2Sam 7.4-5.12-14.16; Ps 88; Rom 4: 13.16-18.22; Mt 1: 16.18-21.24
May the Lord give you His peace!
This year, the celebration of to-day's solemnity has particular relevance, because last December 8, Pope Francis announced the year of St. Joseph to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his proclamation as patron of the universal Church. Here in Nazareth, we therefore wish to celebrate this feast in a particularly solemn way and throughout the year we will propose special prayer initiatives, here and also in Bethlehem, to be inspired by the way in which the humble carpenter of Nazareth accepted the call of the Lord to take Mary with him as his bride and to welcome and educate the Son of God, Jesus, introducing Him into the house or lineage of David.
Looking at how Joseph lived his vocation we can therefore understand something of the Fatherhood of God and at the same time something of the fatherhood to which we too are called.
In fact, to be fathers, the physical act of generating is not enough, but something much deeper and more demanding is needed. A moment is enough to physically generate, but to generate in an authentically human sense it takes a whole life. It is necessary to know how to arouse, promote, guard and accompany the life and growth of the persons that God gives us and entrusts to us, until in turn the persons who have been entrusted to us will be able to open themselves to the will of God, to HIS call.
In this Saint Joseph is truly exemplary, in fact, he knows how to express the humility of the service to life and the gratuitous love for life. Joseph welcomes the nascent life of the Son of God who becomes flesh in Mary through the work of the Holy Spirit not with the pride of those who want to see their lineage continue or of those who want to plan a successful future for their children, but with the availability of those who open the doors of their home to the Son of God and certainly also the genealogical line of their lineage so that the Son of God can enter our history, become man, receive a name and offer us the salvation that He bears in His name.
Joseph accompanies Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, in His growth. He takes care of Him when His life is in danger. He takes care of Him as a migrant and refugee in Egypt. He teaches Him how to be obedient and how to work, to pray, to read the Word of God and to go on pilgrimage, and how to be attentive to the poor and the sick.
In the end Joseph disappears and Jesus takes on His own vocation and begins His own mission and yet everyone still recognizes Him as the Son of Joseph the carpenter, a sign that the education He received left an indelible mark on the humanity of Jesus.
Joseph is not someone who tries to affirm himself and his own projects, on the contrary, he is one who is willing to put aside himself and his own projects as long as God's will is fulfilled, as long as the history of salvation proceeds, as long as God enters into this world of ours, a world so in need of Him and yet at the same time unable to welcome Him.
Joseph - according to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew - does not complain about the problems and difficulties of life, he simply faces them one by one with confidence and courage, with love for the dearest people who are entrusted to him.
Joseph teaches us that it is not important to have millions of followers and likes on Facebook, indeed no, what is important is that we learn to be followers of God's Will, and the only important desire in our life is to please God and to find our pleasure in God.
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
And may the Lord, through the intercession of Saint Joseph, bless us and keep us all!