Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - 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]The Lord spoke to Nathan and said: "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......Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'" "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...." [Matthew]
St. Joseph has come to mean so many things to so many people it is difficult to isolate what might be more important. Devotion to him has included the building of the mammoth Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal through the dedication of St. Andre Besette or the placing of a slip of paper beneath his statue with a particular intention by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Denver or burying a tiny plastic statuette of him in the ground of a piece of real estate someone wants to sell!!! He is the patron saint of workers, fathers, the universal Church, numerous religious orders and a happy death among others!
The scriptures today focus on ancestry. The promised Messiah was believed to come from the lineage of David, according to the promise given to David in 2 Samuel 7. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that "the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father..." In today's gospel, Joseph is addressed as "son of David." Joseph took the very pregnant Mary to Bethlehem, the City of David, to comply with a census law because he was of the "house and family of David [Luke 2:4]" In the Gospel According to Matthew, addressed to a Jewish Christian community, the annunciation is made to Joseph, son of David, and not to Mary!!!
This is not just a matter of DNA! It all points out to us God's plan of salvation being worked out through human history and instruments over centuries of ups and downs. David and his immediate heir, Solomon, were anything but perfect, and neither are we. But God is a god of promises and fulfillment. St. Joseph, for all the various intentions we put in his care, remains a crucial figure in the fulfillment of God's promises. AMEN