Dear brothers and sisters, "Joseph, Mary's husband, was a just man", says the Gospel. "To be just", in the language of the Bible, means to be perfect before God.
"Noah was a just and perfect man. Noah walked with God" (Gen 6:9), we read in the book of Genesis, at the beginning of the four chapters devoted to him.
Saint Paul, in the passage from the letter to the Romans that we heard earlier, says that Abraham believed hoping against hope: "And this is why he was granted righteousness".
In the New Testament, it is said of John the Baptist: "Herod was afraid of John, for he knew that he was a righteous and holy man" (Mk 6:20). And of his parents Zechariah and Elizabeth we read that they "were both righteous before God: they followed all the commandments and precepts of the Lord blamelessly" (Lk 1:6). In the same way, it is said of Simeon that "he was a just and religious man, who waited for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him" (Lk 2:25).
Joseph, then, was also a just man. And it was because he was a just man that he did not want to denounce his wife Mary publicly and decided to send her away in secret. Because he was a just man, in the face of a mystery that was beyond him, he wanted to step aside discreetly.
But then he received the revelation that would change his life: "As he had formed this plan, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, into your home, since the child who is begotten in her is from the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins.'" When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him: he took his wife into his home, but he did not unite with her until she bore a son, to whom he gave the name Jesus."
He took Mary, his wife, into his home, and to the son she bore, who was born of the Holy Spirit, he gave him the name Jesus, a name which - as usual in Scripture - says what it is: "he is the one who will save his people from their sins".
Because he was a just man, he was humble, and because he was just and humble, "at the dawn of new times, God entrusted to him the keeping of the mysteries of salvation", as the prayer at the beginning of this liturgy says.
May Joseph, the just and humble man entrusted with the care of the mysteries of salvation, sustain us so that we may always, by our way of life, see to their fulfilment. May we too be just and humble.
Brother Bartomeu
