St. Joseph: A Hero

"A hero is a person who, no matter how hard, does what he knows to be right." The King in "VeggieTales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything"

I fear that true heroes and heroines are far and few in between. I am definitely not a heroine and have met very few true heroes/heroines.

But I would like to tell you a story.

There was once a young woman, a very, very long time ago. She became engaged to be married, and, as was the custom, her fiancé had 1 year to build a house and create the means to provide for them. During this year, the young woman conceived a child. When her fiancé discovered he decided to divorce her, but had mercy and decided to do it quietly.

Before he could, though, an angel appeared to him and explained. "Your fiancée," said the angel," is carrying no earthly child, but the Son of the Lord. He will open again the gates of heaven to the world." The man was puzzled, so the angel continued, "The Lord chose this sinless virgin to be the mother of His Son. She is perfect, pure, and brave. She will be Hid mother, and you will be His earthly father." Though the man did not fully understand, he believed what the angel had said to him, and accepted the young woman and her Child.

The woman, of course, is Mary and the man is Joseph. All dialogue is improvised, in case you hadn't noticed, by the way.

Joseph, I have decided is a hero. He was an imperfect person doing a perfect thing. He wasn't sure about the whole "my future wife is pregnant with another man's baby even if she's still a virgin and she's the mother of the Son of God" thing, but in his heart he knew the angel was real and spoke the truth. He stayed with Mary, they were married (at some point), and he accepted Mary's Son as his own. When the child, Jesus, was born Joseph was his earthly father. He loved Him and cared for Him and taught Him things, like any father would do.

Joseph was a hero. He wasn't sure about all of it, but he knew that the right thing to do was stay with Mary and protect her and her Child. So he did.

[Image Source: http://www.carmelite-seremban.org/sharings/archive.html]