4th Sunday of Advent - Year A (Matthew 1:18-25)

Except for the wise men which popular imagination tacks on to the end of the Lucan nativity account and the quote from the Septuagint version of Isaiah, Matthew’s telling of the story plays very little role in our Christmas traditions. It seems to me however that what might be called the “Annunciation to Joseph” has some important lessons to teach us. First among those is the fact that although Joseph is “righteous”, that righteousness based on the Law is insufficient for the task at hand. The angel (the evangelist) announces the Gospel to Joseph who then, by grace, is lead to take Mary and her child into his home. Joseph acts on faith in the promise of God.
Secondly, it is important to note that despite our later romanticizing of the event, Joseph’s relationship to both Mary and Jesus falls well outside what we have come to call the traditional family. The presence in our world of “God with us” reorders human relationships in new and surprising ways; even creating a family where there was none. As Christians, all of our relationships are contingent upon our relationship with Jesus. New family structures are evaluated in light of that relationship with Christ and not the demands of the law which did not allow for the formation of what we have come to call the “holy family”.