Making our way through the season of Advent can be likened to making a pilgrimage. This pilgrimage, however is made not to a destination, but to a person.
As we approach the goal of our pilgrimage: meeting the newborn Christ in the Christmas Gospel, we might be tempted, through impatience or a crowded schedule, to ask, as children on a long journey ask, “Are we there yet?”
For many, the preparations for, and enjoyment of, Christmas have already begun, perhaps out of necessity, and a crowded calendar, yet in our ecclesial life, the pilgrimage of Advent continues, today introducing two characters to guide us on our way:
- the Old Testament King Ahaz -and-
- the New Testament Saint Joseph.
Both of our Readings inform us that God speaks through an emissary: (the Prophet Isaiah to Ahaz… and an Angel to Saint Joseph), revealing that:
- a Virgin will conceive and bear a son -and-
- that the son shall be named Emmanuel,
yet the two men receive and act upon the message in two entirely different ways.
Ahaz makes a vocal response, where Joseph remains silent, then Ahaz challenges the Lord’s words and intentions while Joseph ponders their meaning and how he might respond in faith and obedience.
Isaiah’s job as a Prophet was not necessarily to foretell the future, but to reveal the Will of God for His people as a whole, as well as for individual persons, and this is what he’s doing in this conversation with Ahaz: calling the king to fidelity to God’s Covenant.
The Lord’s words to Ahaz are conciliatory, saying, “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God, let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!” The Hebrew people had always asked for a sign, but now God Himself is offering to send a sign, before it was requested.
The King’s response is curious: “I will not ask,” he says, “I will not tempt the Lord!” These words, as humble as they may sound, are not spoken in humility, but in obstinacy.
Ahaz is being threatened by the army of his neighbors the Assyrians, and is thinking of entering into a political alliance with them, rather than trusting God to protect His people as He promised through the Covenant. This is the reason that Isaiah finds the king so wearisome. Yet even if Ahaz is not faithful to the Covenant, God will be faithful.
Isaiah’s words did not lead the king or anyone else to expect anything like a virginal conception, or an Incarnation by the power of the Holy Spirit. The revelation of this mystery, as well as the understanding of it, comes much later, even after the Resurrection for most people, as Saint Paul alludes that Jesus Christ had been… “promised perviously through His prophets in the Holy Scripture.”
The hidden meaning of Isaiah’s words is, however, revealed to Saint Joseph who would be able to make sense of the Annunciation story because of what Mary had revealed to him, as well as what the Angel instructs him to do.
He is told to name the child “Jesus,” a name which means “God saves”… not in the political sense of saving Israel from the Assyrians threatening Ahaz, or the Romans occupying Palestine during the time that Joseph lived. Instead, the child’s name would indicate that God would save His people from their sins by means of this child about to be born.
No human endeavor can save Man from sin, only Divine Intervention can accomplish such a miraculous task.
The Virgin who conceives and bears a Son, foretold by the Prophet Isaiah, is now understood by Saint Joseph, at the beckoning of an angel, to mean that the Blessed Virgin Mary would conceive a child, not through the normal course, but by the power and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
This gives an entirely new meaning to the name “Emmanuel” … “God with us.” No longer is God with us only in the spiritual sense, reigning from heaven, now God will become Incarnate, a real human being, walking among us: a person, however, with two natures: fully human and fully divine.
Now the contrast between King Ahaz and Saint Joseph becomes clear: Where Ahaz gives voice to his objections to God’s plan, Joseph receives God’s plan in silence. Indeed, Saint Joseph never utters a word anywhere in the Sacred Scriptures.
In this, Saint Joseph’s silence provides an echo to the eternal silence of God. In silence, Saint Joseph ponders the news of Mary’s pregnancy. His slow and ponderous response allows him to move from Justice (exposing what appeared to be Mary’s infidelity to their betrothal, which would make her subject to stoning from the crowds) …. to Mercy, for as we heard, he was “unwilling to expose her to shame.”
He had skillfully pondered in his heart and in his mind what to do, and once he decided, he was ready to take action. He was, after all, a carpenter: “Measure twice… cut once.”
But then an Angel, a messenger from God, intervened and put his conscience at rest. The Angel had said, “Be not afraid…” and Joseph took the Angel at his word. Unlike King Ahaz whose fear guided him, Joseph “Did what the Angel of the Lord
had commanded him,” and took Mary into his home.
Overcoming his anxiety, Joseph played his initial part in allowing the Incarnation of Christ to take place, setting in motion, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the dawn of redemption.
So now, a question arises for us:
Shall we behave like King Ahaz:
-making life decisions from fear,
-leaving God out of our plans?
— or —
Shall we be more like Saint Joseph:
-with silent fortitude, listening to voices of angels.
-discerning God’s Will and intention,
and obeying His Will with humility?
God worked in spite of Ahaz, but through Saint Joseph. So how will He have to work through us? Like the Holy Carpenter, then, measure carefully the Word of God, its challenges and its consequences, before making the cut from self-determination to a life of freedom and holiness, which is Redemption’s immediate gift. Then, we will take our place in Salvation History, perhaps quietly and behind the scenes, as did Saint Joseph, but necessary in its own way because this is God’s plan.