ON THE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, Pope Francis announced a Year of St. Joseph to commemorate the 150th anniversary his being declared the patron and protector of the universal Church by Blessed Pope Pius IX. As St. Joseph guarded, defended and protected the Holy Family, so does he guard, defend and protect the family of Christ, which is the Church.
In a year that may feel darkened by a pandemic, lack of access to the Sacraments, civil unrest, natural disasters, not to mention all the ills we continue to witness, attacks on marriage, human life and the family, St. Joseph is providentially offered as a luminous beacon, and as a sign of God’s constant kindness and tender love for humanity.
Contemplating a Nativity scene, we behold a divine Infant, a Mother who found favour with God, and a foster father who somehow remains the most obscure of the three. Many Catholic authors have deliberated on the manifold parallels between Joseph of the Old Testament and Joseph of the New Testament.
The Joseph of the Old Testament was an interpreter of dreams while Mary’s husband was a known dreamer too. He was given God’s messages in dreams, which he never doubted. Both had fathers named Jacob; both were models of chastity; both made providential sojourns to Egypt. Old Joseph provided food for the hungry during a famine and protected his household in a foreign land. New Joseph too, was a provider and protector of his household in a foreign land.
This Christmas and the Year of St. Joseph calls on us to walk with St. Joseph to emulate his virtues by discovering his “hidden life.” In the gospels, Joseph does not speak a word; he is silent. But the gospels give us incidents that speak volumes on the nature of this silent man. Joseph’s “trouble” over Mary being found with child, the nativity, the presentation in the temple, the flight into Egypt, the losing and subsequent finding of the boy Jesus in the Temple—all these are mysteries that help us discover his virtues of tender love, care, leadership and protection.
Announcing the year of St. Joseph, the pope issued an apostolic letter, Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), where he enumerates seven virtues with which St. Joseph took care of Mary and Jesus. The onus lies on the faithful to meditate on his life and seek his protection.
How are we to celebrate this year in a way that most benefits our spiritual journey of following Jesus? Finding time to meditate on the life of the Holy Family in the gospels is inevitable to discover the saint in the gospels. Our New Year resolution could be for our prayer groups and parish communities to take up special Bible study sessions—even online sessions—to understand the scriptures better and imitate the virtues of the saint.
Parish communities could foster a devotion by introducing a votive Mass of St. Joseph on a regular basis and offer opportunities for parishioners to participate in appropriate activities and prayer sessions. Lessons on and devotion to St. Joseph could be included in our Sunday School and catechetical programme in parishes. Encouraging the faithful to visit Churches or shrines dedicated to St. Joseph and frequenting to sacraments are ways to celebrate this special Year of St. Joseph.
We wish all our readers a joyful and peaceful Christmas with St. Joseph! jose CMF
