Merry Christmas my dear readers and remember to stay humble on this holy day. I never really thought about it much, I mean of course I thought of Christ humbling himself by becoming flesh and a baby in a poor family in a poor city. And of course I thought of Mary's humble assent.
But what about Joseph's humility? We call him the Silent Saint, because he never once speaks in the Gospel, but he humbled himself before the angel of the Lord in his dreams and did as he was commanded.
Can you imagine how he found out about Mary's pregnancy? Prior to the dream we know that he was going to divorce her quietly, because he was a good and decent man, but how did he know? A friend perhaps going, "Joseph, there's something I think you need to know", or perhaps even Mary herself telling him a story he might have found bordering on the fantastic?
Did he think of it all in terms of her lying to him, or did he initially believe? Did he stare at the work he was doing in his carpentry jobs and think about how she would be stoned to death if he didn't divorce her in a quiet manner, sanding away and sawing all the while distracted by what could happen to that young woman?
Christmas is not about presents, it's not even about giving. It's about a baby that came to give His life. Yet His coming would not have come without the humility of Mary saying yes to the angel of the Lord and without Joseph humbling following an order from an angelic messenger in the dream.
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