4th Sunday of Advent: “Self-Righteous or Righteous?”
4th Sunday of Advent: “Self-Righteous or Righteous?”
The Gospel of Matthew says that Joseph was a righteous man. We could say that there are two types of righteousness. One type is to be self-righteous. The other style of righteousness is to apply the moral law with love.
How does a self-righteous person operate? The key word is self. A self-righteous person is one who puts their self-first. If they are treated unfairly, they immediately move to defend their own rights. Also, they quickly accuse others of acting unethically. The belief of the self-righteous person is the only way to remedy a morally flawed world is to punish those who break the law. Old Testament people believed that adherence to the law would bring about a more loving world, but there is another reason why self-righteous people are rigid about rules which is fear. Fear says that if we don’t control people chaos will result.
How does a righteous person operate? A righteous person starts by asking the question, “What’s a charitable to change people’s behaviors?” The righteous individual operates with the premise that if we approach someone with a compassion, we can gradually move them towards being a more ethical person. If we approach a person with rules and regulations first, then probably we’re going to cause that person either to feel anger or shame which are feelings that are the opposite of love. Righteous people are humble. Such people take the beam out of their own eye. Righteous people don’t constantly focus on the splinters in everyone else’s eye.
We read in Gospel of Matthew today how Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant before they lived together. Jewish marriage practices weren’t the same as our marriage practices. All marriages were pretty much arranged. The important decision of marriage couldn’t be left to youngsters, it was thought. A child, especially a female, could be engaged at a young age.
When the time was right, the couple were betrothed. What that meant is that there was a private ceremony which in effect was considered a marriage. A year after this the public marriage would happen. Joseph and Mary weren’t supposed to live together as a married couple until public commitment was made.
Mary became pregnant during the time of betrothal. She had, in appeared, committed adultery. Joseph, according to the law, was within his legal rights to divorce Mary. Which is what he decided to do when he found out the news. For all he knew Mary, had freely engaged in a sexual relationship. Or, she had been raped.
Joseph decided to divorce Mary. What would this have meant for her? She would have been an unwed mother. Probably she would have had to beg to survive. Maybe she would have had to begin to live as a prostitute. The prospects were grim. People probably would have felt sorry for Joseph. He wouldn’t have been considered wrong if had ended his relationship with Mary.
Joseph was judging the situation by the evidence. He was looking at Mary only as a sinner. He would perhaps have felt self-righteous. He must have found Mary’s story of how she became pregnant as a tall tale.
But Joseph wasn’t a self-righteous man in his heart of hearts. He was a righteous man. When he heard the information that was given by the Angel in his dream, he considered another law. The law of love. He then asked, “What was the loving thing to do?”
What is example in the present day that shows us how wrong it can be to operate out of a self-righteous stance. We could just look at the ongoing sexual abuse scandal in our church and other institutions. The first inclination when an institution is accused of covering up sexual abuse of children is for the institution to look to the law to protect itself. What is the statute of limitations? What do we have to reveal by law? How can we limit liability? All these questions revolve around legitimate laws. But they also revolve also around a self-serving attitude. The law, when applied in this way, breaks and wounds people. We must wonder what would happen if an institution would lead with charity? Probably the history of the church would have been far different the last 30 years.
Today we could recall that St. Joseph is called the patron of the universal church. He is to be our example as to how we live as a Christian Community. One peculiar thing about St. Joseph is that he never speaks a word in the Gospels. He listens. He then acts with righteousness. Perhaps that is a good idea for all of us. We must try to listen with hearts open to where the spirit is leading us. We must try not to be afraid to act in righteousness and charity. We ask today, St. Joseph pray for us and show us the way.