Matthew 1:18-24 12-18-2022 ( As built, Amite #525)
- Saint Joseph… Imagine… a letter from Saint Joseph…
- My name is Joseph… and I hope you can hear me across two thousand years… the story you just heard in the Gospel was written by my sons disciple… the one they call Matthew the Apostle… it was handed down to you by humans but also by the Holy Spirit… if it is okay with you I would like to share my thoughts and feelings to all the events that occurred on that Preverbal night… you see I am a quiet man… not one word I have ever said shows in scripture… yet no one… with the exception of my wife… oh how I love to say that… my wife… for me these events seemed to unfold in complete darkness… complete confusion… as I received the worst news ever… Mary was pregnant… you may not believe this but I never was fully persuaded that Mary had betrayed me… knowing her as I did I just didn’t want to think or believe it… I mean who would believe… who would believe such a story… virgin has a child… that’s why I decided to divorce her instead of marrying her… now I am aware that my language to yours is different… you see it’s been two thousand years… see you know about marriage and divorce but this is what you don’t know… you see two thousand years ago our laws and customs were far different… here’s something that may be new to you… you can actually get a divorce before you get married… yeah that’s right… you see the Jews in m time were betrothed before they were married… like a period of engagement… it was serious… it was binding… and oh yet it was legal… during this period of betrothal… a man and woman were already husband and wife… they were not living together…. There was no sexual union during that time… Mary was as much mine during this period of betrothal as any man’s wife would be to him… for Jewish maiden… someone like Mary… a betrothal lasted one year… if I had died during that time she would be a widow… when I found out she was pregnant… I knew of course that I was going to be a father… and I decided the best thing for us is maybe I just needed to leave and to do so quietly… I would go on my life and she would go on with hers… but you have to admit the downside to that… is that she will be scourged publicly… will put her to death or she’ll be stoned… I didn’t want this to happen contrary to what you may think… oh how I love her… and still do… more so today then that day… you see for a long time I’ve lived a solitary life… I am in my mid-thirties I’m about thirty-three… this beautiful girl came to me… truly an unexpected gift… I loved her as I loved no one else… her face… her voice… her eyes… the penetrated the very core of my soul… I found missing parts of me in her… how could ever any one want to possess such a soul… and now you want me to condemn her to die… no… I would pray again for the grace for God to maybe start over… that’s when I had the dream… that’s when the angel came… that’s the day my world changed… and hopefully yours…. Anyone who knew me would know that I am not a dreamer I’m a very pragmatic man… I’m a carpenter… never dreamed of angels… I don’t even have the words to explain what was said or what I saw… and angel came to me quite clear… Mary’s story is true… I’ve never known such relief… can you imagine… the storm in my heart… totally stilled… could it be that God was giving Mary back to me… you know the greatest joy the one we could only imagine… is the joy of restoration… of having a lost treasure… then having it restored greater than what it was before…when I awoke from that proverbial dream… all I could do was weep… I remembered the rest of the angel’s message… the angel said you shall call him Yeshua… Jesus… a name which means God is our salvation… you will free people from their sins… then you know what the angel told me… something I’d study my whole life… you just heard it this morning… behold the virgin will conceive and bear a son… and he will be called Emmanuel… God is with us… I remember that part of the dream had such an effect on me… it was sobering… Mary was now given back to me… and I’m going to be a father… a father to care for… and look this isn’t any child… this is the long awaited Messiah… the angel said to me… Joseph son of David… do not be afraid to take Mary into your home… then I thought… did the heavenly Father truly want me to be his earthly father… how can that be… this is why I play an important role… I met the shepherds… I even met the wisemen… they did come from the east… as a matter of fact in all of your nativity scenes… this week you’ll see me standing ever so close… imagine what it means to me when someone says that’s Mary and Josephs son… beyond this… you know very little about me… I was there to watch him grow… I taught him to use his hands… to use my tools… Mary and I were the first to give him lessons in the ways of the world… the lessons of God the Father… I was there when they called him son of Joseph… but you know what… I knew it and you do too… that he’s really the son of God… sincerely Joseph…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ you know what you and I don’t know about Joseph is so much…. But there are Saints that have gone before us that have spoken volumes about Saint Joseph… so let me explain to you… my brothers and sisters in Christ Saint Joseph we believe was one of about five children… we believe he was the middle child… we believe that according to the saints that he was born with original sin if you will like John the Baptist… at the inception… but that was his only sin… that’s right my brothers and sisters in Christ… that’s why we call him the first in Grace behind full of grace… you see my brothers and sisters in Christ he’s far more ranking then you and I think… the fact of the matter is by the age of seven he took a vow of chastity… by the age of twenty he had become a full fledged carpenter… and do you know how he would work… you would go to him and say I would like a table built… I would like a chair built… I would like this… he would build it for you and then you would decide how much you would pay… imagine doing that today… yeah you know what his words were… he said often times I was cheated… but I never cheated them… there would always be somebody who would come along and make me hold… he said you know I had heard of Mary in the temple but he said then again everybody had… a cloistered nun that Holy… it radiated through everywhere… according to the saint that when he was called to go because he’s in the line of David all single men were called to come to the temple to see who would be betrothed to Mary… he remembered going simply just because it’s the law… little did he know that when they handed each of the men that came a staff his flowered… hence why you see the flower… as a matter of fact a Dove descended upon him… my brothers and sisters in Christ he was so shocked that he was supposed to be… because all he knew was that he would see the Messiah… his parents didn’t even know that he would be the father of the Messiah… they just thought they would see him…my brothers and sisters in Christ for three years they lived in object poverty… I take that back… Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived together for twenty-nine years… say what you want about the apostles… they were only with Christ for three years… John the Baptist for only a better part of maybe six months to a year… for twenty-nine years… tell me he wasn’t chosen specially… that’s why they call him first in grace… we actually rank the Saint in the church… there’s Mary full of Grace… there’s Joseph first in Grace… and everybody else… that’s right including John the Baptist even though the good Lord said no man has been born of a woman greater than John the Baptist… he was speaking to the Old Testament… my brothers and sisters in Christ do you know why he always looks down in his statues… because he either always looked up to heaven to thank God or he said I looked down… he said because lust enters the soul through the eyes … that’s why he looks as he does… my brothers and sisters in Christ he lives to about… let’s see he is thirty-three when Christ comes into the world… he lives until he’s probably in his early sixties… according to the Saints he dies in the arms of the Blessed Mother and in-between her and Jesus… so he died between them… my brothers and sisters in Christ there is no greater intercessor outside of the blessed Mother than him… the fact of the matter is you and I don’t rely on him… the fact of the matter is he’s just almost an unsung hero… but the fact of the matter is he was chosen by God to be the protector and the provider… he is the patron Saint of the church… boy if we need him we need him now… my brothers and sisters in Christ he is the patron Saint of the sick… he’s the patron Saint of workers… of midwives if you will… my brothers and sisters in Christ because he felt he was a midwife if you will… my brothers and sisters in Christ and yes he is the Saint for homebuyers and sellers… why is it that you know only that part my brothers and sisters in Christ… and can I just tell you … I don’t know who told you that you had to bury him upside down can you just stop with that just pray…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ I leave you with this… in the words of Saint Joseph… truly… he is the Son of God… and I have been chosen… I am only a manger away from your intercession… talk to me… allow me to play on your behalf… allow me to pray on your behalf…allow me to sing on your behalf… allow me to petition on your behalf… they don’t call him the terror of demons for no reason… in almost every exorcism if they want to rid the demon sooner then later they either call on Mary or Joseph… my brothers and sisters in Christ could we have a better surrogate father… Saint Joseph…
