SOLEMNITY OF ST. JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY - 2022

 

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

They are happy who dwell in your house, O Lord,
forever singing your praise. PS 83:5

2 SAMUEL 7:4-5,12-14,16 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

David had a noble desire and the prophet Nathan agreed and told him to go ahead and build a house for the Lord. But often our ways are not Your ways, our plans not Your plans. Your ways are higher and Your plans are everlasting. 

But this is what God assured him, to his offspring would be given the privilege to establish an everlasting Kingdom and his sovereignty over it would be secure.

Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, foster father of Jesus, protector of the Holy Family, and the universal Church. He comes from the lineage of David. The prophecy of Nathan is fulfilled. 

As the guardian of the Holy Child, and His father on earth, You were accorded singular favors by God the Father and You continue to enjoy them in eternity.

‘I will be a father to him and he a son to me. Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established forever.’

ROMANS 4:13,16-18,22 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Among the many prophets and righteous people in the Bible, St. Joseph is ranked high above them all. All that made Abraham, our father in faith, righteous, can be ascribed to St. Joseph in double measure. The great honor that the Church extends to him is rightly conferred.

Which man apart from his spouse, the Virgin Mary and Mother of our God did the will of God so promptly, obediently, and humbly as St. Joseph? After You and Your Mother, he most perfectly images agape love. He spent his entire life attuned to the voice of God. He spent his life in service to You and Mary, always aware, of the trust God had placed in him and greatly humbled by the privilege accorded to him by God. 

All that St. Paul has written about Abraham in these verses in his letter to the Romans can be safely ascribed to St. Joseph as well. No one in the New Testament comes close apart from Your Mother. Everything about the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth is a contradiction as God's ways generally are.

Lord Jesus, thank You for St. Joseph who is our model for righteous, obedient, and humble living in the service of God and our neighbor.

MATTHEW 1:16,18-21,24 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The evangelist concludes Your genealogy with these words:

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.

He then goes on to describe for all generations to come details of how You were born. With just a few broad brush strokes he paints a vivid, unforgettable picture that reveals the sterling qualities of St. Joseph.

Here was a man betrothed to the love of his life who is the epitome of purity and filled with every grace and virtue is brought face to face with the truth and all his hopes, plans, and dreams are smashed irrevocably or so he believes, to smithereens. The prophecy that every Jew imbibed with their mother's milk and hoped would be fulfilled in their lifetime has finally come to pass, IS 7:14. Once he became aware that Mary was the virgin who would conceive and bear a son whose name will be Emmanuel, how could he take her as his wife? It was unthinkable. So he resolved to do what any righteous, holy man would do as revealed in the words of the evangelist: Her husband Joseph; being a man of honor and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. 

He had made up his mind that this was what he had to do. To cause Mary as little public shame and dishonor as possible and once he had made him an angel appeared to him in a dream and gave him the most unbelievable, glorious, gift ever given to any human being, after Mary of course. The angel said,

 ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ 

Joseph woke up and one can only imagine how wonderstruck he was Beloved, as, with trembling excitement and awe, he did exactly what the angel of the Lord had told him to do. This was to be the pattern of his life - doing exactly what the Lord told him to until he died in Your arms and in the arms of Mary, Your Mother, and ours.