St. Benedict Monastery

Dreamers' Dreams

by Fr. Gregory-David Jones, O.S.B.

     Dreams can trivial, frightening, inspiring, humorous, informative or more dramatically, the voice of God! St. Joseph had a dream, but it didn’t just happen at one time. Joseph was the type of man who desired to live a holy life and have a stable form of employment so that he could become a loving husband and father. For him, the message from the angel was the culmination of what he aspired to be all his life: namely, a servant of God. We often refer to Joseph as a “just man” primarily because he wanted to spare Mary the shame and punishment for conceiving a child that was not naturally his. Mary’s unexpected pregnancy may have seemed to be something like a stumbling block to Joseph’s dreams and aspirations, but the angel’s words clarified the reality revealing that his dreams would be fulfilled in a greater way than he imagined.

     Joseph understood that the dream he had was not an ordinary one to be trivialized and possibly forgotten. He could have talked himself out of it by rationalizing, “It was just a dream” or “conception by the Holy Spirit is impossible”. However, it was not just something meaningless that occurred in his sleep, but a confirmation and directive for him to fulfill his God-inspired vocation to be a husband and father. Not simply the father of his own son, but the more exalted role of being a father to the Son of God! Not only a husband to an ordinary young woman, but the spouse of the New Eve! Joseph was not just a role model for his own family, but a role model for all men who desire to fulfill the Will of God in their lives through whatever vocation they have.

     Dreams are a reality of our lives but they are not always inspired by the Lord. How can we know which dreams we should take seriously as inspirations from God and which ones we should not? The experience of St. Joseph shows us what we may experience while sleeping is not the origin of our ultimate dreams. Any dream that affirms, confirms and challenges us to fulfill God’s Will, our vocation in a greater way than we imagined should be taken seriously. And if we have doubts in our minds – if we find it easy to rationalize our way out of it, we just have to keep in mind the barrier between dreams and realty can be toppled by the power of faith. Faith is what makes dreams come true!