Keeping the Law is not an alternative to living by faith. We can see this in the life of St. Joseph on this his day. He kept the Law, but God asked him for more than that. He wanted Joseph to follow a personal direction he would give him: to take Mary as wife and raise a child he did not engender himself, even though this could look like playing fast and loose with the Law to people who did not know this “inside story” of how God was working.
Joseph keeps the Law–and is asked to step out in faith. Laws are always general in nature. People in a living relationship with God respond to God’s personal directions on a day-to-day basis, generally within the framework of the Law, but which may surpass the Law in particular cases.
Note: as Fr. Coleman reminded us at Mass yesterday, the Solemnity for St. Joseph today, March 19th, falling as it does on a Lenten Friday, overrides the Lenten rule of abstinence. Raise a glass and feast on meat in honor of St. Joseph today!