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THE SAINTS AND US
Sr. Natália Maria Areais da Rocha, asm
Sister of the Covenant of St. Mary


A MAN NAMED JOSÉ


“The Saints and Us” is the name of this section, which opens today with “a man named Joseph, of the house of David” (Lk 1:27).

Is there anything left to share about St. Joseph after what Pope Francis left us in his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde?

However, another focus runs through “The Saints and Us”, a vital and personal focus: St. Joseph and us - St. Joseph and me!

I see St. Joseph as a remarkable man, with a beauty that, no matter how much it is contemplated, never tires of showing itself. The beauty of this man is that of a whole man, “made of one piece”, consistent and faithful to the commitments he made to his God and Lord.

A man who accepts and puts all things into perspective, because of the love of father and husband to which he is called. For Joseph, being a father and a husband meant embracing the Mystery, it meant making a Son and a wife his own, different from other possible children or wives.

Joseph loves them entirely as his own, without appropriating them, without exercising any kind of power, without seeking anything for himself, giving himself without conditions or rewards, just like the Lord Jesus who comes into the world to serve and give his life and not to be served (cf. Mk 10:45). The kenosis of the Son of God in his historical existence deeply touches the being and the whole life of Joseph, as well as that of Mary. He participates and shares in Christ's lowering of himself, in a life given over to the merciful love of the Father.

Despite his silence in the Gospels, I believe in a man who lived this selflessness with a contagious, profound and unique joy that only the knowledge and intimacy of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary can give! They were everything in his life.

This is a striking feature of the love between this very devoted father and his children: St. Joseph leads them to put the persons of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in their proper place.

No one like him, among human beings, knows and loves them; he lived with them in daily surrender, in great trust even though he didn't understand everything, as we don't either; he knows what it's like to embrace the mysteries of God.

S. Joseph teaches us availability and acceptance, he teaches us to spend our lives for Jesus Christ and his Kingdom, to put him at the center of our lives and all our interests. He teaches us to spend time with Jesus in the silence of adoration and to welcome him into our “home”, both in the intimacy of the Eucharist and in our encounters with our brothers and sisters.

S. Joseph teaches us to put our relationship with and love for the Mother of Jesus and our Mother in the right place. He shows the Mother's true love and dedication to the Son of God, begotten in her womb, and this same true love for her other children, begotten and received at the foot of the Lord's Cross!

I believe that St. Joseph's greatest joy in relation to us, his much-loved children, is to make our home - inside and out - his home, where Jesus takes center stage and where the Virgin Mary is loved and honored as part of the family!

“if we are children of God, we are also heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”
(Rom 8:16-17)


S. Joseph, zealous father,
beloved are we in your house,
heirs with Christ, the Firstborn,
heirs of the Heavenly Father's mercy,
the grace of his Spirit
and the love of the Blessed Mother,
We, the heirs with Christ of your faithful heart,
we ask you: (a)keep us with him!
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