A dream changed Joseph’s life and ours. A mere dream, like what you and I have at night.
How trustworthy could this be?
And yet the safety of Mary and the child Jesus depended on it. In his dream (Gospel), an angel told him that Mary’s pregnancy was from the Holy Spirit of God. Mary had accepted readily but without really understanding. This angel of the Lord told him in the dream that he should not be afraid of the pregnancy, even though he was not yet married to this woman.
Not be afraid? Already everyone could see that Joseph’s fiancé was “in a family way.” USA culture might applaud this fact, as it does when movie stars have children with whomever they please whenever they please. In Biblical culture marriage was a sacred act [and not too long ago in our own], a participation in God’s own fidelity. It seemed that Mary had broken with that fidelity, at least as far as the townspeople could see. The Blessed Mother a public sinner! No wonder Joseph was making arrangements for a “quiet divorce.”
So why in the world would he trust a dream? A friend of mine said he dreamed one night about a kangaroo sitting on his roof in a rocking chair, smoking a pipe! Should my friend keep a rocking chair on the roof from now on, just in case? No. We take dreams for what they probably are, a mechanism of our psyche that somehow helps us but does not give us literal truth. We do not trust dreams for life-changing messages.
Why did Joseph?
I think the answer has to do with something St. Ignatius of Loyola calls "discernment." In general, discernment is an examination of one's internal reactions to God (“movements”) in prayer.
There are many different kinds of interior movements to discern, but Ignatius notes a more rare one first. There can be a time when grace is so quietly strong that the person praying has an inner assurance that the experience did not come from imagination but from God. In this case, no doubts are possible.
You and I have to be careful not to get carried away by this notion. Probably many of us could convince ourselves that God or an angel spoke to us this morning. We need to discern which experiences are from God and which are not. Are they quiet? Do they lead toward God or away? What is the long-term result? A spiritual director could help us sort through such questions.
Joseph's dream must have been a movement of this kind. It contained a quiet certainty of the presence of God. No doubts followed it, in a situation when doubts would surely seem called for. It was like the face of a mother to an infant. Like the voice of a close friend.
Another way to put it is that Joseph already had much trust in God's love. This trust was in no way broken into, shattered or pulled to pieces by the dream. Instead the message fit right into the design of Joseph's life with God. And so he followed it.
What is your internal sense of the Christmas story? Is the birth of God an impossible tale reserved for children? Or do you find the roots of trust within yourself as Joseph did?
Pray for the open faith Joseph and Mary had.
