Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 21, 2025

Matthew 1: 18-24

Today’s gospel passage concludes the long genealogy of Jesus.  Unlike Luke, Matthew does not center on Mary in Jesus’ birth, but rather highlights Joseph, a son of David.  If Luke gives us the Annunciation to Mary, Matthew gives us the Annunciation to Joseph.  Why is Joseph important?  For two reasons:  first, he is the son of David;  and second, Joseph is given a special mission by God.  After accepting this mission, Joseph disappears from the concern of the gospel writers.

The prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah make it clear that the Savior is a descendant of King David.  He is the fulfillment of God’s promises to David that his descendants will go on forever and one of them will redeem Israel as Jeremiah says, "Behold the days are coming...when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David...In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security.”  Isaiah notes, “On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse” who was the father of David, and this sprout will save Israel and the other nations as well.  But even Isaiah and Jeremiah did not understand just what kind of King of David God would provide.  As we saw last Sunday, Jesus was not what people, even prophets, expected.   We could say a lot about the genealogy that precedes today’s gospel;  let us say that the whole list of ancestors has one point which is to show that Jesus comes from David’s line.  Joseph is from that line which he passes on to his foster son since Joseph is Jesus legal father.

In today’s gospel, an angel appears to Joseph who has just found out that Mary is going to have a child which is not his.  Joseph is a man of God who does not want to shame Mary by a public divorce, so he decides to divorce her quietly.  In fact, a public divorce for a seeming case of adultery could result in Mary being stoned to death.  Joseph wants no part is something like this.  He is probably hurt by what he hears, but not angry to the point of revenge.  We do not know if Joseph knew of the angel’s Annunciation to Mary, but if so, he does not seem to believe it; or else he does not know what to do with all this.

However, God does not let it stop there.  God has plans for Joseph who also must be a special person for God his Father.  He gives Joseph a mission.  That mission began with taking Mary into his house as his wife and accepting Jesus as his child, giving him a claim to the line of David.  Joseph made sure that Jesus and Mary were protected when he was warned in another dream to take them to Egypt to escape the murderous plan of King Herod to kill the children of Bethlehem.  Next, Joseph is the one who nurtured Jesus as he grew from a child into a young man.  Joseph was Jesus’ earthly guide and foster father.  He was a model to Jesus of a devout man who loved and respected the Father who was Jesus’ real father.  St. Joseph’s mission is our own.

A retreat master was addressing a group of fathers. He proposed St. Joseph as a perfect model for them as the head of their families. At that, one retreatant said: “Joseph’s situation was totally different from mine. He was a saint, his wife was sinless, and his Child was the Son of God. I’m no saint, my wife is not sinless, and my child isn’t the Son of God.” Without batting an eyelid, the quick-witted Retreat master responded: “Was your wife pregnant before marriage and you didn’t know by whom?  Were you ever awakened in the middle of the night and urged to flee from the imminent threat of your innocent child’s assassination?” Did you son leave home for three days and you didn’t know where he was?  St. Joseph was pre-eminently a man of Faith who never doubted the reassuring promise of the Heavenly messenger: “Don’t be afraid, Joseph, to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.” Joseph believed God’s word and acted on it and fulfilled the mission God had given him. We too, with His ever-present help, can do the same.  

For us this Sunday, Joseph’s mission is our own.  We cannot protect and teach Jesus as Joseph did, but we are charged to to this for his Church which is Jesus’ body.  Are we not to be the protector of people who need justice?  Do we not care for the orphans and widows?  Are we not to respect the lives of all who are not respected?  We are called to be Joseph to each other as members of the Body of Christ.  This means to be Joseph not only to those who are Catholic or christian, but also to those who need to learn about Jesus by our actions as well as our words.  Our actions need to speak loudly since we profess to love Jesus, Emmanuel, which means, God with us.  Jesus, who was not born in a royal palace, but in a stable to a teenage girl whose child is not her husband’s, and to that foster father who was a laborer, a man who worked with his hands.  Like both John the Baptist and Joseph, we are the ones with this mission:  Prepare the way of the Lord who is God With Us.

Fr. John Tran