Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 19, 2022 - March 19: St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred to Monday 3/20 if 3/19 is a Sunday; exception for 2008: transferred to Saturday, 3/15/08)
[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,69]"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 been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home." [Matthew]
In the liturgical calendar, the celebration of the feast of St. Joseph (March 19) comes before the feast of the Annunciation (March 25), which might leave me wondering how the "second annunciation" (in Matthew) got put, liturgically, before the "first one" (Luke). Although I am sure there must be a painting or two somewhere that celebrates the "second" annunciation (to Joseph), I can't recall seeing one. But Joseph is a principal party to God's plan and today is his celebration.
Credentials are important, and Joseph's principal "credential" is his descendancy from King David, in accord with the promise made to David, as noted in the first scripture for today from 2 Samuel 7: "Go, tell my servant David, 'When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm..."
Joseph is also characterized as faithful and obedient, which the second scripture from Romans indicates as crucial to the realization of God's promise to Abraham. [cf. Matthew 1:2-16]
These scriptural credentials are the foundation for the immense amount of piety and devotion that surrounds Joseph, from the huge shrine to him in Montreal (the result of the simple piety of a Holy Cross brother, St. Andre Bessett) to the St. Joseph Altars in parishes, to the paper slips of petition underneath his statue in the nursing homes of the LIttle Sisters of the Poor, to the plastic statuettes buried in the ground of real estate someone wants to sell! Pope Francis recently declared a special "Year of St. Joseph!"
Coming, as it does, in the middle of Lent, the feast of St. Joseph literally comes true in all the food at a St. Joseph Altar, which can be a welcome break to whatever fasting the church and personal piety imposes! We have a lot to be grateful for in this simple, faithful and obedient carpenter from Nazareth. AMEN
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