Lessons from St. Joseph

I AM sure that the first ones to be most happy at the

celebration of the Solemnity of St. Joseph are our Lord, Christ Jesus,

and his mother, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. And we, of course, join

them in this family celebration that is done liturgically in the whole

Church.

             Both are, of course, far more superior than this simple

carpenter, but they happen to receive the most direct, the most

delicate, and yet the most effective and affectionate service from

him.

  

            Mary needed a husband to legitimize before the eyes of the

people the fact that she was going to have a child. And Christ, of

course, needed a human father for the human side of his divine mission

here on earth. Joseph filled the bill perfectly. In heaven, there must

be some grand festivity in honor of this great simple man.

  

            Both Christ and Mary must be eager to tell us that we can

learn a lot from St. Joseph. It is very likely that they want us to

imitate Joseph’s simplicity and docility. When he thought of

separating from Mary because she was found to be with child before

they were married, he immediately changed his mind when he was told in

a dream the real score of Mary’s pregnancy.

  

            And when someone was in a rampage to kill toddlers that

would include the child Jesus, he immediately acted to flee into Egypt

when he was told, again in a dream, what he had to do. He just obeyed

without raising any question.

  

            Joseph just did very ordinary things that any husband and

father would do. And yet through these ordinary things he carried out

an important and indispensable role in the whole work of man’s

redemption by Christ.

  

            The lesson we can get here is that all our duties and

responsibilities of our state in life, whether we are married or

single, father, mother, son, daughter, worker, etc., are a way to

cooperate in God’s continuing and redemptive providence over us. We

need to appreciate more deeply the significance of our ordinary duties

which we often take for granted.

  

            And this is all because we are all children of God, and as

such, our life is always a life with God. Everyone of us has a

vocation that gives meaning and purpose, color and direction to our

whole life.

  

            Whether we are prominent in society or just an ordinary

guy, each one of us is called by God, i.e., is given a vocation and

has a mission to carry out in this life. We have to be aware of this

basic truth about ourselves and be most discerning as to what specific

vocation God is giving us.

  

            In the case of St. Joseph, he was called, almost from

nowhere, to be the husband of Mary and the foster father of Christ. It

would look as if he was just asked to play a cameo role, some kind of

a prop to complete the scene in a given play. And yet he did it very,

very well. 

            If we would just be faithful to our vocation, no matter

how small or hidden it is, we would be carrying out an important part

of God’s providence!