Today the Church remembers St. Joseph, husband of Mary. I was struck by a line from the epistle assigned for today from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans: “He believed, hoping against hope.” What enabled St. Joseph to trust a dream and take Mary as his wife? His ability to keep hope alive despite evidence to the contrary. That should be our prayer today. We have lots of dreams — dreams that our families will stay united in love, dreams for a more just and peaceful society, dreams that our nation will maintain its ideals in the midst of an insane political season, dreams that our Church will be about love and mercy. No matter how things seem to be going, let’s imitate St. Joseph and pray “hoping against hope.”
