Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 19, 2016 - March 19 - St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
[2 Sam 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matt 1:16, 18-21, 24a or Luke 2:41-51a,614]"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take MAry your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has ben conceived in her." [Matthew]
SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2016 ST. JOSEPH, SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
[2 Samuel7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a or Luke 2:41-51a]
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take MAry your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has ben conceived in her." [Matthew]
Joseph, the husband of Mary, means many things for a person who makes an almost cameo appearance in the New Testament. The passage from the Gospel of Matthew emphasizes that he is of the lineage of David, which fulfills the covenant mentioned in the first scripture of the day from 2 Samuel. The passage from the Gospel of Luke shows him as a faithful Jew who brought his wife and child to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and as a faithful parent who searched for the missing child, Jesus. His trade as a carpenter gets a mention in the Gospel of Mark (6:3).
Considerable tradition has grown up around these brief references. The humble Holy Cross brother, St. Andre Bessett, built a small chapel in his honor that grew into the massive St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal, Canada. The Little Sisters of the Poor, who operate very fine nursing homes for the elderly, have story after story of being in desperate need and placing a slip of paper with the need written on it under a statue of St. Joseph. The request has been honored time after time. And, of course, many Catholics (and some non-Catholics, too) know the tradition of burying a small statue of St. Joseph in the ground of a piece of real estate to assist in finding a buyer. (Some swear that the statue has to be buried upside down! Poor Joseph!). He is patron saint of too many things and countries to mention here.
The compassionate man who acted in faith when presented with a very difficult and sensitive decision to make seems the most attractive to me. I invite the Beloved Congregation to take a brief break from Lent to think about Joseph the person and Joseph the cooperator in God's plan of salvation. AMEN
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