March 19 — LIFE OF FAITH IN ST. JOSEPH

Presence of God. — At your school, O glorious St. Joseph, I desire to learn to live by faith, letting myself in all things be guided by divine Providence.

Meditation

1 — The fundamental attitude of St. Joseph’s life is entirely one of trust and abandonment in God, and it springs from his faith. St. Matthew says of him “that he was a just man” (1, 19), now Sacred Scripture teaches that “the just man lives by faith” (Rom. 1, 17), and one can truly affirm that no one lived by faith as Joseph did. In fact, since his life unfolded in the orbit of the mystery of the Incarnation, it necessarily had to pass through all those obscurities that surrounded the fulfillment of the great mystery; Joseph therefore needed a great faith, a faith continually nourished by sufferings and tempered through anguish. The perplexities awakened in him by Mary’s mysterious maternity, the extreme poverty and hardships of Bethlehem, the discomforts of the flight into Egypt made his delicate soul groan, so much so that in the gravest moments he needed the intervention of an Angel, by whom he was sustained and introduced into the depths of the divine mystery unfolding before his eyes. And Joseph lets himself be guided with the docility and blind trust of a child. These four facts reported by the Gospel bear witness to it.

1st The Angel puts an end to his anxieties by ordering him to take the Blessed Virgin Mary as wife “for what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”: Joseph does not hesitate an instant and does “as the Angel of the Lord had commanded him” (Mt. 1, 20 and 24). 2nd The Angel warns him to “take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt” (ibid., 2, 13): without delay, in the middle of the night, the Saint rises and executes the order. Objectively, the flight presented very great difficulties: enormous hardships and dangers of the journey, extreme poverty, exile in a foreign land; but the Angel has spoken and Joseph obeys. 3rd After Herod’s death, the Angel orders him to return to the land of Israel. 4th The Angel warns him to withdraw to Galilee (cf. ibid., 2, 19-23).

Here we have four acts of faith and blind obedience. Joseph does not hesitate, does not reason, does not object, because he trusts God totally, because he believes fully in Him, in His word, in His divine Providence.

2 — St. Joseph’s whole life is summed up in continual adherence to the divine plan, even before situations very mysterious and obscure for him.

In our life too there is always some mystery, both because God loves to work in a hidden, secret way, and because His action is always impenetrable to our poor human intellect. What is needed, then, is that gaze of faith, that total trust which, relying on God’s infinite goodness, makes us convinced that He always, and through every circumstance, wills our good and disposes everything to that end. Only with this trust can we, like St. Joseph, always say our yes before every manifestation of the divine will, a humble, prompt, trusting yes, despite obscurities, difficulties, mystery... God used angels to manifest His will to Joseph; and to manifest it to us He uses our superiors who, like angels, are His messengers, His envoys. Let us obey with Joseph’s simplicity, certain that God can use any person and any circumstance to make known and carry out His divine will for us; just as He used Caesar’s decree to lead Joseph to Bethlehem, where Jesus had to be born. The intentions of the Roman emperor had been quite different, yet God used that political act to carry out the plan of the Incarnation. It is always true that God governs all and directs all to the fulfillment of His will.

Another characteristic of St. Joseph’s life is that he totally consecrated himself to the mission entrusted to him by God: Joseph does not live for himself, for his personal interests, but solely for God, whom he serves in Jesus and in Mary. St. Joseph is thus the true model for souls of interior life, souls that aspire to live totally for God and with God, in the fulfillment of the mission received from Him.

Colloquy

“O Joseph, how I love you! How much good it does me to think of your life, so simple, humble. How much good it does me to think that you too lived by faith as we do. I contemplate you in the little house of Nazareth beside Jesus and Mary, wholly occupied in working for them. I seem to see you planing wood, then from time to time wiping your brow and hurrying to finish in time the work to deliver to customers. Though living beside the Son of God, your life unfolded in an entirely ordinary way, because certainly Jesus did not work useless miracles... In your life everything happened as in ours. And how many sorrows, how many labors, how many dangers! How astonished we would be if we knew all that you suffered!” (cf. Th. of the Child Jesus, CR. and NV.)

“I do not know how one can think of the Queen of angels and of how much she suffered with the Child Jesus, without thinking of you, glorious St. Joseph, without thanking you, who were so great a help to them! For this reason it seems to me that persons of prayer should be especially devoted to you...

“From the great experience I have of the favors you obtain from God, I would like to persuade everyone to be devoted to you. I have not known anyone truly devoted to you and practicing in your honor some particular devotion who does not make notable progress on the way of virtue. Souls who commend themselves to you are helped in a wholly special way. I have clearly seen that your help has always been greater than I could have hoped. I do not remember having asked you any grace without obtaining it at once. The Lord wants us to understand by this that, just as He was subject to you on earth, where you, as father and guardian, could command Him, so also in heaven He continues to do whatever you ask of Him” (cf. St. Teresa of Jesus, V. 6, 6-8).

O dear St. Joseph, I place myself then with full trust under your patronage; teach me to live like you by faith and abandonment in God, teach me to live solely for Him, giving myself wholly to His service.