“Do not be afraid,” a dream-angel tells Joseph, to marry Mary,
who’s pregnant, though a virgin, for in our magical, God-
invaded world, the Spirit has placed God’s son in her as long
foretold by Isaiah. Call the baby Jesus, or The Lord saves,
for he will drag people free from the chokehold of their sins.
And Joseph is not afraid. And the angel was right,
for a star rose, signalling a new King of the Jews.
Astrologers from the East followed it, threatening King Herod,
whose chief priests recounted Micah’s 600-year-old prophecy:
the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, as Jesus had
just been, while his parents from Nazareth registered
for Augustus Caesar’s census of the entire Roman world.
The Magi worshipped the baby, offering gold, frankincense, myrrh.
And shepherds came, told by an angel of joy: that the Lord, the
Messiah, a saviour from all that oppresses, had just been born.
Then, suddenly, the dream-angel warned: Flee with the child
to Egypt. For Herod plans to kill this baby and forever-King.
Do not be afraid, but still flee? Become a refugee? But
lightning-bolt coincidences had verified the angel’s first
words: The magi appeared with gold for the flight. Shepherds
told of angels singing of coming inner peace. Joseph flees.
What’s the difference between fear and prudence? Fear is
being frozen or panicked by imaginary what-ifs. It tenses
our bodies; strains health, sleep and relationships; makes us
stingy with ourselves and others; leads to overwork, and time
wasted doing pointless things for fear of people’s ill opinions.
Prudence is wisdom–using our experience and spiritual discernment
as we battle the demonic forces of this dark world, in Paul’s phrase.
It’s fighting with divinely powerful weapons: truth, righteousness,
faith, Scripture, and prayer, while surrendering our thoughts to Christ.
So let’s act prudently, wisely and bravely, silencing fear, while
remaining alert to God’s guidance, delivered through inner peace
or intuitions of danger and wrongness, our spiritual senses tuned to
the Spirit’s “No,” his “Slow,” his “Go,” as cautious as a serpent,
protected, while being as gentle as a dove, or a lamb among wolves.
