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AN EXTRAORDINARY “FATHER” OF THE CHURCH - stephenkhoo - 03-20-2014 06:38 PM
AN EXTRAORDINARY “FATHER” OF THE CHURCH
SCRIPTURE READINGS:2 SM 7:4-5, 12-14-16; ROM 4:13, 16-18, 22; MT 1:16-21, 24
http://www.universalis.com/20140319/mass.htm
Today, we celebrate the feast of an ordinary man, so ordinary that he is called the Patron of workers, not of CEOs. He is the everyday man. Indeed, there is nothing apparently exceptional about St Joseph. In fact, he is not even heard in the gospels, but only heard about. One wonders why the Church makes such a big fuss about him, even celebrating his feast with a solemnity, breaking the austere mood of the Lenten season.
That Joseph has an important place in salvation history is undeniable. Together with the feast of the Annunciation, both are ranked as solemnities in the Liturgical Calendar; underscoring their vital role in the economy of salvation. But Joseph’s place, unlike Mary, was simply to be the guardian and protector of the Father’s divine Son and Mary, His mother. He was chosen to be the legal father and custodian of Jesus. This explains why St Luke’s story of the Virginal Birth is complemented with the mention of Joseph and Mary as the “parents” of Jesus. And Mary herself even refers to Joseph as “Your father” when reprimanding Jesus at the Temple when they found him. Of course, the choice of Joseph in Matthew’s gospel establishes Jesus as the fulfillment of scripture and legally introduced Jesus into the house of David in which the Messiah was prophesied as the “son of David.”
However, the role of Joseph should not be simply reduced to his being the legal adoptive father. Here is a man who cooperated with the grace of God in his life. It was his cooperation with God’s call that made Joseph a great saint and given the title of the Patron of the Universal Church.
What are the outstanding qualities and virtues we find in Joseph? Primarily, he is the model of a righteous and just man. He always did the right things in the right way. When he found Mary to be with child, he sought to act justly, and yet his justice was tampered with sobriety in judgment and compassion. He did not accuse Mary of committing adultery, although he could not understand how it could have been possible for her to conceive otherwise. He continued to affirm his trust in her. At the same time, he had to fulfill the laws and so he managed to think of a way to put Mary away without exposing her to undue publicity.
But perhaps, most of all, St Joseph should be for us a model of faith. He could not have given himself so fully in cooperating with the grace of God if not for his faith in divine providence. He trusted in God’s word without even seeing the divine plan clearly. Indeed, the plan of God was unfolded to him gradually, step by step. Yet, like Abraham, he took the journey in faith and trusted that God would guide him. Like Abraham, we can say with St Paul, “This is the faith that was “considered as justifying him”. Unlike him, many of us want God to reveal the full plan for us before we embark on the journey. We easily get shaken in our faith, especially when things do not turn out well. We do not have the faith to surrender our lives and our projects to the Lord, relying on Him alone after we have done all our best.
This faith is of course manifested in the humble exercise of obedience. In the face of a false autonomy promoted in the world today, where there is an exaggerated emphasis on individual liberty at the expense of others, St Joseph helps us recover the spirit of simplicity and obedience, and most of all, a reverential respect of God’s will.
If Joseph could remain calm and submit to God’s will after discovering the pregnancy of Mary, it was because he was a man of prayer and therefore of discernment. Indeed, the silence of Joseph speaks a lot about his inner strength. In that silence, he manifested his deep interior life as seen in the faith he had in God and in Mary. It is that silence and careful discernment in the Spirit that guided his thoughts and action. It was a silence too that he shared with Mary at Bethlehem, when the Magi visited them. Not a word came from him, but we know that it was certainly not an empty silence but a silence as Pope Benedict says, a “silence interwoven with constant prayer, a prayer of blessing of the Lord, of adoration of His holy will and of boundless confidence in His providence.” Pope John Paul II says, that “his silence is permeated with the contemplation of the mystery of God, in an attitude of total availability to the divine will.”
From this silence, springs forth his actions. Joseph was certainly not a procrastinator or a timid person. When the Lord revealed to him in a dream that he was to take Mary to be his wife, he immediately took action and welcomed Mary as his spouse and also assumed the role of foster father to the Son of God. How many of us would respond to God’s will when we come to realize His will for us so spontaneously? Is it not true that most of us tend to procrastinate and find excuses and justifications either not to submit to His plan or delay in implementing what we find difficult to do?
Such is the foresight, decisiveness and calmness of Joseph that made him truly the right person to help Jesus in his human formation. Pope Benedict remarked that “it is not exaggerated to say that Jesus will learn – on a human level – precisely from “father” Joseph this intense interior life, which is the condition of authentic righteousness, the “interior righteousness,” which one day He will teach to his disciples (cf. Matthew 5:20). Joseph’s role in watching over the human growth of Jesus certainly should be a source of inspiration for all of us who exercise the role of guardianship in looking after those who are entrusted to our care, be we parents, teachers, leaders or priests.
Indeed, Joseph was a man of service and lived his life in cooperation with God’s plan. He was at the service of Mary and Jesus. Those of us who have the responsibility of being “fathers” and “guides” must look to him for inspiration in our work of formation.
Let us turn to St Joseph to find strength and perseverance, especially in being a contemplative in prayer. We need to listen to the Spirit speaking in the inner silence of our hearts. Joseph lived in union with God throughout the day in the midst of his work as a carpenter. Had he not been intimate with God, he would not have had the docility to listen to Him, whether in his heart or in his dreams.
Today we are called to imitate Joseph if we want to cultivate the virtues of acting justly, responsibly, wisely, courageously and decisively. He reminds us to walk in faith, not by sight, always trusting in His divine providence and relying on His grace. Of course such a life is only possible through a deep interior prayer life and constant recollection of God’s presence. Let us entrust ourselves to him so that we too can follow him to be the guardian of those placed under our care.