 A few announcements before the homily First the charitable portion of our tithe this weekend will go to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in support of the Christians in the Middle East As the holy days have come upon us and our hearts and minds have turned to Bethlehem the place of our Lord's birth It's appropriate that we support the Christians that are still in conflict in that region. So we're happy to support this effort I want to thank everyone who made donations toward our parish Christmas flowers as you can see they're very beautiful I thank you for your generosity This coming week. We have a unique schedule to parish This was sent to you in our electronic newsletter on Wednesday It's also available on our website But just to accentuate some things so that no one comes and it's not offered or thinks it's gonna be offered It's not there and various other things So tomorrow the parish office is closed the church off church building is closed. We don't have public mass That's on Monday Tuesday is a regular schedule and then Wednesday and Thursday were closed But Thursday night Wednesday and Thursday, we don't have daily mass at noon Thursday night we start the feast day of Mary mother of God So masses are at 4 p.m. 5 30 on Thursday night and then Friday morning at 9 and 11 So it's our weekend schedule just Thursday and Friday reason why is it's a holy day of obligation And we're under a dispensation. So if you need it, it's applicable But I just want to make sure that you are being sincere in what you need So for example, if you're here today, you should probably be at the holy day If you're able to go grocery shopping and do various other things you should come being more at worship I know sometimes you have to turn people away, but I've stressed Saturday night and the vigils So Thursday night for the holy day. We have plenty of room So if someone chooses I'm gonna go but you come to one of these morning masses and you come at the last minute You know, you're not gonna get in right? So sometimes we have to say I'd have a commitment. I'm gonna go and then second I'm gonna be strategic, right? I'm able to come on Saturday night or maybe come on Thursday night. You do that Don't ride this dispensation our obligation to worship God is a blessing. It's an empowerment given to us by baptism So come to worship when you're able Incidentally, the reason my mother church calls us on the first day of the new year to honor our lady is That we are to give the past year to God and aren't we all ready to say goodbye to 2020, right? And then to give the patronage of the new year to our lady So I hope you can come as you're able for this holy day as a reminder Confessions will be heard after all of the holy day masses. So it's Thursday evening and Friday morning And I'm the father of the son of the Holy Spirit So team graces the church celebrates the Christmas season We hear all the familiar stories from the Bible We have the biblical accounts of the exchange between Gabriel and Mary The move to Bethlehem for the senses and the birth of Jesus and his placement in a manger a feeding trough in Bethlehem All these stories stand out in our hearts and minds as Christian believers But there's another part of the story It is proclaimed by the church in this season, but it doesn't get the same press time as all the other stories The overlooked part of the great Christmas story is the person of Joseph This is holy family Sunday, and so it's appropriate for us to focus on all the members of the holy family Jesus Mary and yes, Joseph now admittedly compared to Jesus God made man and Mary who was preserved from all sin from the moment of her conception Joseph is certainly the odd man out. I Sometimes feel bad for Joseph if anything went wrong in the holy family. They knew it was Joseph's fault, right? He literally lived with perfect people Some of us might live with people who think they're perfect, right? But they really were perfect and poor Joseph was the odd man out and yet Here's an important part of this story and his presence and his actions to give us a different angle different perspective Of what happened in all the events surrounding that first Christmas day Now it's an early our theological tradition makes great room for Joseph You might recall from your old cataclysms that the highest praise of God Worship is given to God alone. That's called Latria in theology. Latria is reserved to God alone But then Mary receives hyperdullia. That's like a supersized honor and reverence. That's only given to our lady And in all the other saints they get they get dulya, which is like common respect and honoring But our tradition tells us that Joseph Joseph gets proto dulya Because he's the proto the first He receives proto duly because he among all the holy ones. He stands at the fourth forefront He is the most eminent among all the holy ones after our lady So what do we know about Joseph and why does he get this proto dulya? Well, we are told the scriptures that Joseph was a just man Now such a designation would have been rare in his day Since the entire task of initial light was to live his or her entire life for in righteousness Name me to live their entire lives in conformity to the teachings and to the law of God To be just therefore was the goal of life's work It would have been odd to call someone just While they were still living and yet the scriptures described Joseph as a just man Now while we live in a world of exaggerations hyperboleys and public relations statements They many times make declarations of virtue or goodness or even competency without any merits and empty The writers of the New Testament the writer of the gospel books did not indulge in such things When Joseph is declared a just man. It was a statement of fact. It was reality Joseph was a just man There were no overstatements or amplifications It was a truthful statement of a man who loved God Who sought to follow him and all that he did and all that he was Joseph was by all accounts a just man He sought to honor God in everything he did and we see that such an adherence to God Transformed him it allowed him to be the recipient of divine wisdom And to have great prudence. Let's just look at one example when Mary his betrothed became pregnant He could have made a big deal out of it He could have played the victim He could have embarrassed our lady and her family By the law of moses. He was given to write even to public stoning If he had gone to the elders of the region and complained They would have supported him. He would have dragged our lady out by the hair And watched the elders stone her That was his right under the law of moses But joseph Was willing to let it go He pursued a quiet divorce Such was such a decision shows us not only his immense compassion But also his immense humility In the normal order of events He was giving the woman the freedom to pursue a relationship with the biological father In the normal state of affairs of a betrothed woman would become pregnant by another man For the man to say her betrothed I release you of this promise He was giving her the freedom to pursue this other relationship Joseph was willing to do that When god's angel however announced to him that the child was by the power of the holy spirit Joseph didn't question it He accepted it And he accepted all that the angel said and all the god had communicated to him Because he was a just man This action demonstrated not only joseph's again his obedience but also again his immense humility Because when joseph agreed to bring mary into his home He was allowing the perception That he was the biological father and that he and mary had broken the usual chastity That was a part of the betrothment period But joseph accepted it Because it was asked by god In addition joseph didn't squabble with the angel when the angel tells him you are to name the child jesus Now we may not know the cultural context. We may not understand what the angel is saying It was a big ask But joseph was willing to do it because such an act usually performed on the eighth day of a boy's life during his circumcision Was the public declaration By a man that the child was his own that the child belonged to his family Then this naming was essential in israeli culture Since inclusion into the chosen people was by blood If you were to try to convert into judaism at the time of our lord, you would have been sent away Incidentally even today the jewish people do not readily welcome converts Go to a synagogue and tell the rabbi you'd like to become jewish and he'll ask you to leave Judaism is by blood. You don't convert into judaism The only exception is when a woman marries a jewish man They allow the woman to convert because they it's unimaginable That a jewish boy would have a gentile mother. It's extremely rare Inclusion into the chosen people was and is by blood While the maternal line was needed for blood authenticity and anyone could see and observe who the mother was the declaration of the father His acceptance and his naming of the child was necessary Since it was the man's statement that the child was his own Such an act by the father gave the boy formal admittance Into the israel of god God asked joseph to name jesus To claim him as his own Unlike roman culture and law where adoption was very common It was not a common practice among the israelites If a child somehow became parentless The extended family simply stepped up and took care of things If a boy was named on the eighth day by a man, that was his son. No questions asked While theologically we sometimes distinguish joseph With the title foster father of our lord or other such designations In order to emphasize our lord's virgin birth and our lord's divine identity Such clarifications did not exist among the israelites of joseph's day They wouldn't have known what you were talking about Foster father adopted father. It doesn't make any sense Look at our scriptures today in the gospel. We are told that the boy's mother and father Took him to jewslam for his presentation The boy called jesus by his father Now became like joseph A son of juda and a member of the house of david He was a full israelite by the naming and the acceptance by joseph And joseph who did all that was asked of him Named jesus with humility and gratitude and a towering boldness The pride of that jewish heart When god asked him to name the divine the messiah To name the christ child joseph did what was asked not simply with obedience, but with boldness Look at how good joseph was Today we see him taking his family to worship How many fathers have failed in that duty? How many christians have failed in that duty? joseph was attended he obeyed whatever it was asked he did Dear friends in our discipleship. Do we obey god? Do we obey the commands of the lord even when they're upward peculiar or uncomfortable? Are we douse out to the work of the holy spirit and his promptings within our heart? To the men among us who have been called by god To be fathers Are you taking your vocation seriously? Do you understand the sacrificial calling to which you have been summoned by god? Are you as obedient and unshakable as joseph in the leadership of your family? joseph did whatever was asked in these ways We can say that he was god's go-to man god could trust joseph god asked And joseph made it happen This is why he is also the patron saint of the universal church The entire body of believers on the earth looked to joseph as our patron This is also why this year the holy father has named a special year of saint joseph Asking every parish in the universal church To particularly honor joseph the man of god The father of the holy family joseph showed himself to be without question and at all times A truly just man He did whatever was asked He showed up He did what was commanded He gave his heart to marry into the christ child He was not divine Know as he preserved from sin as our lady was But he gave Always and without reserve His five lobes and his two fish He gave all that he had To the fathers among us Are you as generous with your families? As joseph was to his To all of us as christians Are we seeking to do whatever god asks of us? And to give god Without reserve In imitation of saint joseph Our own five lobes and two fish