CLICK VIEW TO WATCH THE HOMILY. Then click “Watch on YOUTUBE,” scroll down and click “more…” if you want to find a specific part of the Liturgy of the Word to watch. Isaiah 7:10-14, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-24
There are lots of songs about dreams. My favorite is from the Man of La Mancha. “To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go…” More recent songs: “Sweet dreams are made of this,” “California Dreaming,” “Dream a little dream of me,” “Dream On,’ “Dream Weaver,” “You make my dreams come true,” “Daydream believer,” “You’ve got to follow that dream.” If you listen to the lyrics dreams can be something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, having a dream can motivate you, push to be more, do more than you think possible. Think of Jiminy Cricket saying that wishing on a star you dream comes true. On the other hand, living in a dream world can keep you from facing reality, from dealing with what must be dealt with. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz thinks that dreams come true over the rainbow. In the Everly Brothers’ song the dreamer enjoys the dream but laments: “Only trouble is, gee whiz, I’m dreaming my life away.” It’s a good thing that Mary didn’t know the Kenny Rogers song, “Don’t fall in love with a dreamer, ‘Cause he’ll break you every time.” She did fall in love with a dreamer, with Joseph. Joseph, like his Old Testament namesake, believed in his dreams. He took Mary in, protected her, raised her son, loved her. A dreamer was essential for the plan of God to save the world.
There are dreams and there are dreams. Some dreams we dismiss as wishes or fantasies and nothing more. What enabled Joseph to trust his dream, to believe the dream was true? The Bible gives us one explanation and hints at two more. According to St. Matthew Joseph was “a righteous man.” Joseph, as a righteous man, looked on himself as seeking to do what God would want, not looking out for himself or his own reputation. Believing in the dream and going through with marrying his pregnant fiancé was going to cost him. Since he was righteous, he wanted to do the right thing, not the expedient thing. He believed in the dream as a man of integrity and fidelity. The Bible suggests that Joseph also looked on Mary as a good and worthy person. The way the gospel tells the story he trusted in the woman he wanted to marry without demanding any explanation or justification from her. “He took his wife into his home.” Seeing her for who she was enabled him to trust that the dream was real. Another suggestion we gather from the gospel story: Joseph knew what God was like. Instead of simply following the legal and religious tenets of the time, he acted with compassion because that was how God acted. Knowing who he was, accepting his wife without judgement and walking in the compassion of God enabled Joseph to live out the dream.
What about us? Do we still dream? We are a nation founded on a dream of freedom 250 years ago where all were created equal. Even sixty some years later we still thrill to hear Dr. King’s soaring rhetoric about his dream for our country. And yet political observers and sociologists tell us that today’s generation has lost confidence in the American dream. No longer do they imagine that things will get better, that everyone has a chance to live a full and happy life. We have lost hope and tend to hunker down and just worry about ourselves. As we are approaching Christmas, we are invited to heed the example of Joseph and learn to trust the dream of a new kind of life because of Jesus.
God has a dream for us. We learn from Joseph how to trust in God’s dream. First of all, we must know who we are. Each one of us is a child of God, precious in God’s sight. We don’t need to do anything or be anything other than what we are to be of infinite value and worth. Society judges us by how we dress, the home we own, the position we hold, the income we possess, the success we have enjoyed. None of that touches the essential part of us. Because Jesus has come into the world, we have a divine spark that transforms us into beings made for glory. We are called to trust in the dream of God for us — that we are fearfully, wonderfully made just as we are.
Second, any dream to be true recognizes that the people God has put into our lives are a gift. We must resist the human tendency to divide the world into “us” and “them.” We’re all “us.” We’re all part of the glorious creation of God. When we find ourselves excluding, dividing, rejecting, disregarding people because of their looks, their language, their background, their race, their homeland, their opinions we have moved away from the dream that God has for us of being a community of love and acceptance with Jesus as the brother to us all.
Thirdly, a dream is recognized as coming from God when it reflects the ways of God. The angelic message to Joseph resonated with the words of inspired revelation; hence, he could believe that his dream was more than a product of his own imagination. For us to tell what God wants of us we too must be able to discern what reflects the patterns of God that we have come to know. Any dream God has for us will include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, compassion, forgiveness, mercy. Anything which does not reflect the characteristics of God cannot be from God. Joseph believed in the dream God had for him. This old, old story is told so that we too can act with confidence as Joseph did in the dream that God has for us. That is how we learn that God is with us, Emmanuel.
