Mondays with Matthew: Joseph's faith

Joseph and Mary's marriage did not have a smooth start. She was pregnant with a child that was not his. He accepted Mary and the unborn child because of a dream in which he was told by an angel to take Mary as his wife. In the second chapter of Matthew's Gospel, after the Magi visit, Joseph receives another message from an angel in a dream. The angel warns Joseph that Jesus' life is in danger and that Joseph must take his family to Egypt. Joseph did as the angel said without hesitation. He abandoned his home, his family, the life he knew, to save his step-child. How easy it would have been for Joseph to just walk away at that point, to tell Mary that she and Jesus were on their own. But Joseph did not do that. He remained faithful to Mary and Jesus and to the God in whom he believed. How easily we lose faith when life gets difficult and the obstacles seem insurmountable. The lesson we learn from Joseph is to keep believing.