secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to disgrace her. While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by
the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a son. You shall call him ‘Jesus’ for he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke,
he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.
Reflection:
Ever since Pope Francis spoke of having a statue of ‘Sleeping
Joseph’ under whose head he places his petitions, the statue
has become a hot favorite of many catholics. Let us pause
before the statue and meditate on his ‘sleep.’ Here is a young
man whose dreams of life came crashing down! (Though we
tend to present him as aged due to our own hang-ups, there
is nothing in the Scriptures that says so!) But he does not
complain; there is no self-pity or temper tantrums. He sleeps,
peacefully, trustingly, like Abraham whom Paul mentions
today. Joseph truly has entered the “rest of God” (cf. Heb 4:10).
In his restful sleep of trust, he receives God’s own dreams. He
wakes up and fulfills them. So, perhaps instead of pushing our
petitions under Joseph’s pillow to force God’s hands, we will
do well to imitate his sleep of trustful rest, hoping to receive
God’s dreams.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022