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Joseph picked up his broom and started sweeping the floor of his little carpenter shop. He had been thinking about his dream all morning. "What a story!" he muttered to himself. "I've heard big ones before but this one tops the list!" He didn't know what was funnier ... the fact that the guy in the dream had explained his fianc e's pregnancy as the work of the spirit, or that the child she now carried was supposed to be Israel's savior. "If someone had come up to me and said all of this to my face, I would have known whether he was crazy or drunk or both. But a dream? How do you argue with a dream?"

Joseph shoved his broom around the floor distractedly, batting at the wood shavings and sending little clouds of sawdust into the morning air. Tightening his grip on the broom, Joseph imagined the dream figure standing in front of him and his face flushed as he spat out: "Why wasn't I consulted? We're talking about my family, aren't we? And what's so wrong with my genes anyway? And why don't you fellows show up in person instead of in dreams? Afraid to face the music?" Joseph caught himself kicking at the pile of shavings he had just swept together. Exasperated, he flung the broom against the wall. "I've got to get hold of myself," he said anxiously as he looked out the window. "Oh," he moaned seeing Mary approach the porch steps. "I have to have this out with her. I've got to get this straightened out. Now! If I don't, I'm going to get an ulcer." Mary opened the door and walked in, beaming.

"Watch your step, Mary! There are some pretty big nails sticking out of some boards on the floor," Joseph muttered as he turned, pretending to busy himself at the work bench.

"Thanks for the warning, Joe!" Mary picked her way to the corner of the shop to which Joseph had retreated.

She had no sooner planted a kiss on Joseph's cheek than he stiffened, turned and holding her at arm's length, stared into her eyes and said, "Mary, we've got to have a talk. I mean ... we've got to have a talk!" He cleared his throat.

"For the last few months, I've noticed you putting on weight. I know I'm not all that bright, but finally I put two and two together. You're in a family way, aren't you, Mary? And I ... I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did I?" He struggled to fight back his tears. "Now I have waited ... I've waited for an explanation from you, Mary, and you haven't said anything. Not one word!" Joseph's voice broke off abruptly.

There was a long silence. "I know I should have come to you sooner," Mary confessed, "but I just didn't know how to explain the way I became pregnant."

"Mary, look, I may not be another Solomon, but I've pretty much figured out that there's only one way to get pregnant!"

The tone of his voice cut Mary to the heart. "Well, Joe, I have news for you," she shot back. "There is more than one way! You see, I had this vision and an angel came to me and...."

Joseph threw up his hands. "Oh, no! Not you too?"

Mary looked puzzled. "What do you mean, 'me too'?"

"Never mind. Finish what you were saying."

"Well, this angel came to me, introduced himself, and said, 'I have this little proposal. Would you mind being the mother of....' "

"The mother of the savior of Israel?" Joseph teased as though he had been a party to the conversation.

Mary gasped. "How do you know what he said?"

Joseph groaned and continued as though he hadn't heard Mary, "And you will conceive by the power of the spirit." He repeated these words bitterly as if each were an assault on his manhood.

Mary was excited. "Don't tell me you know Gabe too?"

"Look, Mary. This guy isn't as familiar with me as he apparently is with you." Joseph's tone was more than a little resentful. But Mary pressed on.

"Did he have a little mole on his cheek?"

"Who?"

Mary could hardly contain herself. "The person who told you about me."

Joseph searched his memory. "Well ... now that you mention it, yes...."

"That's Gabe!" Mary shouted in recognition.

"Mary, for the last couple of weeks I was ready to call it quits with you. I was really hurt and wanted nothing more than to get even. If you had come to me then with this cockamamie story, I don't know what I would have done." Joseph took a deep breath. "But last night I had this dream ... this crazy dream."

"We've both had the same dream, Joe!" Mary said as she nestled up beside him. "But I don't think it's all that crazy. And anyway I'd rather believe in a crazy dream that offers hope, than have no dream at all."

In the silence that followed, Mary twined her little fingers in Joseph's calloused hand. "You're right, Mary, at least our dream offers hope. When I look around and see so many people suffering, I guess our crazy dream or vision or whatever it is holds more promise than anything else happening today. If this child is the child of promise, the savior of Israel ... well, I would never stand in the way of that promise." Then, smiling impishly he continued, "On the other hand, this vision might be some big joke. And if it is...." He reached suddenly for a large wooden board.

"And if it is...?" Mary winced.

Joseph's face broke into a wide smile as he lifted the wood high above his head. "If it is a joke, well, at least it will have inspired the most beautiful baby crib in the world!" He put his arm around Mary's waist and said, "Let's start working on that dream!"


Reflection


When we read the gospel about Joseph we tend to move too quickly beyond his sense of betrayal to the message he receives in the dream. Yet, that message becomes meaningful only insofar as it is a message to one deeply in need of hearing it, and we cannot appropriate it ourselves unless we imaginatively enter his experience.

Joseph is a man in the dark. The woman to whom he is engaged, to whom he is committed, appears to have betrayed him, and this feeling of betrayal must be overwhelming. It is the feeling of being played for a sucker or taken for a ride by someone close.

Joseph is a just man, we are told. But this doesn't mean he is exempt from those bitter impulses which any betrayed man or woman experiences.

Even the just person can want vengeance, to get even or do the other in. Even the just person can become cynical and sneer at once-prized ideals or reject the possibility of any future intimate relationship. Why would the just person not want to play it safe and just say, "Never, never again"? "I won't get my fingers burned" is as much a temptation for the just person as it is for anyone else. Finally, even the just person may regard shared moments of tenderness and concern as really moments of weakness never to be shared again.

Joseph doesn't resort to violence; he is not a violent man. But Joseph is hurt, and being hurt can render one all but helpless. We don't know how long he anguished or how long he wanted to curl up and die -- the Gospel is silent. What we know is he finally decides to divorce Mary quietly. This moment must be one of despair. It is also the moment of the dream. We would be wrong to conclude in our imaginative reconstruction that the message negated all he had gone through, made everything clear, took the darkness away. What we know is the bad news slowly became good news -- God with us. "Concrete Results" suggests Joseph had questions never to be answered, and answers which only raised new questions. Ultimately, trust is required.

We do not ordinarily get an explanation for betrayal in our dreams, although we dream up explanations because we have a need to understand and make sense out of these betrayals. But frequently our explanations fail to satisfy and our queries remain unanswered. "Where are you in all this?" is the cry we bring to God. It is the cry of Jesus on the cross. And all we can do is trust as Jesus did that in the silence there is an answer -- waiting to be born.