Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 18, 2023
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.
Reflection
Several years ago, I watched a movie about the life of Jesus that included the nativity. One of the scenes that stood out depicted Mary’s return from visiting her cousin Elizabeth and telling Joseph that she was pregnant. In this re-enactment, Joseph was understandably confused and upset but also deeply hurt, as it was apparent that he truly loved Mary.
While we know very little about Joseph, we know that his initial decision to divorce Mary quietly was considered righteous and against the norm. We also know that an angel later visited him (this would happen multiple times throughout his time as a father). What is striking about Joseph is that he not only heard the angel but also believed and obeyed.
This belief and obedience weren’t by chance but by faith—faith in God, Mary, and God’s incarnate Son. Amid a full range of emotions, Joseph chose to believe and follow a path of faith, love, and kindness.
Do we ever get so caught up in our emotions that we cannot put our faith in God’s path of love and kindness? Maybe if we allowed ourselves to be silent like Joseph, we would be more open to hearing God, believing, and obeying.
Prayer
Loving Father, you entrusted to Saint Joseph your only Son and his mother, our mother, Mary. Joseph protected them from harm and taught Jesus how to work for a living so that he could provide for his mother. Grant that we, too, may know his protection and be strengthened by his courage and perseverance so that we might fully embrace the daily tasks in front of us. We ask this through your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day

Sts. Paul Mi and Peter Truat were among the hundreds of thousands of martyrs who were persecuted for their faith in Vietnam.
Peter was a catechist, and Paul was a convert who joined a missionary group to help spread the faith in Vietnam—they were both killed by strangulation. The painting shown here depicts these two saints being martyred with St. Peter Duong (whose feast day is December 10).
Another Vietnamese martyr honored tomorrow—St. Augustine Moi—was a manual laborer who was arrested during a persecution and commanded to trample a crucifix. He refused and was killed.
Between 150,000 and 300,000 Christians were killed for their faith in Vietnam in several waves of persecutions. Some were missionaries who were killed in the 17th century, others were killed in the last 200 years because of political movements that were at odds with the faith. These martyrs are all honored together on Nov. 24, and a number of them have their own feast days throughout the calendar.
Sts. Paul Mi and Peter Truat, you were killed for your faithfulness with thousands of other Vietnamese people, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image for today is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Last accessed November 21, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.