Sunday Homily, 21 December 2025 - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

The name which Joseph will give his adopted son and heir is indeed promising.  The name of Jesus is promising for those who want the nation of Israel to come out from the shadows and stand apart.  The name Jesus is simply Joshua, which comes to us via Greek and Latin.  If you pronounce and translate the name Joshua for 2000 years, you get “Jesus”.  By the first century, “Yeshua” was an acceptable shortened form of “Yehoshua”, which does indeed mean The LORD saves.

Our Jesus has the name of Moses’ right-hand man.  This Joshua accompanied Moses to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and the design for God’s tabernacle, of which he himself was guardian.  Why, we might ask, was Joshua so prominent among the Hebrews?  In part, it is because he was a great military man and a master strategist.

It was Joshua who recruited Hebrews to the first national militia.  He trained them up and gave them their orders.  So successful was General Joshua that, through siege warfare, hand-to-hand combat, and guerrilla tactics, the land of Canaan (the land God promised) fell into his hands.  And so, the inhabitants of Canaan were cast out of their cities and driven off their farmland.  Thus, the land of Canaan became the place where the nation of Israel would be located by God’s working through Joshua.

Joshua was also a wonder-worker.  Just as Moses parted the Red Sea, so too did Joshua part the river Jordan.  He also stopped night from falling for the length of a whole day, so that the battle was won at Gibeon: we are told the sun and the moon stood still for Joshua.  And crucially, God promised Joshua invincibility: “No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life” (Joshua 1:5).

Our Jesus, our Joshua, St Joseph’s Joshua, sounds like he'll be an invincible conqueror too.  The name given by God the Father says that this boy as man will bring salvation and glory to Israel.  But there is a complement to the name.

Our Saviour is named after Joshua because he too will save his people but from their sins.  To modern ears that can sound a bit underwhelming.  Some might say: “Aren't there bigger and badder enemies than sin?  Aren’t there political enemies and violent aggressors who slaughter the innocent in broad daylight whom God should go after?  God should declare order and impose calm.”  But God is indeed doing that.  God is indeed going after malefactors and murderers and more, not as a warrior but as a shepherd, not as commander but as Saviour.

God must intervene if Joseph suspected his wife of infidelity to their betrothal.  The only thing that matters to heaven is that the Word-become-flesh safely grows to adulthood to offer himself as the sacrifice for sins.  And so, the Angel of the Lord comes to Joseph: “Do not be afraid.  She conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Your righteousness and hers is preserved. Your Saviour is in your midst.”

So, as Joseph sleeps the most important sleep of his life, he learns that the cause of justice will be championed by his wife's Son, the new Joshua.  The righteousness Jesus apportions to his believers will be the victory; the enemy to be defeated is indeed sin.  Peace begins with the forgiveness of sins; the forgiveness of sins comes from our Jesus.

What the Angel told Joseph therefore coheres with his heart's desire.  He desired a wife and family for himself, and righteousness among the people.  We want the same things as Joseph: it is our heart’s desire to be part of a loving family and to live in peace with others.  Joseph needn't break it off with Mary, because all that he has ever wanted is found in her.  What we seek for ourselves and our world is found in Mary, Joseph’s wife.  Through her, we become part of a family of eternal love; through her, we abide in the peace of God’s Kingdom.

We can be grateful that God has not dealt with us as a warrior and commander, but as a shepherd and Saviour.  God has come in all the strength of his glorious might to bring us back into his favour, as favoured as Israel is, and more favoured because we are God’s adopted children.  And, like Joseph, we take Mary and her Son into our home, into our hearts and lives, and so find peace.

With just a few days now before Christmas, it's time to let Joseph’s heir speak his name to us to save us.  The time has come to have our sins forgiven.  It's not too late to come to confession.  It's not too late to be forgiven and become righteous.  It's not too late to be kind and loving and peacemaking.

Let Jesus now save you from your sins.

It is what his name means. Let Jesus do this for you.

It is why he came.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP

Parish Priest