Do Not Be Afraid

 

In case anyone was in any doubt about what season this is, in less than two hours winter will officially begin. Meanwhile, in case anyone was wondering what makes this time of year so very special, the Church's official liturgy prays the following words at Morning Prayer today: There is no need to be afraid. In five days our Lord will come to us.

The imperative, do not be afraid, is one we hear a lot at this time of year. We will hear it most dramatically from the angel addressing the shepherds on Christmas night. We just heard it, somewhat more subtly, from the angel speaking in Joseph ‘s dream in today’s Gospel.

Of course, there is a lot about our present place and time to cause worry anxiety, and, indeed, fear. For many people today in our troubled and conflicted society, struggling to buy groceries or pay a medical bill or, even worse, worried about being targeted for violent harassment and the dangers of deportation, fear is omnipresent. In fact, fear has dominated much of our human history. Hence, perhaps the urgency with which the Christmas story seeks to free us from fear and keeps urging us: do not be afraid.

We know very little about Saint Joseph. Our parish’s founding pastor, Isaac Hecker, famously held up Saint Joseph as a model of someone who lived an ordinary life in the world, working at his trade, taking part in the ordinary activities of his community, raising a family. If he stood out at all in his society, it would have been because he was, what the Gospel calls, a righteous man – presumably a good thing to be in any age.

Righteous, but silent! Joseph never speaks in any gospel story. Instead, in silence, he dreams. In the 17th century, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously observed: To say God has spoken to someone in a dream is no more than to say someone dreamed that God spoke to him [Leviathan, 32]. Fortunately for us Joseph did not share such cynical modern sentiments and was open to God’s surprising intervention in his life.

The Gospel suggests that Joseph’s dream came just in time. We can only guess what Joseph’s original hopes and plans may have been for himself and his family – or, for that matter, what his fiancé Mary’s original hopes and expectations might have been – until, suddenly and unexpectedly, Mary was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

The gospel’s terse account invites us to imagine what a problem Mary’s pregnancy produced, what a jolt that must have been for Joseph, how confused and perplexed he must have been by such unexpected news! Confused and perplexed, groping in the dark, wondering what had happened to all his hopes and plans, trying to decide what to do, Joseph here stands for everyone who has ever been confused and perplexed by life, living from day to day wondering what will happen next, trying to do the best one can in situations that seem so much bigger than we can ever understand.

This was neither the first - nor would it be the last – time in human history that an unexpected pregnancy seemed more like a problem than a blessing. Ordinary life is full of blessings, but it also presents more than its share of frightening upsets and unexpected challenges. To recognize blessing where the world sees something frightening is in itself a great gift and blessing.

If Mary’s pregnancy and its complications came on Joseph unexpectedly, Joseph’s dream must have been just as unexpected – and, perhaps at least initially, quite as confusing. Waking up and marrying Mary anyway, just because he’d had a dream, didn’t seem to reflect common sense or any conventional expectations. 

In repairing his relationship with Mary, however, Joseph’s dream set the stage for the salvation of the world and the repairing of all its ruptured and ruined relationships.

There is a reason, after all, why we don’t celebrate Christmas in June, when the sun is high and the days are long and bright. We celebrate Christmas in December when the days are dark and short.  We celebrate it, as Joseph did, in a confusing and perplexing, often threatening and frightening world, where the bright light of the God who is with us seems itself at times little more than a dream. The marriage of Mary and Joseph was a marriage built on a dream – a dream which brought to birth Jesus, who is God’s dream for the salvation of the world, the divine dream that enlightens even the densest darkness.

And so, this Christmas, let us join Joseph in his dream - so that we too may be prepared to go forward, without fear, where the angel of the Lord leads us.

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Saint Paul the Apostle Church, NY, December 21, 2025.