On the third day of Simbang Gabi the mass was led by Rev. Fr. Joselito Ortega.
Fr. Joselito tackled in his homily about how Joseph handled the situation when Mary got pregnant before they even get married. He didn’t judge Mary, instead, he thinks before he acts and because of his severe thinking, he fell asleep. If we are in Josephs's shoes how would we react? We will definitely get mad and a lot of us will judge but Joseph is known for being righteous. As Pope Francis says let’s emulate Joseph when we have problems, let’s not make a decision immediately and get some sleep first, and certainly, when we wake up, we can have the answer to our problems. So, when he woke up, he finally has a solution to his problem he married Mary and supports her every step of the way until she gave birth and named him ‘Emmanuel’ meaning God is with us. This shows the purity of Joseph in his obedience to God by respecting Mary. In all cases it is what is missing in our lives we forget to respect others and this causes chaos and misunderstandings. This time of pandemic we get much closer to our families it became the way to see each other as weak, believers, as people who are afraid but not forsaken by God.
We must keep in mind that God is always with us so we have no reason to be afraid. He is with us in our everyday battles, guiding, pushing us to survive. The evil will not conquer when God is with us. We just need to change the perspective of our minds so that we can have fun even if it's not like before. Joseph adjusts his life even if it is hard, he even gets criticized by others but he chose to just shrug it off and continued to obey God.
So, brothers and sisters let us try to emulate Joseph where we are ready to face the doubts in our lives without fear because God is with us.
Article by: Athea Baranda
Photo by: Nica Yalung
Estrella Communications