I really didn’t feel like going to church this morning. I tried to negotiate with God and decided to flip a coin. For tails, I’d go back to bed; for heads, I’d watch the telly; I’d go to church if the coin landed on its edge. I tossed the coin up in the air and it landed into a small gap between two floorboards… So, here I am!
Was it fate, or my bad luck, or God’s intervention? One person might recall the mathematical theory of probability, someone else could interpret the happening as a small-scale freak incident. Given the context of the flipping the coin, I’d say it was providential. The same incident can be interpreted in many ways.
Occasionally I hear people saying that it would be so much easier to believe if they could hear God speaking to them as described in the biblical stories or in the lives of the saints; clearly, instructively, leaving no doubt as to what to do. Today’s first and gospel readings are good examples of such clarity and directness. King Ahaz heard the prophecy regardless of his reluctance to listen, while Joseph got an explanation of Mary’s pregnancy, followed by clear instructions on what to do next. Or did they?
The main challenge with many biblical stories or lives of the saints is that they are told with the benefit of hindsight. It’s much easier to see the chain of events, their interconnections and causalities. It’s easier to interpret them in a certain way and see the narrative. A second challenge is that those who told the story had to use descriptive language to describe indescribable experiences. It’s like trying to describe colours to people who’ve been blind all their lives. When we read biblical stories or the lives of the saints in such a literal way, we can either get frustrated or disappointed that nothing similar happens to us despite our best efforts.
I think we should have a closer look at today’s gospel passage. Temporarily let’s put aside what we know with the benefit of hindsight and try to see the situation as it happened. So, we have a couple who were betrothed but not married yet. Mary turned out to be pregnant, which in society with very strict rules was fatally dangerous. Joseph was caught between a rock and a hard place. It seemed that every possible solution was fraught with danger; in other words, there wasn’t a good solution, only bad or worse. When we face difficult situations or decisions, what do we do? Our mind usually goes into overdrive, thinking about the situation all the time. We can’t concentrate on other things, we can’t sleep. Our mind tries to find possible effective solutions. What does our mind use to work things out? A certain mindset built over the years with acquired knowledge, past experiences, cultural influences and so on. Religion can be an important part of such a mindset. Certainly, it was a very strong factor in Joseph’s life. As a practising devoted Jew, he had been immersed in Judaism and the Scripture. So, when his mind went into overdrive, his religion, his beliefs played a massive part in his struggle. That was the way God spoke to Joseph.
St Thomas Aquinas, the Doctor of the Church and one of the greatest Christian theologians, said that ‘the Divine Grace […] presupposes and perfects human nature.’ God meets man within and through his capabilities to lead him upwards. In a couple of days, we will celebrate that very truth of our faith: the Son of God who became man to lead us out of our misery. Jesus assumed a human nature to perfect it, to restore it to its original holiness. God speaks to you and to me in a very gentle manner. He doesn’t want to force you to do anything against your will or out of fear; love doesn’t work that way. God wants to lead us with bands of love (Hosea 11:4), not in the shackles of fear. God speaks to you and me all the time. What we really need to do is to learn how to hear God. Through prayer, through reading the Bible, through participation in the sacraments, through the community, through various ways of growing in faith and maturing it you learn how to ‘hear’ God. I mean it metaphorically, not literally.
God speaks to you and me within and through our everyday situations. The story about flipping the coin I told you earlier on I’d made up. Well, sort of. It happened in my life about 30 years ago when I was uncertain whether God wanted me to be a priest. So, I made a one-sided deal with God: if that was His will, let the coach I had always travelled between home and my college (a 100-mile journey) break down near the seminary it was driving by. It had never happened before, it never happened after. It happened only once; on the very day I made the deal when setting off. But the coach didn’t break by the gate of the seminary (i.e. in the middle of nowhere) but in a nearby town, some 8 miles away. So, was it a sign from God or not? One person might recall the mathematical theory of probability, someone else could interpret the happening as a small-scale freak incident. You can make an educated guess how I saw the coach’s breakdown.
In today’s gospel St Matthew described the indescribable experience of Joseph as a dreamed dialogue with an angel. What I find the most striking is that Joseph got up in the morning with his mind made up: ‘he took his wife to his home.’ In other words, he chose the only option that hadn’t been on the list when he went to bed. That’s what happens when we hear and listen to God.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay