4th Sunday of Advent

Today we hear of Joseph’s first encounter with the mystery of Christmas, his reaction to the news of Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. Joseph is required to trust that the angelic messenger who appears to him in a dream is correct. The message that Mary was honest and pure corresponded to his own experience of her, no doubt, but it must have been a heavy burden to be forced to trust in the face of such an incomprehensible mystery as the Virgin Birth.

Joseph must trust, but he must also act. He is told what to do, or here, what not to do: he must not send Mary away in divorce. This emphasis on action is one of the main differences between the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke’s Gospels.

Luke’s Gospel focuses on Mary, the angel greets her, tells her God’s plan and Mary assents to it. There’s a passive character to her dealings with the events as they unfold. Perhaps a better word is receptive. She receives the message, receives the will of God, receives the Word of God himself, and welcomes them.

Matthew’s Gospel focuses on Joseph and emphasizes the activity required of him. He is told first to keep Mary, not to divorce her. Then he’s told of Herod’s plan to kill all male infants, and is told to flee with the family to Egypt. Then he is told to come back up from Egypt. Joseph’s role is active, he must undertake action in order to fulfill his role in the unfolding drama.

We have presented in Mary and Joseph two aspects of discipleship, the active and the passive role. Being a Christian means relying on God’s grace, in trusting his provident care, in believing that God is the primary agent in human life and that he is moving all of human history and us with it to a happy conclusion, and all we must do is open ourselves up to his guidance and initiative.

And yet there are things we must do. Our faith demands action. We have to take the initiative in many situations to meet the needs of others or to correct them. Acting on behalf of charity is where much of the risk of discipleship takes place, and this is essential to the practice of love. We see these two complementary aspects represented by Joseph and Mary, male and female.

Just as each one of us, in our physical being, is the fruit of a coming together of male and female, so too in our spiritual existence there must be a fruitful coming together of male and female. All of our action must take place within the context of a loving trust that God himself is guiding us and those around us through our actions and perhaps in spite of them.

We must acknowledge times when action would be inappropriate. There are some wrongs committed against us or others that we must simply yield to. There are other difficult situations where the appropriate course isn’t at all obvious. When a family member has gone astray and made a mistake. Do we take action? Will our actions make things worse, driving the person away? These are real difficulties that require discernment and prudent judgment.

Knowing what to do in these situations and in life in general is never a matter of simply splitting the difference between action and inaction, receptivity or initiative. The life of discipleship is a life oriented towards Christ and he is the key to discerning what action is required of us and what patient waiting. Proper discernment in particular instances will always take place against the background of the life of discipleship, of lives recollected in Christ. Through devotion to Christ we arrive at lives of patient waiting and preparedness to act.