In these days we truly begin the countdown to the event of Christmas, Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Matthew (1: 18 – 24) in which an angel visits Joseph telling him not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife. Fr Paul says today’s reading comes from the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel and it is about the birth of Jesus. In Sunday’s Gospel we would have heard the long and elaborately formal genealogy of Joseph. But keep in mind that Jesus is the son of Mary, not of Joseph! The whole point of this story in the Gospel today is that Joseph is not the genealogical father of Jesus but adopts Jesus into his line of David. At first, he is hesitant to do so, presumably thinking that he is unworthy to acknowledge the child as his own, and unworthy to bond with Mary who is with child by the Holy Spirit. But the angel insists – ‘Do not be afraid’ – only Joseph can do this job. As soon as the child is born, he is given the name Jesus, and the name is given by Joseph. It is the father’s prerogative to name a son, and by so doing Joseph takes the child as his own. Sadly, we hear little more of Joseph, but what a joy it must have been to have Jesus as a son! What a relationship there must have been! What responsibility too! When Jesus calls God his ‘Father’, he is using the concept which must have been formed in his mind by his adoptive father, Joseph, the perfect ideal of the loving father. Mindful of today’s Gospel, Fr Paul invites us to ask ourselves, ‘How can we be as generous as Joseph this Christmas? How can we help others?’