For Joseph it was definitely a great Christmas, this Christmas! He had them his plans, and how. Small projects, as a young craftsman's workshop went well, thanks to his skill and his affability with customers. Of course, it was a great square, Nazareth, but in time, who knows, he could grow, and even move to Sepphoris. Things were going well: shortly thereafter he took home his bride Mary, who envied him for all the beauty and innate modesty. So, to Joseph, plan a family with one girl who had captured her heart was source of overwhelming joy. But, suddenly, the dream of Joseph was "ruined" by the intervention of God unexpected and unthinkable to Mary's pregnancy, of which he is responsible, throws it in the anguish and forces him to rethink everything. But as : Mary? Her? How could this happen? He was the only one who knows that her son was not the result of his suit. The single, along with Mary. And now, what he should do?
It was a time of anger, that, or the cry on, was the time to act. Hand it over to the authorities, left to its fate? He knew that the fate of women was the public stoning adulterers. No, he could not. The night he learned the tragic news had to be terrible for him, the anxiety that kept him awake, tossing and turning constantly in the mattress, the horrible visions of tomorrow that mercilessly threw him into the darkest despair. He had always before their eyes the smiling face of Mary could not believe the reality did not want to face facts. His wounded male pride, however, yielded its place to dell'Innamorata tenderness and tears. His heart calmed down when he remembered another solution: the rabbi would have said that Maria was sick of, and therefore the cancellation. Maria would have had the honor to compromise, but life saving. Here, yes, good idea. He, despite and beyond all loved her immensely.
The story may also end here and we could already identify with all dreams, in our personal lives, shattered by an abandonment of a loved one, from an illness, an accident, by an injustice in the workplace, the many factors that make us feel unfairly hampered in our aspirations. I speak of course of no small dreams related to material things, but I think the major projects of life in love and implementation at vocational training and work. Even in the dream of spiritual faith, we can sometimes experience death, when we feel distant God and the community of believers as an obstacle, and then what we thought was important and fundamental, eludes us, and dies.
The story of Joseph as told by Matthew, however, does not end there: does not end even with its aim of goodness and justice personnel.
Finally, that night, sleep came: he took on doing the morning. And there it happened. An angel talked with him in a dream, and spoke of a mission, and a son who would save the world and not to worry. A strange dream, sweet, almost true. Mary was his, of Joseph, but God loved and had asked to borrow her lap. In the dream, Joseph was silent, amazed, astonished, at peace. Then he awoke, peaceful. The dark thoughts were far away, fled with the darkness, they decided to go and buy a cake and bring it to Mary. He needed strength, now expecting a child. "His" son. If Mary had lent the bosom of God, he, Joseph, could also be his father, God is good to put aside her grief, because there is not no other man in Nazareth that Mary loves her. It to him that God is simply stolen.
And the story continues, with a new dream that appears in the mind and heart of Joseph. It is a new project that takes its form from the rubble of what she thought was destroyed, God involves him in a story that is obviously far beyond its capacity, but has been able to recruit another small woman, who is his own wife , Mary. God wants to accomplish his dream of enter human history and in this very difficult project can not help but Joseph, though infinitely smaller than God in this meeting "impossible" working with God, Joseph finds new life project on which and from which all points find new momentum. It is therefore not a blind obedience and subdued, but it is obedience to God with obedience to his heart. Joseph seeks happiness and, aided by the words that the angel lays in the heart, he realizes that this happiness is realized just where he thought everything was dead.
Matthew, excellent knowledge of the human soul, he notes that Joseph was "right": that is impeccable, authentic, honest, a man of high profile, full of dignity and compassion, not vengeance, not resentful, one who does not judge according to appearance, which, although mortally wounded, of course, knows how to overcome his pride and mercy toward the woman he loves deeply. It is "right," Joseph, as the righteous of the Old Testament, as the pious before God, as the upright of heart, so much praised by Scripture. "Right", because each part of the thought of God, because it opposes the dominant madness and wisdom, because it looks and leaves prevail in depth and tenderness. Finally, the "right", how could we be all of us, if only we let God be born in our hearts.
But we, brothers and sisters, we really want God to be born in our hearts? Yes? So put appearances aside, we live in honesty with ourselves, we are blameless before men, grow in us the feelings and qualities that are still considered of value: the mild, the absence of criticism, the bonhomie, the patience, meekness, humility. A world of arrogant and conceited has become our world, a world of people screaming to hear anything he has to say. How many do we need Joseph in the family, in relationships, in religious communities, in offices, in politics! Men and women the "right" of which God can be trusted to carry out his plan!
But not enough. To give birth to God in us, we must also be of great dreamers, we still believe in dreams, ideals. Joseph teaches us to have the courage to dream, in our cynical and disenchanted world, he, big dreamer, lives its entire life behind a dream, bends his will and his fate to the will of God that sly and impudent asks him to step aside to make way for the unprecedented project of your incarnation.
A man who can no longer dream, that does not chase his dreams, who do not listen to them, is a dead man. And God kills
Joseph agrees, put aside, giving up her dream, to realize the dream of God and humanity. It is decided, Joseph prepare because it must return to his Bethlehem with Mary. Did not request anything, you know, he knows. They are placed in the street, her bitter teenager with the big belly that a woman does, and he, with all the attentions of a husband in love. An Emperor idiot decided to count his subjects to autodeliziarsi, stupidly, its useless power ...
My brothers, what about this turning point in the story of Joseph? What tells us that often we stop to contemplate the wreckage of our dreams destroyed, and often we stop blaming God, with ourselves and with others in an understandable but sometimes useless self-pity? In the dream of God we are also our dreams. It seems impossible, seems just a dream ... Maybe that's why sometimes we need to rediscover the spiritual dream, in other words, it's called prayer.
It is in prayer that we can understand how our legitimate aspiration to happiness is never compromised at all by what we happen to negative even as behind the alleged losses can hide something bigger that calls us. That's why in the face of our weaknesses we have to resort to the power of the Lord, should humbly call upon, so that in His divine light to melt all our uncertainties, all our doubts. Even the upcoming Christmas demands our faith, humble and careful: Let us experience it, brothers and sisters, this Christmas, involved in a surprise God madly in love with us, it does not take inert, cowardly, defeatist, but always striving for the fulfillment of His will, nothing more or less how it happened with Joseph. Amen.
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