Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Matthew (1: 18-24) in which Joseph follows through on his pledge to marry Mary and accepts Jesus as a son.

Fr Paul says Matthew begins his gospel about the birth of Jesus with a long and elaborately formal genealogy of Joseph. But we need to remember that Jesus is the son of Mary, not of Joseph! The whole point of this story 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’): it is only Joseph can do this job. As soon as the child is born, he is given the name Jesus and given it by Joseph. It is the father’s prerogative to name a son, and by so doing Joseph takes the child as his own.

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.