Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. The last candle on the wreath represents love.
You know Christmas is almost here when we get to the fourth Sunday of Advent. Sometimes it’s the next day but usually it’s a few day away, as it is this week.
I really like today’s Gospel, the Christmas story as seen through the eyes of St. Joseph. My men’s prayer group here, named the Men of St. Joseph, reviewed this reading in our meeting this past Wednesday. I said then that I think Joseph was predisposed to faith. As a man would most of us really believe the story he heard from Mary and from the angel in a dream? It would stretch credulity.
Joseph, on the other hand, heard and believed, and then acted. He did something similar when told to flee to Egypt with his family. Joseph was a man of action but, I think, first he was a man of faith. That predisposition to faith makes me wonder if Joseph was also preserved from the effects of Original Sin. That’s not a tradition of the Church but it’s just me wondering.
For so many of us, including your truly, we tend to want to analyze the data and then make a good decision, but only in time. Joseph was like Boom!
In one of the commentaries I read the other day getting ready for prayer group and our discussion, I read the thought that we might actually doubt that God could act in the way we believe He did. And even if we believe He could act then we might question if He would act to condescend to our level and become one of us in order to offer us a way to be reconciled with Him and thus, have a chance to be saved. That could He, would He stuff is how so many of us are different than St. Joseph.
At the end of our time together each Wednesday my group prays this prayer to St. Joseph. It begins with the words, “St. Joseph, help me to be like you…”I invite all of you, especially men, to pray this prayer. https://www.menofstjoseph.com/prayers?pn=2
Today’s Gospel reading always makes me think of A Social Media Christmas. I’ve probably shared this before but just in case here it is again. It’s worth the four minutes to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghwe4TYY18
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great Christmas full of love, hope, peace, and joy!
Bob
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