Whereas the angel “came” to Mary (Lk 1:28) , he merely appears to Joseph in a dream – admittedly a dream that is real and reveals what is real. Once again, this shows us an essential quality of the figure of Saint Joseph: his capacity to perceive the divine and his ability to discern. Only a man who is inwardly watchful for the divine, only someone with a real sensitivity for God and his ways, can receive God’s message in this way. And an ability to discern was necessary in order to know whether it was simply a dream or whether God’s messenger had truly appeared to him and addressed him. The message conveyed to Joseph is overwhelming, and it demands extraordinary courageous faith. Can it be that God has really spoken, that what Joseph was told in the dream was the truth – a truth so far surpassing anything he could have foreseen? Can it be that God has acted in this way towards a human creature? Can it be that God has now launched a new history with men?

(excerpted from pp 41. Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI, 2011, Image Press)