Reflections on SAINT JOSEPH, the silent protagonist of the first Christmas. From the writings and sermons of Saint Josemaría Escrivá De Balaguer (1902-1975). I never liked nor agreed with images of Saint Joseph as an old man. On the contrary, I see him as a strong young generous man, just a little older than Our Lady, in the prime of his life and work. Purity comes from love; and the strength and gaiety of youth are no obstacle for noble love. Joseph had a young heart and a young body when he married Mary, when he learned of the mystery of her divine motherhood, when he lived in her company, respecting the integrity God wished to give the world as one more sign that he had come to share the life of his creatures. Anyone who cannot understand a love like that knows very little of true love and is a complete stranger to the Christian meaning of chastity and purity of ones body. The name Joseph means God will add. God adds unsuspected dimensions to the holy lives of those who do His will with love, and unconditionally and without any sort of compromise. He adds the one important dimension which gives meaning to everything, the divine dimension. To the humble and holy life of Joseph, God added the lives of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus, our Lord, and entrusted Joseph with the two most precious and dearest persons to Him, His Only Begotten Son and His Mother. Because he was faithful and always had full trust in God, Saint Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life, even when this was very difficult to understand. That is why Saint Matthew, in his Gospel, praises Joseph as a just man. And in Hebrew a just man means a good and faithful servant of God, someone who fulfils the Divine will, and who is honourable and charitable toward his neighbour. So a just man is someone who loves God and proves his love by keeping Gods Commandments and directing his whole life toward the service of his fellow men. Saint Joseph was a man ever faithful to the mission God gave him. That is why I like to address him affectionately as Father and Lord. He protects those who revere him and accompanies them on their journey through this life, just as he protected and accompanied Jesus. If Joseph learned from Jesus to live in a divine way, I would be bold enough to say that, humanly speaking, there was much he taught Gods Son. There is something I do not quite like in that title of foster father which is sometimes given to Joseph, because it might make us think of the relationship between Joseph and Jesus as something cold and external. Certainly, our faith tells us that he was not His father according to the flesh, but this is not the only kind of fatherhood. Saint Joseph loved Jesus as a father loves his son and showed his love by giving Him the best he had, and taught Jesus to become an excellent craftsman, transmitting his own professional skill to Him. Jesus must have definitely resembled Saint Joseph in His way of working, in the features of His character, in His way of speaking, in His realism; all this certainly reflects the influence of Saint Joseph. Love Saint Joseph a lot, with all your soul, because he, together our Blessed Lady, has been closest to God. He deserves your affection, and it will do you immeasurable good to get to know him well, because he has great power before Jesus. Ite ad Ioseph: Go to Joseph”, a perfect master of interior life. Talk very often to the Holy Patriarch and get to know him closely. He surely will show you definite ways, both human and divine, to approach and know Jesus well. With Saint Joseph, the Christian learns what it means to belong to God and fully to assume ones place among men, sanctifying the world. Ask him always to help you. Place yourself under his powerful patronage and you will definitely feel the effectiveness of his power.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:47:36 +0000