What do you dream of?

The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream… (Matthew 1:20)

What did Joseph dream of as he prepared to begin a new life with Mary? Perhaps he dreamt of building a cozy little house for the family they were going to raise. Perhaps he dreamt of having sons who could help him in his carpentry shop. Perhaps he dreamt of training them to be as good a carpenter as he was and later leaving them a trade and a good name they, too, could pass on to their own sons.

But then Mary was found to be with child even before she moved in with Joseph. I can imagine Joseph getting troubled, feeling angry, and perhaps shouting to God, “This is not fair!” All his dreams had now crumbled. He was a righteous man, as our Gospel today testifies. Surely he deserved better.

Then an angel came to him in a dream and made things even more unfair. He was still to take Mary as his wife – it did not matter if he felt betrayed and hurt. And Mary’s son, he was to raise as his own even though looking at this child every day would have reminded him of his crushed dreams.

The angel would later appear to him again in another dream and tell him to flee to Egypt. He would have to leave behind everything he had built – his home, his shop, his reputation. And again, he was a righteous man. This was happening through no fault of his own. His dreams did not just crumble. They were not just crushed. They were… what is worse than being crushed?

Unfair!

Christmas is not just about Christmas trees with presents underneath, a jolly old man dressed in red giving gifts, and ninongs and ninangs handing out aguinaldo. Christmas is about dreams crumbling and being crushed and… what else can happen after your dreams are crushed?

Because of the angel that came to him in a dream, Joseph had to change all his dreams. The God Who comes at Christmas did not just come so that we can continue living our lives the way we have always dreamed of. No. God came to turn our lives upside-down and inside-out.

What do you dream of? Can you let Christmas change your dreams?

What does it mean to let Christmas change your dreams? It does not always mean revising what you dreamed of becoming when you were a child. Sometimes, changing your dreams means just looking at them in a different way.

Another Joseph, one we met in the Old Testament, once had a dream of the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him. He must have taken pride in this and shared it with an air of arrogance to his family. And his family must have been jealous or even offended. Why did they have to bow down to him?

Later on, the Old Testament Joseph rose to power in Egypt, and his brothers indeed came to bow before him. But this was not really for Joseph’s glory. All this happened so that Joseph could save his family and all of Israel. It was the same dream with the same players involved but now with a totally different focus, a totally different center. Can you refocus your old dreams and center them on something bigger than just your success and achievements?

What does it mean to let Christmas change your dreams? We should not think that this always involves the big dreams of our lives. Sometimes it just means changing what you had scheduled for the day in your calendar to make room for a Virgin and the Child she bears — now in the guise of an annoying neighbor knocking on your door asking for help, now an overbearing member of your extended family demanding your time, now your parents barging into your life at the most inopportune moment and forcing you to change your plans.

When we let Christmas change our dreams, we should not expect the change to make sense right away. Nor can we assume that the reason for the change will be made totally clear. To say yes to the angel (and to the God Whose message the angel bears) does not require full understanding. It only needs trust in the God Who, as our Gospel today proclaims, fulfills what He speaks of, the God-with-us, the Emmanuel.

As I write this, I pray for a lady I came to know a few months ago. I met her because she was interested to know more about God. Though she was already busy running her own business, she signed up for theology classes. Though she could have been shopping or just resting on weekends, she instead organized recollections in her home. Though she was already giving much of her time and talent and treasure to the Church, she kept on looking for more ways to give. So she cared for old priests (calling them her lolos), helped raise funds for charitable projects – the list goes on and on. I can say with much confidence that she is a righteous woman.

Last week, I learned that she had come down with a serious kidney ailment that requires three dialysis sessions a week. There go her many activities. There go her resources. There go her dreams. Unfair!

But still I trust in the God of Christmas — as I know she does. Things may not be explained or become clear. Reasons may not be given. But if we hold on long enough to — and even embrace — what seems unfair, we will be blessed with something greater than fairness. We will see that there is a God of Justice, Who is a God of Love, Who is a God-with-us.

Perhaps Joseph dreamed of a cozy home. Perhaps he dreamed of a quaint carpentry shop. A little Child changed all of this. Joseph probably never dreamed of God becoming human and humans being invited to share in the Divine. But all this happened because of that same Child, too. When we say yes to changes in our plans, our dreams will crumble, our dreams will get crushed, and… what happens after dreams are crushed? They can be created anew. Dreams beyond our wildest dreams will come true.