Saying Yes

Today is the feast day of St. Joseph. I imagine poor St. Joseph is somewhat forgotten, his feast day coming so soon after that of St. Patrick’s that many are still nursing their hangover.

I, for my part, have always had kind of a special devotion for St. Joseph. Here he was, going along with his life, building up his carpentry business, betrothed to this nice young Jewish girl, and he gets the bombshell of a lifetime. Mary is pregnant. He knows HE'S not the father. “The Holy Spirit,” Mary tells him. “Right,” he replies, and begins making plans for a quiet divorce.

Then, here comes the Angel Gabriel, to tell Joseph Mary really is telling the truth, and he is going to be the foster father of the long-awaited Messiah. Instead of running like the dickens the other way, Joseph, like Mary, says, “Yes.” He says it without hesitation. He says it without whining about what the neighbors will say. He says it knowing full well that it’s hard enough to bring up any child, but try rearing the Son of God.

I’ve always had a special fascination with the human side of Jesus. One of my favorite scenes in the movie the Passion of Christ was the early scene with an adult Jesus interacting playfully with his mother. While I know that Jesus is God, I also love thinking about Him as a child, learning to shape wood into furniture, running with His friends, having a stomach ache and crawling into His mother’s lap. St. Joseph was an integral part of bringing up this child that he knew he and Mary would someday have to sacrifice.

I love God and I hope that I say yes to Him every day. Still, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the strength of character to take on something like Joseph and Mary did with such grace.

By the way, six years ago today, Denver was blasted with several feet of snow in a few hours. We could scarcely get dug out of our homes. But our oldest son came and picked us up in the Land Rover to take us to the hospital to witness the birth of our dear little Miss A – the blizzard baby. Happy birthday.

Also, as we ran to the delivery room after the nurse told us she had just popped out, I saw on the television screens that the United States had just dropped the first bombs on Iraq. God bless all of the soldiers fighting and taking care of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan.