March 19 — ST. JOSEPH PATRON OF THE CHURCH

Presence of God. — O glorious St. Joseph, grant that under your patronage my interior life may grow and develop.

Meditation

1 — Today the Church presents to us St. Joseph, the great patriarch to whose custody God willed to entrust the choicest portion of His flock: the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus. Precisely because Joseph was chosen by God as guardian of the family of Nazareth, first nucleus of the great Christian family, the Church has wished to recognize in him the guardian, the patron of all Christendom. This is the meaning of today’s feast, which thus invites us to fix our gaze on the mission of the great Saint in relation to Jesus and to His Church.

Once he knew the mystery of the Incarnation, Joseph’s whole life gravitated around that of the Incarnate Word: for Him his anxieties, his sufferings, his labors, his work; for Him all his care, his energies, his resources, his time. He reserved nothing for himself, but, totally forgetful of every personal demand, desire, or outlook, gave himself entirely to the interests and work of Jesus; for Joseph there exist only Jesus and Mary, and he feels that his life has no other reason for being than their service, their cause. Thus he fully shared, as a humble and hidden collaborator, in the work of Redemption and, if he did not accompany Jesus in His apostolic life and at His death on the cross - as Mary did - he nonetheless worked for the same ends as the Savior.

Having been the faithful guardian of the Holy Family, it is impossible that from heaven St. Joseph should not continue to be guardian of the great Christian family, the whole Church, which, certain of his protection and relying on it, thus prays: “Supported by the patronage of the Spouse of your most holy Mother, we implore, O Lord, your clemency...; by his merits and by his intercession guide us to eternal glory” (MR).

2 — Joseph’s call to be guardian of the family of Nazareth was also a call to divine intimacy. We must not forget that St. Joseph stands at the dividing point between the Old and New Testaments; the first part of his life belongs to the old and the second to the new. Before Jesus came, he, like all patriarchs of the old covenant, certainly followed the orientation of his times, by which his relations with God would have been marked above all by a sense of sacred reverential fear. But from the moment the Angel reveals to him the mystery of the Incarnation and he comes to know that Mary, his Spouse, is the Mother of the Redeemer, everything changes in his life. God, always honored by him as the Most High, the Inaccessible, the thrice Holy, draws near to him, so near as to become incarnate in the womb of his Spouse and even to choose him as His putative father. As soon as He is born, He is placed in his arms, entrusted to his care, and then He will grow under his eyes, eat at his table, sleep under his roof. What a life of intimacy! And not only intimacy of external relations, but also of interior, spiritual relations, because Joseph knows by faith that Jesus is his God. Thus, together with Mary, the great Saint was the first to enter that life of love and intimacy with God whose doors Jesus has opened for us. So let us see Joseph fulfilling his mission not only with total external dedication, but also with a heart full of Jesus, in which there blossoms a splendid life of divine intimacy. While he gives himself to the works required by his office of putative father, in the secrecy of his soul he lives in continual relations of love with his God, the Incarnate Word.

In the Church each of us has his mission to fulfill for the good of souls and for the glory of God, a mission that requires works, and often laborious works, sacrifices and intense action. Like St. Joseph, we must give ourselves with generosity, with totality, without sparing, without reserve; but at the same time we too must give ourselves to God’s works with a heart full of God, with a heart that lives in intimacy with Him, nourishing this intimacy by assiduous exercise of prayer. May Joseph teach us his sweet secret of active and contemplative life together, so that, like him, we may know how to give ourselves to action without neglecting our life of intimate union with God.

Colloquy

“St. Joseph, blessed are you, to whom it was given not only to see and hear that God whom many kings desired to see and did not see, to hear and did not hear, but also to carry Him in your arms, to kiss Him, to clothe Him, and to guard Him!... O St. Joseph, the others only after death, but you while still living, like the blessed, enjoy God and live beside Him. You press the Child Jesus to your heart, you follow Him as an exile into Egypt, you shelter Him beneath your roof” (cf. BR.)

“Oh, how many sweet kisses you received from Him! With what sweetness you felt yourself being caressed by the little Child who scarcely babbled, and with what gentleness you felt yourself sweetly embraced. With what love, on journeys, you made Him rest on your knees while He, still a child, was worn out by fatigue! A love without reserve drew you toward Him, as toward a most sweet Son whom the Holy Spirit had given you through the Virgin your spouse” (St. Bernardine of Siena).

“O glorious Saint, it is truly astonishing to recall the great favors the Lord has granted me and the dangers, both of soul and body, from which through your intercession He has delivered me. It seems that to other Saints God has granted helping us in this or that necessity, but you extend your patronage over everything... Persons of prayer should be especially devoted to you;... and whoever has no teacher from whom to learn how to pray should take you as guide and will not go astray” (L. V. 6, 6 and 8).

O Joseph, grant that under your patronage the life of the whole Church and the interior life of every Christian may grow and prosper. Under your protection place my spiritual life; you who lived so near to Jesus, introduce me into His intimacy and grant that, like you, I may serve Him with a heart full of love.