Fr. Michael Williams

Jesus, ‘the Son of God’, is relevant to all cultures and to all times. Last week’s Liverpool Nativity, by the BBC, attempted to show the story of Christ’s birth in a contemporary Scouse setting. Showing Christ’s relevance to different times and cultures is nothing new. Italian art masters, such as Caravaggio, painted biblical scenes, with Jesus and His Apostles, dressed in sixteenth century Italian dress. It helped the people of Caravaggio’s day to relate to the Biblical stories. The Medieval Mystery Plays did much the same thing. The Liverpool Nativity helped some of our contemporaries to enter into the Christmas story. What I particularly liked about the Liverpool Nativity was it’s portrayal of Joseph and Mary. We can be tempted to think of them both as plaster cast statues, with little or no emotion, just stoically doing God’s will. The fact of the matter is they were human beings, albeit very holy ones. The BBC Nativity attempted to show their human side amidst Divine activity. Joseph was shown as a man in turmoil as he notices his bride to be showing the signs of pregnancy. What should he do? And how is Mary to explain the miracle of her conception? The BBC production tries to show the human struggle of Joseph, quite successfully I think. Although you can decide for yourself if you’ve not seen it, as it will be shown tonight at 10:45pm.

The Sacred Scriptures reveal no spoken words of St Joseph. Maybe this reveals something about St Joseph: namely that he was a listener, rather than a talker. The Apostle James would write in his letter, ‘Remember this…everyone should be quick to listen, but slow to speak’. We often get it the other way round by being, ‘quick to speak and slow to listen’. Well I know I do at times. St Joseph teaches us that our prayer should be much more about listening to God, rather than just talking at Him. Joseph’s prayerful listening meant that, ‘at the appointed time’, God revealed to Joseph that ‘Mary has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit’. In His own time, God reveals to Joseph the truth of Mary’s conception. Yet Joseph had to wait, to struggle, to listen, before God provided an answer. In our prayer we must also wait, struggle, and listen, until ‘the appointed time’, when God reveals His plans.

The prophecy of Isaiah to Ahaz that, ‘the maiden with child and will soon give birth to a Son, whom she will call Emmanuel, a name which means God-is-with-us’, was made seven or eight centuries before it actually happened. So when God says ‘soon’, He interprets that word differently to us. God is concerned with ‘saving His people from their sins’, which is a project stretching into eternity. In our society, so often driven by the needs of instant gratification, we can lose sight of the necessity of waiting, of struggling, of listening. Tonight Joseph, the simple carpenter, provides us with an example to follow. He struggled, he waited, he listened and then he did what ‘the Lord had told him to do’.

I remember helping out at a prayer group in a prison many years ago. One evening we were talking about how God tries to speak to us. One of the inmates told the story of how he clearly remembers something within him, telling him not take the heroin that was being offered to him one evening. He decided not to heed that ‘inner-voice’; maybe it was an angel sent by God warning him. The young man ended up addicted to drugs, and serving a prison sentence, because of the drug habit. He decided not to listen to the Lord’s voice and ended up in a nightmare. Thankfully in prison he began to heed the Lord’s voice and was trying to get back on the right track.

At the end of today’s gospel we are told, ‘When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord told him to do’. Joseph had listened attentively to the Lord, and after a period of waiting, of struggle, of silence, the answer came to him.

In our lives let us do what the Lord tells us to do. To be able to hear the Lord we will need to listen attentively to Him, spending time away from the noise and hustle of our society. And after a period of waiting, of struggle, of silence, the answer will come to us. The answer the Lord gives will be our way to true joy and lasting happiness.