Today's Reflection
February 8, 2010
The Mysteries of Joy
The Annunciation
The Visitation
The Birth of our Lord
The Presentation in the Temple
The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple
SAINT JOSEPH
Our Lady will give us a deeper understanding of Saint Joseph through the five Mysteries of Joy.
”Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”
Matt. 1:18
GREAT gladness for Mary! God’s own doing, the Son of God growing in her womb. Joyful Mysteries indeed for her, but for Joseph, sad bewilderment. He knew nothing of the angel’s visitation, nothing of God’s overshadowing. He knew only of Mary’s sanctity and still read the peace of innocence in her eyes; yet she was with child. Joseph could say nothing. He could only endure a storm of perplexities, until an angel dispersed the clouds: “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, she has conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
Joseph bore his trial, the Cross of the Christ Child, in silent, trustful patience. His silence says to me: Do likewise.
II. THE VISITATION
”Mary remained with her about three months.”
Luke 1:56
IN quick response to the angel’s revelation, Mary hastened to the home of her cousin Elizabeth. In Nazareth, Joseph was left alone to his thoughts. He reflected on this beautiful woman who was so blessed by God. His love for her was a holy thing; it was that highest form of love, the silent gazing on the spiritual. That is why, in the Gospels, Joseph has nothing to say. Mary was his joyful mystery.
I am often lost in my thoughts. Do I love as Joseph did?
III. THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD
”Joseph … of the house and family of David.”
Matt. 12:50
TWENTY-EIGHT generations had seen the descendants of David brought to humble station. David had been heir to the splendid spoils of a hundred petty kingdoms; King Solomon, his son, bowed low to no man on earth; but Joseph of Nazareth was a carpenter. Still the vocation is not the man. King David’s penitential psalmody was no fictional piety - adultery and murder were his crimes; Solomon, maker of God’s Temple, worshipped idols and did not repent, whereas Joseph of Nazareth was a most holy man. His was the regal soul: a fit court, even in a cave, for the tiny Prince of Peace who saw only with the eyes of God.
St. Joseph’s was not “headline” holiness. He is patron of unnoticed saints. He’d like to be mine!
IV. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
”Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
John 10:9
THE doorway to sanctity has a double lock. Doing one’s duty is the outside key. Joseph was meticulous about this. Simply, he “fulfilled all things prescribed.” But so did the Pharisees. They spent their lives doing just the right thing. They could match Joseph in this. But they had only the outside key, and theirs was “outside” piety. Joseph had the inside key, doing one’s duty for God: praying, working, sleeping, eating, all to please God, who sees what we do in secret.
It takes only a moment to say, “For You, Lord,” as I begin my day, and each activity of the day becomes a prayer and the inside key.
V. THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
”Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”
Heb. 11:1
JOSEPH would not live to see Jesus die. But he was not spared the lot of the saints - suffering with Christ. To Joseph, the incarnation had been an agonizing dilemma; for the Savior’s birth, he could do no better than a cave. Herod’s wrath had driven him to Egypt, there to fend for his family. He had stood by, heart heavy as stone, while Simeon somberly prophesied concerning Jesus and Mary. Now this fifth and most terrible sorrow: he had lost the boy Jesus. Joseph, silent prophet of the Mysteries of Sorrow.
St. Joseph was a very human person. And so he suffered. He suffered as he did everything else - for God. It was part of his “inside key” - and is part of mine.