Joseph’s Experience of Risk with His wife and Son
What was Joseph’s spirituality (inner life with God)? Did he always understand what God was doing in and through him and Mary? Sometimes, faith is sheer obedience until God gives us the grace of understanding.
—Anna Hampton
Matthew 2:13 - 15
"Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search the Child to destroy Him.’ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’”
Joseph’s Spirituality
When following Christ into risk, danger, and persecution, we want to cultivate a spirituality (our inner life with Christ) that will sustain us. This spirituality is one of action. It is to come “to know Christ more intimately, love him more deeply, and follow him more closely.”
This spirituality is not generic. It is Christ-infused. It is infused with a Biblical Kingdom culture orientation. To differentiate it from all other spiritualities, I use the term Christo-centric spirituality, for we are and must remained attached to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and who is the only way to the Father through His work on the cross for all.
Our Christian spirituality is also infused with a clear theology of risk, suffering and persecution. This is critical to sustaining us in the most extreme moments of our faith when the foundations of our reality are shaking. We must continually ask ourselves if we are truly living with Christ as our foundation for risk, when we accept a clear invitation (calling) to risk, out of a heart attitude of worship.
With this as our foundation, we can better hear the experience of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.
Testimony by Gospel worker to South Sudan: (Slightly edited with permission from the original)
“When my wife and I moved our young family to the border of South Sudan at the start of 2019, our hearts were all in. We dreamed of raising our baby girl there and making Africa our forever home. After several experiences of corruption and danger, we were forced to flee immediately and let those dreams slip through our fingertips.
I remember feeling so let down upon returning home, wondering if this was a failed mission. My wife’s heart was broken. I felt like I needed to start over. My immediate reaction was to try to find work, so I desperately tried to stabilize my family.
During this turmoil, I was invited to meditate upon the desperate flight into Egypt. Using the Ignatian method of prayer, I was walking across the desert sand with Joseph. We were holding a coarse rope attached to a donkey, and on it, Mary was holding baby Jesus - both asleep - as we led them through the night.
I realized Joseph knew what it was like to be in my shoes - to be in a foreign land, and have to flee overnight in fear. He, too, was invited to recklessly abandon his understanding and lead his family according to obedience. My eyes welled with tears as I concluded the meditation. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, consoled my heart.
[…] He teaches me that conformity to the will of God through obedience is one of the surest paths to holiness.
Why did God choose Joseph? Why was a humble carpenter chosen for the task of being the earthly father of the Savior?
The answer is simple: God knew Joseph would do absolutely anything that was asked of him without hesitation, no matter how difficult. As the head of my family, I pray, like Joseph, that I will always do the same.
