the stars, if you can. Just so … shall your descendants be.” It must have been quite a stretch for Abraham to believe this. Years had passed since God’s first promise of descendants, but he and Sarah remained childless. And yet, Abraham “put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness” (Genesis 15:5,6).
Many centuries later, God made a night visit to one of Abraham’s descendants, who was also perplexed. What he promised Joseph was even harder to believe: Mary’s child had been conceived “through the holy Spirit” and would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20,21). Did Joseph think of Abraham as he pondered all this? Since he was a devout Jew who knew the Scriptures and would have looked to Abraham as a model, it seems quite possible. Certainly, Joseph responded as a true son of Abraham: He put his faith in God and then showed it over and over by his ready obedience.
Joseph knew that his relationship with God rested on the bedrock of grace as a gift to be received by faith. And so, like Abraham, “he believed, hoping against hope … and was fully convinced that what [God] had promised he was also able to do” (Romans 4:18,21). By accepting the mystery of God’s plan for his life, Joseph advanced God’s saving plan for us all. In union with Mary’s fiat, Joseph’s “yes” of faith changed the world!
God has a plan for your life, too. It may seem humble and insignificant compared to Joseph’s, but don’t be fooled: Your response of faith really matters. You don’t know where your “yes” might lead and how God might use it. Ask Joseph to help you receive the grace your Father wants to give you. Then, like Joseph, go out in faith to be a “doer of the word.”
“Father, I believe your promises. Thank you for the gift of your Son and for the intercession of so many ancestors in faith. Holy Spirit, help my unbelief! I want to accept and act on all the grace you have for me.”
2 Samuel 7:4-5,12-14,16; Psalm 89:2-5,27,29; Matthew 1:16,18-21,24
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