The glass is "already half-way filled."

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.” (Mt 1:24)

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We are all familiar with the imagery of the 8-ounce glass with four ounces of water in it. There are some who will look at the glass and say that it is half empty; others who will look at it and observe that it is already half-way filled. Then there are the engineers who will look at it and remark, “Obviously, the glass is the wrong size.” Engineers aside, the image is a way of helping us think about whether we look at life from a negative perspective or from a positive one. Joseph’s story gives us an excellent example of a person who most certainly looked at life positively. For him the glass must have been “already half-way filled.”

Let's look at his situation. He is about to be wedded to Mary. We don’t know exactly what Mary looked like. Maybe she was beautiful in a glamorous sense; maybe not. In either case, as a woman so blessed by God and in such an intimate union with Him, she could only have radiated beauty. I have no doubt that she took Joseph’s breath away.

Joseph is betrothed to Mary and comes to find out that she is pregnant. Now by any man’s definition, this would be a bad day. Yet Joseph, who could simply accuse Mary of infidelity and have her stoned to death, decides not to do so, but to put her away – that is, break the betrothal – quietly in order to spare her. A very generous gesture for a man seemingly smote by the one with whom he is smitten, but it only gets worse for poor Joseph.

An angel appears to him, and tells him, ‘Joseph, Mary has not been unfaithful to you. Rather, she has conceived by the power of the Most High. You, Joseph, are to take her as your wife and care for her and the child…. Oh, and, Joseph, one more thing. Mary is to remain a virgin. You can take care of her, but you can’t have her. She belongs to God.’

I imagine that this was far more than Joseph had bargained for. Yet, the Scriptures tell us that, “he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took his wife into his home.” Only a man who sees the cup as “already half-way filled” could do that.

Let’s look at the same story from Mary’s perspective. The Scripture tells us, “in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel said unto her: Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore the Holy One which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:26-36)

And Mary said to the angel, “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” And with these words, Mary not only allows God’s plan for our salvation to unfold, she also signs her own death warrant. For as we have already seen, her pregnancy by someone other than her betrothed husband, Joseph, will expose her to an accusation of infidelity and she will be stoned to death.

After this event, the Annunciation, Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Does she lament her predication? Not at all! Rather, she proclaims, “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is His Name.” (Luke 1:46-49) It is as if she is oblivious to the possibility of her demise when she returns home. Certainly, she was a woman who could look at the most dire of circumstances and see that the “glass is already half-way filled.”

One more story – a contemporary one. I have a good friend in Denim Springs, LA, just east of Baton Rouge. His home is on stilts, 2.5 feet above the ground. In the 65 years that the house has been there, there has never been any flood high enough to reach the home. Indeed, there has never been any standing water under the house at all! Last August the two rivers that meet in Denim Springs overflowed. His living room, which is 2.5 feet off the ground, had 4.5 feet of water in it. He lost everything – the house, the cars, the RV, every possession. No flood insurance, no money to jack the house up another 5 feet in order to get an occupancy permit so he can repair the damage. He is disabled, and for a host of complicated reasons, he doesn’t qualify for any other aid. He and his family have truly lost everything.

Now, his spirits are definitely low, but even so, last week he said to me, “Well, it helps me see what’s important and what’s not important.” Only a man who sees the glass as “already half-way filled” could say that.

I think life is difficult for everyone. Some of us have harder stories than others, but none of us escapes without some kind of trial, some real misery. What’s the difference between a person who experiences hardships and continues to embrace life with a positive attitude and a person who experiences hardship and despairs?

The difference is faith. A belief – a steadfast, even stubborn belief – that there is something glorious beyond this life, and no matter what happens to me in this life, it will not shake my confidence in God, and it will not shatter my trust that He has eternal happiness waiting for me.

It’s a faith like Job’s, a man from whom the devil took this children, his land, his possessions, and his health, and yet he never stopped singing the praises of God. It’s a faith like Joseph’s, like Mary’s, like my friend’s in LA that will enable us to embrace the most difficult trials of life and not despair, but rather keep a positive attitude – to see the glass as already half-way filled --- because we know that this is not the end, that there is something truly blissful awaiting us in heaven.

When our faith gets challenged, we have models like St. Joseph, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, like friends I am sure you have like mine in LA, -- and we have the promise of Christ Himself. When the Jews questioned Christ about Who He was, He said to them, “But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep – that is, those who have faith in me – hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:26-28) How can we live any other way than to live with the glass “already half-way filled!”

Christmas will be upon us in one week. Christmas is the feast that encourages us to ponder the promise of Christ with a profound sense of confidence, hope, and joy. For God loved us so much that He refused to abandon us in our sinfulness. He sent His only begotten Son on this night – His Son, Who humbled Himself to take on our humanity, and further to take on a torturous death on a Cross, all for the love of us – for you and for me. And ultimately, through His Resurrection, He was restored to the glory that was His before the world began. And through His Resurrection, He showed us the glory that awaits us if we are but faithful to Him, that is, if we embrace the gift of faith given to us and it bears fruit in our good works.

We have one week of Advent left, one week of preparation remaining. In a preparatory season like Advent, we take on additional penance, fasting, prayer – all to help us remove ourselves from our attachments to those things that are not lasting and that will only rip us away from everlasting life. It’s our attachment to the things of this world that goad us to look at the glass as “half-empty,” as never having enough in it.

But when we can attach ourselves to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross by making our own small sacrifices, we open the way for God not just to fill our glass half-way, but to overflow it with peace and grace. If we can embrace this final week with some additional penance, then when Christ comes at Christmas we will be prepared to embrace the Hope that He brings on that momentous night.

And at our judgement God will not have to call in the heavenly engineers to resize our glasses. How embarrassing would that be! Rather, our glasses will be overflowing, we will be lined up on His right, and we will enjoy the glory that was prepared for us before the world began.

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#Christmas #StJoseph #BlessedVirginMary #Faith