Within a story threatened by Herod’s violence, Joseph assumes the spiritual figure of a true believer. First of all, he dreams: what he has to do he hears from an angel while he sleeps. In this nocturnal experience receives some imperatives, which will determine his behavior: stand up, take the child and his mother, and goes’ … First, we need to dream, which is not to escape from reality to take refuge in an illusory world. Rather, it means looking at what happens with a deeper gaze, such as to recognize in its darker folds the maturing of the dream of God. The dream is answered with the responsibility of one’s own freedom. We get up: without being crushed in difficult situations, we believe in the promise of God who always gives us new life, makes us rise, born again. Then we take, we welcome: we become responsible for others, for whom the Lord asks us to take care. Finally you go, you put on the way, they look for new avenues through which seek the will of God. Every human family, all human coexistence, must know how to live well these dynamics: not remain closed in their labors and fragility, but let raise from God’s promise, which sets us back on the road, making us responsible for each other.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey