18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."
Joseph was a just man, a righteous man, a good, good man. If somebody in the community needed something done there he was. He was the man to call on -- good with his hands and knowledgeable about all manner of things from woodworking to plumbing to agriculture. He was always willing to help -- quietly, and never asked for more than his cost in materials if that. He was salt of the earth, and as kind and generous and good-hearted of a man as you could find.
So when Mary turned up pregnant Joseph was going to do what we'd expect him to do. While he could run her name from the mud and even demand that she be stoned according to the letter of the Law prohibiting adultery; instead he decided to do what a guy like Joseph would do: dismiss her quietly, without saying a thing. He'd be heartbroken, but he'd also be quiet. It was the right thing to do he thought. And in Ratzinger's words, in deciding to do so Joseph showed that he "lived the Law as Gospel."
That is beautiful. And we love Joseph for it. But in the end, it also wasn't enough. An angel of the LORD came to him in a dream and told him to do more than simply dismiss her quietly. "Embrace her." "Accept her." "Take her as your wife," the angel said. "The child is of the Holy Spirit."
There are many people like Joseph -- kind and generous and righteous people. Churches are full of them. We live the Law and seek to follow its dictates as closely as we can. And when someone or something seems to go against the Law we seek to be at once kind and firm about where we stand. We try to live the Law; but we try to live it as if it were Gospel.
But at some point in our lives -- and this is the moment of radical spiritual transformation -- an act of the Holy Spirit comes along which requires us to go beyond the Law into the stunningly-new summons of Gospel. This is what Kierkegaard called the "leap to faith". This is the leap that includes Gentiles, gives voice to women in sanctuaries, and welcomes takes expectant mothers to be a bride.
"I have not come to do away with the Law," Jesus said, "but to complete it." By that he meant that while the Law was good, in the end it too fell short. The Law -- even if it is lived as Gospel -- always falls short.
But the leap beyond the law requires a letting go -- of certainty, of where we currently are, and of the way we thought things were to be. The leap demands great courage, and none of us I am sure would ever make it if it were not for the same angel who came to Joseph also coming to us and saying the same thing it said to him, "Be not afraid."
"Deep Wisdom and Courageous Faith"
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