God Has a Plan! Look at St Joseph

Pastor’s Column

4^th Sunday of Advent

December 21, 2025

We are all familiar with the story: an angel appears to the Virgin Mary, requesting her permission to receive the Son of God within her. It is indeed the most awesome moment of human history. Mary is troubled by the greeting of the angel. She ponders the implications of what she has just heard and even questions The great Angel Gabriel before she says “yes! "You are to have a child and the child who will be the son of God.” Mary’s question was essentially this: “What about Joseph? Who will tell Joseph? What will I say to Joseph? Will he believe me?” And we have our chaste vow.

I find it so very revealing that the angel Gabriel does not immediately go to Joseph to explain the situation after Mary says yes. And yet, Gabriel waits until a full-blown crisis has developed, doesn't he?  It would have been so much easier on both of them if he had just come to Joseph right after Mary said yes. Why in the world did he wait until after Mary “was found to be with child.” In fact, God does not intervene in this troubling situation until Joseph is driven to the point of seeing a divorce rabbi! It seems so unnecessary when God could’ve dealt with this right away – and yet he didn’t. At times, we too realize God could have made it easier on us and he doesn't. But like the life of St. Joseph, with us too, God has a plan.

To me, the real question in this very interesting detail is why does God wait so long to answer some prayers?  He does, in fact, sometimes seem to wait until a real crisis has occurred before he acts. We see this same pattern happening over and over again in the Gospels -- and in our own lives. Yes, God could’ve made it easier on St. Joseph -- but he didn’t. Therefore, he must’ve had a good reason for waiting to make his will clear to St. Joseph. Sometimes, we too wonder why God doesn’t make things clear right away. After all, God has all the answers – why doesn’t he share them with us?  What he DOES do is to share all the most important answers, that which we need to do to grow, serve, have faith and pass the test of life: love God; love my neighbor; always trust in the Lord, no matter what happens; always strive to do God’s will.

The stories in Scripture are the stories of our lives as well. God has a plan for us like he did for Mary and Joseph, but we sometimes have to struggle to see it. Our journey of faith glorifies God. We can forget that the whole point of being on earth is that we can’t see God right away, that we grow in faith and discernment precisely by struggling with the issues in our lives. This is exactly what Joseph did before God revealed things. The struggle was part of Joseph’s journey too, just as it is with ours.

Father Gary