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Friends,
in today’s Gospel we see Joseph receiving the Lord’s direction for his
care of Mary and Jesus. Joseph listens to God’s word in a dream. Dreams
play a very interesting role in the Bible. In the Old Testament Joseph
is an interpreter of dreams and successfully reads the dream of Pharaoh;
the wise men in the New Testament are redirected to their homeland
because an angel appeared to them in a dream. In one of the psalms, we
find this line: “even at night, he directs my heart.”
What
does it mean that Joseph is willing to listen to the wisdom of a dream?
It means that he is willing to go beyond the strictures of the rational
mind. Not repudiating them, but going beyond them, thinking in new
ways, entertaining unexpected possibilities, plumbing deeper and richer
dimensions of his soul. When Joseph and Mary bring the infant Jesus into
the temple, therefore, we are meant to appreciate that the prophecy of
Ezekiel is being fulfilled. The glory of Yahweh is returning to his
favorite dwelling. And this is precisely what Simeon sees.
Are
we stymied sometimes because we cannot think out of the box? We can’t
expect the impossible? We can’t dream? And is our openness to God’s
direction not dependent upon just this capacity? That God becomes one of
us in order to save us from our sins. Who would ever even consider this
possibility? What an absurdity! Only dreamers.
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