St. Joseph Homily, 19 March 2026

I think this is an interesting Gospel, and it’s also an opportunity to reflect on what Joseph has to teach us—both as a Church and individually.

Recently I’ve had a couple of conversations with people I really respect, and they definitely have a point. But I also find it interesting how quickly we shift into talking about vocation, because obviously God has a plan for our lives. And that plan includes different dimensions: we can talk about professional vocation—what am I going to do? We can talk about mission vocation—who am I called to serve? We can talk about state-of-life vocation—am I called to celibacy, to marriage, to something else? There are a lot of ways of looking at this.

But sometimes, in the way we talk about vocation in the Church, we act like we have to “piece everything together.” It’s like: you have to balance it out. You don’t want to make your profession too important so you can’t take care of your family, and you don’t want to make your family too important either. And yes—there’s truth in that. But if we start from the point of “I have to figure it out,” then we’re starting wrong.

Because if Joseph had approached it like that—“Okay, how is this going to work?”—it would have gone badly right away. A lot of times we assume Mary was already planning on living in virginity, and then it’s like: why in the world was he getting married then anyway? But just look at the situation Joseph is in. He’s marrying Mary, and all of a sudden she’s pregnant. He has this really wacky dream (Matthew 1:20–21). They don’t even know where they’re going to take care of the baby. There’s no way he could have pieced the whole thing together, because there’s no way you can “humanly balance” that.

It’s not like he could say, “Well, I think it’s okay—she’s having this miraculous child, we’ll probably work it out with the neighbors, and I’ll make a little extra money.” No. If he was talking to anybody, they’d say, “You should not do this.” And I’m not saying everything has to look imprudent—but I am saying that the way Joseph solves it is the way all of us have to solve it.

“Lord, what are you doing here?”

So I think it’s important to notice the difference between asking, “How do I fit this together?” and asking, “Lord, what are you doing?”

Because we can get into this mindset where we treat vocation like a math equation: “I’ll give 20% to mission, 30% to my job, 50% to my wife or husband.” People—it’s not going to work.

The real question is: Lord, what are you doing here? Where are you calling me in my state of life? What is the specific mission you’re giving me? And then actually believing that he’s got it figured out, instead of me trying to force everything into a human plan.

The spiritual reality is more important than the human

This Gospel also shows us something deeper: the spiritual reality is more important than the human one.

We talk about the ancestry of Jesus, and in one sense it would make more sense to trace his lineage through Mary—because Jesus took his entire human nature from Mary. Joseph wasn’t involved biologically. You could trace the lineage through Mary (and I could get into that debate), but in this Gospel it doesn’t happen. It goes through Joseph (Matthew 1:1–16).

So all of a sudden you’re like: wait a second—biologically, is Joseph even related to Jesus?

And the point is: that’s not the most important part. The most important part is the God-given mission. I’m not saying biology isn’t important. I’m saying Joseph didn’t need biology to be the father of Jesus. God’s plan was bigger than what human categories could neatly explain.

And I think we can do this too—even as Christians. We look at our human reality and assume that God’s promises have to look a certain way. But they don’t have to “look like anything,” as long as it’s not immoral. God can do what he wants.

When good plans become idols

So yes: we stand before the Lord not making things up, not going outside of his tradition, not going outside of reason. But the way he fulfills a promise, the way he provides what we need, is not necessarily going to be “the human way.”

It’s not always going to make sense like: “I’ll get my nice stable job, I’ll make 30k or 40k a year, I’ll have my little house, I’ll have a nice car.” And again, not that those things are bad. But Jesus is showing us something in Joseph: the promise was fulfilled. You go all the way back to Abraham and the rest—100%. But it wasn’t because they were planning it. Joseph wasn’t planning it. God had a plan; no one else did.

And that matters, because when we’re talking about the Church, that’s the point: the Church is not about human plans.

Sometimes that’s what idols are. We put our human plans—even good ones—in the place of God.

So it’s worth asking: where might there be idols I’m putting in front of God? Not because I have a bad intention, but because I want to balance it humanly.

Maybe it’s the idol of having my finances under control. Maybe it’s the idol of my human vocation—marriage, or “I have to figure out what God wants for me.” These are important things, but they can become idols. Maybe it’s my human reason: “I need to understand everything.” Maybe it’s another person and what they think.

Those things can all become idols.

God has a plan. And obviously he’s not going to go outside of his tradition or outside of reason—but it’s definitely going to stretch it. He’s not going to go outside. He’s going to go beyond.

Asking Joseph for grace

That kind of discernment is really important. So let’s ask for that grace from Joseph as we move forward. Joseph was “healthfully crazy,” but also very faithful. He wasn’t doing anything God wasn’t asking. And he wasn’t coming up with his own plans either. It was simply: “God, what do you want me to do here?” And he waited on the word, and he did it.

And especially today—in our specific circumstances, humanly, but also as a community—as we pray for Call to Mission, as we talk about MPD, as we continue to pray, Joseph is a great example.

He’s a great example of full-time mission. Maybe he had to get up, go back to the carpentry, start asking friends for help. But in a real sense, he’s a great example for all of us: God provides.

God brings things together in ways we don’t expect, but he already has a plan. And the most important thing is that spiritual reality—that plan God has—that he is our Father, that he provides, and that he has a good plan for us, his children.

If we say yes, and if we wait on his word.