a lawless blog

This is how the birth of Jesus came about. In Matthew's account the role played by Joseph is given prominence. I wonder what would happen if we stood in Joseph's shoes as he recalls that life-changing event.

Joseph was a right-thinking man, one of the few. Last week we celebrated the passing of another, Nelson Mandela. These are people who can think beyond the patterns of their culture and the current conventions. They respond to a problematic situation not out of defiance of the law or tradition but with true insight into the nature of things and of people. Being "just" or "righteous" means first that they see what is right, they have clear vision, their "eye is single", and then they do what conscience tells them is the right thing to do.

Joseph knew Mary; he knew her personally. He also knew that it is wrong to apply a legal penalty when the facts are not fully known. As he had no idea how she came to be pregnant he also knew he had no right to turn her in. His first obligation was to avoid doing harm, so he decided they would quietly separate.  The decision made, he still worried day and night. It was in one long restless sleep that awareness came: there is something special here, he thought. Clearly the Spirit of God is at work here. So convincing was this perception, it might have been an angel telling him. He must not be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Her child will be a saviour..., and she needs a husband.

Not be afraid? Easier said than done. If only the angel had come in the daytime, when there were people around, so he could know it was real. How can you be sure of those insights that arise from the deep, from the sub-conscious perhaps, in which the truth is plain to see but it directs you along a steep and unfamiliar road. Can you ever know a dream is true? Is he deceiving himself with his upright wishful thinking, or is he just trying to avoid hurting the one he admires and loves. To be right-thinking does not eliminate doubt and confusion and fear.

Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, to be a husband to her. It is in the nature of things that a woman, to bring a child safely to birth, needs a husband to care for her, provide for her, support her and protect her. (Let us not quibble here about experiences of single motherhood or the current use of "partner" instead of husband or wife. My intention is to focus on the necessary role expressed in the term husband meaning carer, provider, supporter and protector. This I think is the content of the archetype "husband", defined in relationship to its correlative "wife" and "mother".) I wonder is the experience almost universal for young husbands when the first baby is expected - the way your attention is concentrated, you become so aware of your role in caring and protecting. In extreme situations, being ready to do anything that has to be done for the safety of your woman and her child - ready to sacrifice everything. Joseph ended up leaving everything behind in their hurried escape and flight all the way to Egypt as refugees . That's what being a husband means.

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So he took her into his home. Imagine for a moment Mary's anxiety up to this point: she too is wondering about the angel. It's not something you can tell the women down at the well. She couldn't even tell Joseph; the moment she told him would be the end of her. He would have to denounce her to the authorities. That's what men do. There is no scope for compassion in the law, and the law-men don't deal in doubts - or dreams. To tell of angels would only make them see you as a witch and judgement would be even more severe. She was acutely aware of the danger she was in. She knew what could happen to her. People talked in whispers about a stoning they had seen, or one they'd heard of.

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I've got an idea that the way Joseph handled his situation has something to say to us. Like, "this is how the birth of Jesus comes about in every time and place". First, there's a small beginning - someone has an idea and tries to do something good. But it's a feeble effort at first. It needs help and protection and encouragement. It needs husbanding.

I'm sure there are plenty of examples, but the ones that come to mind for me are either trite or they're not something I'm personally in touch with.  So I'm wondering whether readers might have experience of this sort of thing, how they've seen something good grow out of a - perhaps even out of a false start. Like Joseph and Mary's intended marriage that got mucked up before it got under way. 

But that's not the point. The example I'm looking for would be where someone has started to help or to teach or to protest, and it might have been a flame that would have only flickered briefly and gone out but for the husbanding of others. I suppose it means that sometimes we conceive of some good thing, even bring it to birth in some tentative way, and then it gets a hold and grows strong because of the husbanding of others. All this happens in an order of reality distinct from physical gender. Men can be mothers in this sense, and women can be husbands.

I think this may be what we mean by saying Joseph the husband is an archetype, a symbol of the role we all are called upon to play in the coming of the saviour.

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Getting back to the story: it's amazing how the gospel narrates this dreadful human situation in so few words. Everything is there, but finely etched. The young woman holding her breath, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. The young man, confused, troubled, distressed, gradually finding himself convinced of the rightness of a course of action that will be outside the law, but will put the immediate human values before all else. I can't help noting that they don't tell us that he prayed about it, but he did stay with his problem. Didn't go off to the cricket for five days to get his mind off it.

And he took her into his home. It's nice to think, in this version, that Jesus is born, not in some foreign stable, but in Joe's place. Joseph being the archetype, the prototype for everyman. It would mean that the Jesus can come to birth in our place too if we're ready for the husbanding.


POSTSCRIPT: The original inspiration for this reflection came a couple of weeks ago from the short introduction to her Advent Retreat offered to Catholica by Jungian Analyst Joy Ryan-Bloore  (Link). It is a great pleasure to direct readers to her MEDITATION: Annunciation to Joseph (Link), based on the readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent, that was posted on Catholica a few hours after I had finished the present reflection. I am immensely grateful to Joy Ryan-Bloore that she has generously shared her Advent reflections which open doors to pathways so far unexplored by the christian community at large. Based on the experience of Joseph she challenges us to live on the edge of uncertainty as the Holy Spirit works wonders in our world.