Some people trust other people very easily, for others it can take some time to learn to trust. This can be the case especially after a person is hurt or taken advantage of by another person. I’m sure that many of you have gotten hurt by those you have trusted in the past. Maybe it was mistake or an accident and you're afraid of a similar accident happening again. Perhaps you have reason to believe that the person had every intention to deceive or hurt you in some way. Sometimes after a major wound like that, a person becomes jaded or cynical of anyone else who claims to be trustworthy. I'm not saying that this happens to everyone, but for those who have experienced something like this it can be hard to trust another person again.
It can also be hard for a person to trust in God after being hurt or betrayed by another human being. Catholic psychologists have noticed that a person's relationship with their father can influence their spiritual relationship with God the Father. So if you had an uneasy relationship with your dad, it might be hard for you to have a deep relationship with God the Father. You may find it easier to pray to Jesus Christ the Son or to ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for us, rather than to pray to God the Father directly. Our relationship and acceptance of the Church and how we get along with our fellow Christians can also influence our relationship with God. Now here is the important thing, however. Just because we have a hard time trusting in God, does not give us permission to simply leave our lack of trust where it is and blame all the other untrustworthy people who we have met along the way. No. Our readings today teach us to have complete faith and trust in God.
Our first reading from Isaiah focuses quite a bit on the lack of faith of King Ahaz. Now to be fair to Ahaz, the poor guy has it pretty rough. He is the king of Judah, or the southern part of David’s kingdom. If we look a little ahead of today’s reading, we see that his capital city of Jerusalem is being attacked by two kingdoms from the north, Aram, a kingdom located in modern day Syria, and, ironically, Israel, the northern half of David’s kingdom. These two northern kingdoms formed an alliance and a joint army that filled King Ahaz and his people with much fear and trepidation. In response, God sends the prophet Isaiah to go talk to the king. God tells the king, through the words of the prophet, not to fear these kingdoms. God will protect Jerusalem and will cut those enemies down. He warns the king, “Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm.” When we get to today’s reading, Ahaz is apparently not yet convinced the he can trust in God to take care of everything. Again, God speaks through the prophet and tells the king to ask for a sign. God is basically saying, “Look! I know you’re scared. Choose any sign that you want, it can be as big as you like, and it will be given to you. Then you will know that I really am watching out for you and protecting you.” Ahaz’s response of refusing to tempt the Lord is not really as modest or as humble as it might sound. It isn’t that the king is trying to avoid tempting God or testing Him requests of signs or miracles. This response shows that his mind is already closed. He is not interested in God’s attempts to make him believe.
The prophecy that comes after all this, is no longer just for the benefit of King Ahaz, but is for the benefit of generations to come, including our own. In fact, the sign mentioned in the prophecy will actually not do the king any good, because it doesn’t happen until several generations later. This sign is for all of us. Though there is death, and disease, and wars, and violence and numerous other things in this world that cause us sorrow and distress and mistrust of our fellow human beings; though there is all these hardships around us, God sent His son, Emmanuel, to be among us and to save us. This season of Advent is meant to prepare us for the coming celebration of Christmas when this Virgin will give birth to the one who is God-made-flesh. What a wonderful celebration.
In contrast to the stubborn and distrustful King Ahaz, the Gospel reading gives us the very trusting and faithful example of St. Joseph. It is not by coincidence that we have two people in the Bible with the name Joseph who play big roles in salvation history. The patriarch Joseph (with his coat of many colors) and St. Joseph have a lot in common beside their first name. Both are given messages from God through dreams. The patriarch receives visions that tell of how his brothers will turn to him for help and will bow before him. Later, he interprets dreams for Pharaoh and some of his servants. Their dreams are again messages from God, which lead to Joseph getting a high position in Egypt and able to help his family when they eventually come. St. Joseph receives the message we hear today about Mary and the child she is to give birth to. It leads to his accepting Mary into his home and raising Jesus as his own son. Later on in the story, Joseph will be warned in dream to take Mary and the Child to Egypt to protect them from Herod. The fact that St. Joseph takes the Holy Family to Egypt for protection is meant to reflect how the patriarch Joseph brought his family with him to Egypt to protect them from famine.
The biggest similarity between these two men is the faithfulness. Jewish rabbis have long pointed to the patriarch Joseph of righteousness and faithfulness. They give him the title Tzadik (ZAW – dik) which means righteous one. Though the rabbis don’t acknowledge who St. Joseph is, he is clearly meant to mirror that same righteousness of his namesake.
Both of these tzadikim believed that God was with them. They knew what it was like to have hardships: imagine being sold into slavery by your family or being told your wife will give birth to the savior of the world. They were faithful; they trusted that God would be with them.
As we enter into Christmas is just a few days, remember that Christ truly is Emmanuel: God with us! Do not fear as Ahaz did, but trust and rejoice as St. Joseph did.
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