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Today's Gospel
The Faith Question
4 min
Gospel
Mt 1:18-24
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 of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and his name shall be called Emman′u-el” (which means, God with us).
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife.
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
It’s time to take back your life.
It’s time to slow down to the speed of joy.
All revolutions have a moment when they begin. This is your moment.
Transcript
The Faith Question
Is there a word or phrase or an idea that jumps out at you today? Obviously, it's a reading that we're very familiar with. It's a reading maybe you've been hearing a couple times a year since you were a child. And for these readings, the way we approach them has extra value because otherwise, we hear it as being familiar. We hear it as, "Oh, I've heard this." And when we hear it as, "Oh, I've heard this," we actually stop listening. And by listening for a word or a phrase or an idea that God uses to get our attention, then the reading opens up as something new, reading opens up in a new way.
For me, it's this idea that Angel appears to Joseph in a dream. And he does what the angel told him to do. And so what sort of faith did Joseph have? What was that faith? Because if I had a dream, I'm not sure I'm going to wake up and think, "Okay, yeah, I'm going to do that now." I've probably got a thousand questions. And so it leads me to ask, what is the approach that we have to our daily life? And as I listen to people speak in all sorts of different arenas of daily life, I think there are two ways to approach everything.
One perspective is to ask the question, "Is God at work here?" And it's a question of, could be a question of curiosity, could be a question of doubt. It could be a question of many things. The other way to approach it is how is God at work here? And this question is firmly a question of faith. It's a question that says, "I know God's at work here somehow, somewhere. How is God at work in this person? How is God at work in this situation? How is God at work in me, through me, in different arenas of my life? How is God at work at this time in my life? How is God at work at this time in my life? And how is that different to how he was at work at other times in my life?" And so it's this belief that God is at work, and then we become curious about how is he at work? Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
