Daily Retreat 03/20/06

2006 Mar 20 Mon: JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF MARY S

2 Sm 7: 4-5a. 12-14a. 16/ Ps 88(89): 2-3. 4-5. 27 and 29/ Rom 4: 13. 16-18. 22/ Mt 1: 16. 18-21. 24a or Lk 2: 41-51a

From today’s readings: "Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before Me; your throne shall stand firm forever.... I have sworn to David My servant: Forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations.... as it is written, I have made you father of many nations.... His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for You with great anxiety.’ "

St. Joseph

It’s odd that, while so many people celebrate the feast of St. Patrick (March 17), far fewer people are even aware of the much more solemn and important feast in honor of St. Joseph (generally celebrated on March 19^th, but "bumped" up this and other years when the 19^th is a Sunday of Lent).

It’s absolutely essential to Christian faith to recall that Jesus was begotten by God the Father, and born of the Virgin Mary; consequently, the Gospels are clear that Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the foster father of Jesus, not His natural father (forgive me if it seems I’m belaboring such a basic point, but after running across too many Christians ignorant of this fact, I’ve concluded that it needs to be reviewed more frequently).

Although Joseph was called by God to be head of the Holy Family, Jesus is the center, and the Immaculate Virgin Mary’s role is infinitely more exalted than that of her husband, so Joseph is necessarily the most diminutive member of that family - in fact, scripture does not record a single word spoken by him! But that doesn’t mean at all that he deserves to be overlooked - in fact, next to Mary, Joseph enjoys the highest degree of saintly dignity. Note how St. Luke, who stresses the Virginal Birth most emphatically, nonetheless refers (without an apologetic qualifier!) to Joseph and Mary as the "parents" of Jesus, and Mary herself even refers to Joseph as "Your father" when speaking to the child Jesus in the Temple.

Because of his privileged role as putative father of Jesus, husband of Mary, head and guardian of the Holy Family, St. Joseph is thus to be honored by the whole Church, especially today on his solemn feast day. Indeed, it is only this day and next week’s feast of the Annunciation which are ranked as solemnities in the Church’s liturgical calendar, preempting the austerity of Lent with the joyful overtones of these two fundamental feasts in the mystery of salvation!