When
your days have been completed and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up
your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his
kingdom. He it is who shall build a house for my
name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. I will be
a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
2 Samuel 7:12-14A
When
his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son,
why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with
great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not
know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he
said to them. Luke
2:48-50
Piety
Father show me where I fit into this plan of
yours.
How can a man be father to the Son of God?
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter.
How can I raise a king, how can I raise a king?
Michael Card - Joseph's Song Lyrics
How can a man be father to the Son of God?
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter.
How can I raise a king, how can I raise a king?
Michael Card - Joseph's Song Lyrics
Study
We remember saints Patrick and Joseph
at this time of March every year.
Ironically, for St. Patrick’s Day, several web sites I visited urged
people to watch the John Ford-directed film The Quiet Man (starring John Wayne
and Maureen O’Hara) to see how Hollywood tried to overcome prejudice against the
Irish.
The Quiet
Man is an interesting title and it could be the subtitle to our solemnity
today: St. Joseph the Worker, aka The
Quiet Man. Because throughout the
Gospels, St. Joseph utters not a single word that is quoted directly.
He appears
numerous times but each story is recounted in the third person. Angelic revelations. Reverse Exodus back to Egypt. New Exodus back to Palestine. The encounter with Simeon and Anna. Today’s Passover story of Jesus teaching in
the temple. Joseph had a role in each of
the Joyful Mysteries yet he utters not a single Amen nor a Hallelujah. The
Quiet Man.
[St. Joseph]
ignores conventional mores and marries the pregnant Mary. He never says a word
in the Gospels. He simply prayerfully follows the mysterious promptings of the
Holy Spirit revealed to him in dreams. He risks his life and acts to protect
Mary and the baby Jesus.[i]
The only way to know what is revealed to
someone in their dreams would be if they told those dreams to a third
person. Who would that be? Joseph sitting in a quiet barn awaiting the
birth of Jesus confides in Mary that he had his own personal “Annunciation?” A few weeks later, as Mary was strong enough
to travel home with the Baby and the Magi gifts, Joseph tells her of his Second
Annunciation – the second message he got from an angel to flee to Egypt? Or maybe, taking a break from building a
house with his apprentice son, they sit in the shade of a tree and the father
shares those experiences with Jesus.
Our Quiet Man had to speak out. But he did not have to shout out. He could get the word out in simple
one-on-one conversations.
Action
Where are you looking for Jesus today? What do you expect to find? Who will you tell about the experience?
Pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary today
and reflect on what you would be thinking if you were St. Joseph in each scene.
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