XVIII — PATRONAGE OF ST. JOSEPH

Wednesday of the II week after Easter

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

Meditation

1 — In this week dominated by the figure of Jesus the good Shepherd, the Church presents us another good shepherd, St. Joseph, to whose care God wished to entrust the most chosen portion of his flock: Mary Most Holy 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 Christianity. This is the meaning of today’s feast, which thus completes that of March 19 and 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 cares, his energies, his resources, his time. He reserved nothing for himself, but, totally forgetful of any personal demand, desire, or view, gave himself wholly to Jesus’ interests and work; for Joseph there exist only Jesus and Mary, and he feels that his life has no other reason for being than their service, their protection. Thus he participated fully, as a humble and hidden collaborator, in the work of Redemption and, if he did not accompany Jesus in his apostolic life and in his death on the cross - as Mary did - he nevertheless worked toward the same ends as the Savior.

Since he was the faithful guardian of the Holy Family, it is not possible that from heaven he should not continue to be guardian of the great Christian family, the whole Church, which, sure of his protection and relying on it, thus prays in the Mass of the day: “Sustained by the patronage of the Spouse of your Most Holy Mother, we implore, O Lord, your clemency... by his merits and his intercession lead us to eternal glory” (Secret and Postcommunion).

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 point of division between the old and the new testament: the first part of his life belongs to the old, the second to the new. Before Jesus’ coming, he, like all the patriarchs of the old covenant, certainly followed the spirit of his times, so that his relations with God were informed above all by a sense of sacred reverential fear. But from the moment the Angel reveals the mystery of the Incarnation to him and he comes to know that Mary, his Spouse, is 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 his Spouse’s womb and even to choose him as his putative father. As soon as born, He is placed in his arms, entrusted to his care, and then will grow up under his gaze, will feed at his table, sleep under his roof. What a life of intimacy! And not only intimacy of external family 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 opened to us. We therefore see Joseph fulfilling his mission not only with total external dedication, but also with a heart full of Jesus, in which a splendid life of divine intimacy blossoms. While giving himself to the works required by his task as putative father, in the secret of his soul he lives in continual relations of love with his God, the Incarnate Word.

In the Church each of us has his own little mission to accomplish for the good of souls and for the glory of God, a mission requiring works and often laborious works, sacrifices, and intense action. Like St. Joseph, we must give ourselves with generosity, with totality, without sparing ourselves, 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 through assiduous exercise of prayer. May Joseph teach us his sweet secret of life at once active and contemplative, so that, like him, we may know how to give ourselves to action without neglecting our life of intimate union with God.

Colloquy

“Blessed are you, O Joseph, happy Saint, to whom it was given not only to see 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 guard Him... O St. Joseph, the other saints saw God after death, but you, while still living, like the blessed, enjoyed his presence beside you. You pressed the child Jesus to your heart, followed Him and served Him in Egypt, sheltered Him under your roof” (cf. RB.).

“Oh, how many sweet kisses you received from Him! With what sweetness you heard yourself called father by the little Child who could scarcely babble, and with what tenderness you felt yourself sweetly embraced. With what love, on journeys, did you let Him rest on your knees while He, still a child, was exhausted by fatigue! A love without reserve drew you toward Him as toward a sweetest Son whom the Holy Spirit had entrusted to you through the Virgin your Spouse” (St. Bernardine of Siena).

“It is truly marvelous to recall the great favors the Lord has done me through St. Joseph’s intercession, both of soul and body, from which he has freed me. It seems God has granted to the other saints to aid only in this or that necessity; but you extend your patronage to every need... Souls of prayer ought to be devoted to you, and whoever had no one from whom to learn prayer should take you as master and will not be mistaken” (T.J. Life 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 I place my interior life: you who lived so close to Jesus, draw me into his intimacy and grant that, like you, I may serve Him with a heart full of love.