2. "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Mt 1:20-21).
We find these words in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. They - especially in the second part - sound similar to those heard by Miriam, that is, Mary, at the moment of the Annunciation. In a few days - on 25 March - we will commemorate in the liturgy of the Church the moment when those words were spoken in Nazareth "to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary" (Lk 1:27).
The description of the Annunciation is found in the Gospel according to Luke.
Later, Matthew notes again that, after Mary's marriage to Joseph, "before they came to live together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit" (Mt 1:18).
Thus, the mystery that had begun at the moment of the Annunciation was fulfilled in Mary, at the moment when the Virgin responded to Gabriel's words: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38).
As the mystery of Mary's motherhood was revealed to Joseph's consciousness, he, "being a just man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, resolved to divorce her quietly" (Mt 1:19), as Matthew's account continues.
And it was then that Joseph, Mary's husband and already her husband before the law, received his own personal "Annunciation".
During the night, he heard the words we quoted above, words that are both an explanation and an invitation from God: "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife" (Mt 1:20).
3. At the same time, God entrusts to Joseph the mystery whose fulfilment had been awaited for many generations by the line of David and the whole "house of Israel", and at the same time entrusts to him everything on which the fulfilment of this mystery in the history of the People of God depends.
From the moment these words entered his consciousness, Joseph became the man of divine election: the man of a special trust. His place in the history of salvation was defined. Joseph entered this place with simplicity and humility, in which the spiritual depth of man is manifested, and he filled it completely with his life.
"When Joseph awoke from sleep," we read in Matthew, "he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him" (Mt 1:24). These few words say it all. They describe Joseph's entire life and fully characterise his holiness: "He did." Joseph, as we know him from the Gospel, is a man of action.
He is a man of work. The Gospel has not preserved any of his words. Instead, it describes his actions: simple, everyday actions, which at the same time have a clear meaning for the fulfilment of the divine promise in human history; works full of spiritual depth and mature simplicity.
[Pope John Paul II, homily, 19 March 1980]
