St. Joseph Responds to Danger

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“After having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.” This last passage in the Gospel reminds us that this beautiful feast is also a very dangerous situation, because this is not taking place in a make-believe land, but in our world, which is a war zone, a spiritual war zone. And this Magi, their great act of faith, coming to do homage to Jesus, but without realizing it, this is also occasioning the great attack of King Herod. And behind Herod is the hatred of satan, so the powers of the world attacking the Lord and His people, especially the humble and the vulnerable as we’ll see so often in history. And we know it was a terrible massacre, all the children, all the little boys that were killed. But satan wanted it to be so much worse, because he wanted, above all, to kill Jesus, the Savior. And this reminds us that the incarnation that we’re celebrating at Christmas is such a critical, critical moment in God’s great plan of salvation and the reconquest is such a daring moment, because this stage is very vulnerable. And I think, for instance, of the D Day invasion and World War Two, and so the allied forces had huge, huge resources. But even with all of that, the invasion, the Normandy invasion, was a very vulnerable moment, and they tried to conceal it as much as possible, to disguise it, but they were aware that so easily, it could be a disaster. And General Eisenhower prepared a speech because he knew that that was a very real possibility, a speech that is announcing that they had tried, and it had failed. And so this is a very vulnerable moment, and St Joseph doesn’t have huge armies and huge resources behind them. Humanly speaking, humanly speaking, he’s alone to protect the Holy Family against the powerful King Herod, the one who is called King Herod the Great, not great spiritually, but a powerful king with all his soldiers, all his informants, all his money, and behind him, satan with all his, with all satan’s diabolical intelligence and power. And so imagine St Joseph against all that evil. And so there’s a lot to learn from St Joseph for us and in his courage and daring, daring to protect the child when the king wanted to kill him. And he was, so humanly speaking, he was so completely, hopelessly outnumbered. And so let’s look at God’s strategy In this critical moment, because it’s so different from ours. God knows what is truly effective. And so he entrust Joseph with this bold entry into the conflict. Because the incarnation is a whole new, I mean, the incarnation is kind of like, I mean, you could compare it to D Day invasion. That’s a very different thing, but it’s God coming to reclaim His rightful role in His territory, which is controlled now, by the enemy. And so there’s oftentimes like the allies were trying to do at D Day, they tried to conceal, and they tried to surprise. So those are key military strategies, and we see God Himself doing that, in this case, God concealing and God surprising. So I want to focus on three key lessons that we learn here. One is humility, that God hides His action, that God keeps His son hidden, camouflaged in humility. He doesn’t come, Jesus doesn’t come as a great king with all sorts of human splendor, but He comes as a poor child, of a poor family and an extremely poor manger. And Joseph himself seems like just an ordinary, just an ordinary young father, husband, and yet the Lord has chosen him to be the guardian of the Redeemer. That’s Pope John Paul – St John Paul wrote a document on St. Joseph called ‘Guardian of the Redeemer’. And St Joseph could have been tempted, even out of justice for his child, for the child Jesus, to get greater recognition. He could have gone through Jerusalem and told him, “Look, You know the one who is supposed to be born in Bethlehem. Well, here he is.” And he could have tried to get the powerful people, the people of influence, the important people, to pay attention to him, and that would have been disastrous. Already, what the Magi do, without them realizing it, causes a great problem. But So one key thing we see God doing here, one key part of His strategy, is His humility, which hides, hides His action. And the second point is because in difficult situations like this, like militarily, good intelligence is extremely critical. And here we see how faith gives Joseph the intelligence, the guidance that he needs. One thing in a lot of difficult situations, they say it’s important to distinguish the signal from the noise. That is, there’s a lot of things happening, there’s a lot of confusion, there’s a lot of stuff going on. And it’s very important to realize what is truly important, what do we need to focus on, and what are things which are useless and deceptive? Because just like what’s going on in our world, it has all sorts of ideas about, even in our Church, what should be done, what’s the situation, what should be done. So it’s very important to get good guidance. And so what we that’s what we, Joseph is getting in this point. Because otherwise, Joseph, he would have been completely unaware, and our Lord, would have been slaughtered as the other boys were in that area. But he was alerted to the danger by an angel. So that’s already very important to be aware that there is a danger, like just in a situation in our Church today, there’s a lot of people who aren’t aware. They think, Oh, it’s just a normal situation. They’re not aware that there’s a danger. So one key thing that the, (and this is not what this is), the angel, that is an angel, directly from God, is alerting him to how dangerous the situation is. So that’s critical to know the danger, but that’s not enough. In that danger, he needs to know what to do. And so the angel gives him, very succinctly, the critical information he needs to know. He needs to know what he should do, that is take his family and flee. He needs to know where he should go. He doesn’t have a lot of time to decide. So he’s to go to Egypt. And when is he supposed to do this? He has to do it now. And so that faith gives him the critical guidance that he needs in that situation. So that’s the second point humility, faith, and the third point of God (we’re seeing God’s strategy in St Joseph), is St Joseph obeys. A lot of people in his situation would have doubted. You know, I had a dream, a weird dream. It was a nightmare, an angel, but the angel saying something terrible, I don’t know what I should do, and a lot of people would have doubted and delayed. In fact, that’s often-what people, you know, what people, what we do oftentimes, in God’s manifestations, especially when it’s a private revelation. People say, “Oh, well, don’t pay any attention to that.” What if St Joseph had done that? What if someone had said, well, that’s just a private revelation, Joseph. I mean, can you imagine Joseph telling somebody I just had this dream, and they said, well, that’s just a private revelation. Don’t pay any attention to that, right? That’s what a lot of people say today, don’t pay any attention. What if Saint Joseph had followed that type of advice. So a lot of people would have doubted, delayed, but Joseph acted promptly. What experts did Saint Joseph consult. Who did he go to ask advice from?   What if St Joseph had gone to Jerusalem to ask advice from the experts, which were the chief priests and the scribes? It would have been a very different outcome. So what St Joseph does, of course, is he believes, and he acts without consulting any experts and doing what he’s told to do, and he acts. And so again, I think this raises questions about the whole common response to what’s called private revelations. Joseph follows the example that we see often in Scripture and in the great models that Scripture gives us. He obeys and he acts promptly. And so the result of his humility, of his faith, his obedience is Jesus and Mary are protected, and the great mission can continue. So the great mission of the Incarnation. So these virtues of humility, faith and obedience. A lot of times, we could think, Well, those are nice things. Those are nice virtues, but they’re not really realistic for the way the world is. These virtues are not nice, they’re very difficult. They can be extremely difficult, but they can be crucified, but they are very realistic, because realistic, not for earthly success, humility, faith and obedience to God are not guaranteed to make you a lot of money and a lot of fame in this world, but they are very realistic for the eternal victory. They are very realistic but for the eternal victory. And you know, that’s those are the key virtues that the Lord has asked us here at the Mission of Divine Mercy. Made it very clear that faith, with humility and obedience, we’re not very good at it, but that’s what He’s asking of us, and it’s, as I say, it what He’s asking of us for the Mission of Divine Mercy. It’s not just for us, but it’s, I think he’s saying that these are key for the Church right now in this situation. So humility, faith and obedience, that saves Joseph and the Holy Family. So now they go to Egypt. But then there’s this long ordeal in the poverty that they’re very poor in this strange land. And so this, this is a whole different situation. Because sometimes it’s one thing to be heroic, courageous and a dramatic moment, a dramatic moment of greatness. I think of that phrase the person said, “I could never be a saint, except maybe I could be a martyr if they killed me quickly.” You know, just like a firing squad or, you know, a guillotine or something like that. But so it’s one thing to be courageous in a great moment, but it’s another thing to persevere over a long, difficult period when things seem very ordinary and it’s hard to believe, when a lot of people are tempted, and a lot of people give up and give in or just act hastily. And Saint Joseph in that time, because he didn’t just have to go to Egypt, he had to stay in Egypt for probably several years. And so he had to persevere, and then persevere, come back to Nazareth. So there’s this. Joseph had this very dramatic moment, but then he also had a lot of time in which things seemed very ordinary, and that also takes special virtues. So what does St Joseph not do? He doesn’t blow up. He doesn’t just, I’m just so sick and tired of just being poor and struggling. And you know, nothing seems to happen. And that’s you know, that would have been very easy to do. And he said, boy. You know, I’m trying to obey God, and look what it gets me. Here I am stuck in Egypt. And you know, we’re just barely making it. And you know, it would have been easy to blow up. It would have been easy to give up. Such I’m done with this. This is, I’m this is just too hard. And also, as I say, when things look very ordinary. I mean, it’s one thing when the angels are singing and so forth, but when things are just going on and you’re just poor and struggling, and it’s not like there’s all sorts of divine miracles popping off all over the place, that everything’s just hard and ordinary. He could have been tempted to give up. He doesn’t give up. That’s another thing he doesn’t do. He doesn’t speak out. He doesn’t say, hey, look, everybody, do you realize we’re not just ordinary people. This is not an ordinary baby. You have no idea who this is. You know this is the king, this is the Messiah, this is God Himself. He could have done that, speak out. Not have to be quiet. He didn’t speak out. He could have done like John the Baptist. John the Baptist came to denounce at a certain point, or even Jesus himself denounced the evil and Israel. But Joseph wasn’t called to do that. He didn’t do that. It wasn’t wrong to do that, but like John the Baptist and our Lord did, but that wasn’t what John Joseph was called to do. He wasn’t called to go preaching like Jesus and His apostles or and he wasn’t called to follow the example of Judas, Judas MacCabe, the great, you know, the Great Leader of the Maccabean revolt, revolting against the imposition of the Greeks. So Judas and his brothers or his family are called to do that. But Joseph wasn’t called to do that. He wasn’t called to gather a band in the desert and prepare a revolt. So those things, God called other people do those things, but that wasn’t what God was asking him. And that’s also critical, to discern what is God asking me. And so Joseph does, he doesn’t do these, those other things. He does what God is asking him now, he does what is needed in that precise situation. So he cooperates with God’s hidden, surprising plan, and keeps hidden what was to be hidden until later. And so what is the result of Joseph’s actions? Joseph, who is one of the descendants of the great King David, the great warrior king. Joseph, this humble carpenter, is the descendant of King David, who had so much renown and splendor, and Joseph, who seemed like such a simple person. But Joseph was, in fact, much more effective than King David. King David was very gifted, a great warrior, but he had a weakness. His weakness and his pride, his lust that led him to adultery and led to centuries of disaster for Israel and Judah. Joseph, who was simpler, humbler, purer, was more effective than King David. He, King David, he had some great successes, but he also had very terrible failures in the mission he was given. Saint Joseph was successful and faithful in the mission he was given of protecting the Holy Family, and at the key moment in which almost no one else would have accepted and believed and known how to cooperate, Joseph does, and he does throughout his life. And so St Joseph, on this feast of the Epiphany is a guide for us in the terrible spiritual struggle that we are in, and which evil is very powerful, in some ways, more powerful than it’s ever been. And as even the evils even damaged so much the Church. And so we need to learn from St Joseph and those three key virtues of humility, which is so effective against satan; of faith in God’s surprising guidance, and obedience. And with that, all the other virtues that St Joseph shows, like courage, patience, perseverance, all motivated by his love. And so in the simple life of St Joseph, this Epiphany is, as I said, it means manifestation. And one of the things that’s manifested in a hidden way is the greatness of St Joseph. Even though he’s kind of in the background at the Epiphany, and that’s part of His greatness is his willingness, his humble, faithful, obedient willingness, to do what he is supposed to do. And so St Joseph is hidden in many ways in the Epiphany. And yet I want to end by just reading this passage we had from the first reading, which also applies to St Joseph. “Rise up in splendor. Jerusalem, your light has come. The glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples,” and that is so true for our world today, “darkness covers the earth, thick clouds cover the people. But upon you, the Lord shines, and over you appears His glory. Nation shall walk by your light and kings by your shining radiance.” Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 2: 1-12
Isaiah 60: 1-6