My friends, on this last Sunday of Advent, I would like to simply talk about Mary and Joseph, uncover a bit who this young couple were in order that we can better understand the parts they played in giving us our brother Jesus – one who would truly, “Show us the way.”

   If we read the gospel from Matthew today and simply stay on the surface of this well-known story, we might come away saying, “easy-peasy,” and never come to appreciate all that was back of the miracle of the Incarnation that we celebrate for the most part, with so much joy each year.

   The Jewish people waited year after year, century after century for a messiah to come out of their people, who would, they believed, be their “savior,” in perhaps more than one way.  Many thought this messiah would become an earthly “king” who would rise up against their enemies, the Romans and others. 

   As with all that is written in Scripture, we realize that there are deeper truths to be had than what immediately shows itself in a first look at the words.  In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, we see evidence of this.  He says, “The young woman will be with child and give birth…the child will be given the name, Immanuel…God-with-us.”

   When Isaiah wrote these words, in the 8^th Century, BCE, they were meant, “to give hope” to King Ahaz of the House of David, and to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, that was being severely threatened by their enemies.  Giving hope is what all good prophets do, and in this case he is telling the king and the people to be “patient and tranquil” – that their God-is -with-them, and if they can be patient, they will live to see One who will truly come and be with them, showing them the way. Once again, we hear the Advent message of “patience” – most good things take patient-waiting to bring about. 

   And in this case, we, looking back can see the multi-layered message as Isaiah and the Southern Kingdom at that time, wouldn’t be the ones to see the Messiah.  But Mary and Joseph, in God’s good time, would! 

   Earlier I stated that simply reading Matthew’s gospel about “the coming of Immanuel” as foretold by Isaiah and others, as a “matter of fact,” surface-tale, and if we look at it in this way, we miss so much of the depth and wealth of this story.  Thus, a deeper dive into this well-known historical event gives us a model for how to live our own Christian lives. 

   Over 50 years ago, an author, Marjorie Holmes, reflecting on her own life, was inspired to write a historical novel, Two from Galilee, about Mary and Joseph, because her inspiration, as she prayed in front of the Christmas crib in her parish church told her that this story actually happened! Her book is one that I have read every Advent over the past 50 years as I feel that it so beautifully takes that deeper dive into the possible lives of two young people of faith who also loved each other very much. I believe as did the author that in order to give the world “a messiah” who could truly help people to, as we say here, “become their best,” both faith and a deep love for each other would need to be present in his earthly parents.

   Sometimes, the Scriptures are maddeningly sparse on the details of how an event came to be, and I think humans like Holmes, wanting to know and understand, set out “to fill in” the details in order that others could truly see these biblical characters as ones they could follow in their own walks of faith. 

   The true inspiration for Marjorie Holmes in writing Two from Galilee, as I said above, came one Christmas season as she knelt before the Nativity scene in her parish church, and reflecting on her own 13-year-old daughter, she came to see that the young mother, Mary, was a real individual, not unlike her own daughter.

   Going back then to Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth; let’s “pick the story apart” a bit to see what a deeper dive might show us.  The surface story tells us that Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married, but before they came to live together – a line that points to the “hoped-for” intimacy to come between them, Mary is found to be “already with child.”  Now, I think, at this point in the story, we have to simply stop reading and let this fact lay on our hearts…an engaged woman, with child, not from her intended.

   In faith, if we go along with the Christmas story, Mary said “yes” to her God who asked a great deal of her.  In the moment, this young woman gave the only answer that a person of true faith can give – “yes!”  She didn’t immediately think of how she would be viewed in her neighborhood, but all too soon it would become obvious that she, an unmarried woman was with child.  She could hardly say, as the musical group, The Statler Brothers did in the past, in a Christmas ballad, “Oh no, my baby’s dad is the Holy Spirit!” 

   So, Mary was a woman of faith, we know, and in the end, Joseph became a man of faith, too. Neither of these two could have possibly got their heads around what had befallen them, but through their hearts and through their mutual love for each other, they could fully participate in what God was asking of them, and bring about the miracle.

   And just a word on Joseph, Jesus’ earthly dad; as Marjorie Holmes puts it, “a son not of his loins, but of his heart. In the past, Joseph was always depicted by Church fathers as an old man, assuming that physical passion was far from his mind, and this did all of us who would follow, a disservice.  Why a disservice? Because my friends, it takes all the faith and trust in a loving God away, along with the trust in the miracle that takes place not only at Christmas time, but within each of us who truly love each other and who at times must sacrifice a great deal for those whom we love.  There is a reason why Christmas continues, over the years to be a beloved time of year – the best in all of us seems to rise to the occasion, and truth-telling is a part of that. More on this idea will be in my Christmas homily. 

   With the Second Vatican Council, much of the surface thinking on the religious story around the Incarnation was allowed to, we might say, “become more real, more human,” and Joseph was presented then as a younger man, who was asked to give up much too, to in fact become more like us humans…and we can take it from there.  In this sense, Mary and Joseph, who had to have loved each other very much could provide Jesus with a home where love was expressed, one for another, and no doubt give him, brothers and sisters. 

   For this Sunday then, we will leave the young couple of faith and love, saying more on Christmas Eve about what those two precious gifts, faith and love were able to give our world.   Amen? Amen!