512. Fourth Sunday of St Joseph

Meditations no. 443 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

St Joseph, by his continuous relationship with Jesus, is the Master of the interior life.

On the past three Sundays we have considered the role of Our Father and Lord St Joseph, as patron who protects and accompanies those who venerate him. As you get to know him, you discover that the Holy Patriarch is also a master of the interior life - for he teaches us to know Jesus and share our life with him, and to realize that we are part of God’s family.

The relationship of Mary and Joseph with the Child Jesus can be the theme of our meditation today, so as to live our life according to that model. For some time now, our Father told us in 1963, I have enjoyed using a moving invocation to St Joseph, which the Church has offered us, in the preparatory prayers of the Mass: Joseph, blessed and happy man, who was permitted to see and hear the God whom many kings wished in vain to see and hear, and not only to see and hear him, but carry him in your arms, kiss him, clothe him and care for him: pray for us.

Those months the Holy Family spent in Bethlehem, the time of their exile in Egypt and, afterwards, the years in the home of Nazareth, were always full of intimacy and affection. We can imagine the scenes that took place day after day, and we can contemplate Joseph who, on finishing his work, takes the Child in his arms and sings him to sleep at night. St Joseph, our Father and Lord, we ask him with words of our founder, most chaste, most pure. You were found worthy to carry the Child Jesus in your arms, to wash him, to hug him. Teach us to get to know God, and to be pure, worthy of being other Christs.

And help us to do and to teach, as Christ did. Help us to open up the divine paths of the earth, which are both hidden and bright; and help us to show them to mankind, telling our fellow men that their lives on earth can have an extraordinary and constant supernatural effectiveness.

From the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem - or rather, from the moment in which the Angel announced the good news to Joseph - the life of the spouse of Mary took on a new dimension. He felt weighing on him the responsibility of providing for the family God had entrusted to him and, at the same time, the need to learn, in the life of the Child, what God was asking of him at every moment.

The life of Jesus was, for St Joseph, a recurring discovery of his own vocation. We recalled earlier those first years full of contrasting circumstances: glorification and flight, the majesty of the wise men and the poverty of the manger, the song of the angels and the silence of mankind. When the moment comes to present the Child in the Temple, Joseph, who carries the modest offering of a pair of doves, sees how Simeon and Anna proclaim Jesus as the Messiah: His father and mother listened with wonder (Luke 2: 33), says St Luke. Later, when the child stays behind in Jerusalem, unknown to Mary and Joseph, and they find him again after three days’ search, the same evangelist tells us, They were astonished (Luke 2: 48).

Joseph is surprised and astonished. God gradually reveals his plans to him, and he tries to understand them. As with every soul who wishes to follow Jesus closely, he soon discovers that here is no laggard’s pace, no room for the half-hearted. For God is not content with our achieving a certain level and staying there. He doesn’t want us to rest on our laurels. God always asks more: his ways are not the ways of men. St Joseph, more than anyone else before or since, learned from Jesus to be alert to recognize God’s wonders, to have his mind and heart awake.

The spirit of the Work leads us to a constant relationship with Our Lord.

The interior life of each person should resemble the life of Joseph in his intimate relationship with God, a life nourished by the little events of the day, by work and by his relations with others. I would like to remind my children once again, our Father said, that the foundation of all our apostolic work is an intense interior life and the fact that we are all truly and efficaciously contemplatives. For this reason our first duty is not only to foster and maintain, but to improve constantly our own interior life and that of others. This must be our principal concern: to intensify our friendship with God, to come to know Jesus Christ better, to fall passionately in love with that God who has become man in order to be closer to his creatures, that God who gives himself completely to us in Christ and who, in exchange, wants our whole life, our whole heart. I am forever telling you this: Our Lord is a jealous lover who wants all our love, everything we have.

Remember, my child, our Father insists, that porro unum est necessarium (Luke10: 42): be very holy. To contemplate is nothing other than to try to be very united with God. How can someone who has dedicated his whole life to God say he is seeking sanctity if he does not seek to live a contemplative life? Sanctity is union with God. The fulness of charity is Love, which is the same thing, I repeat, as union with God. Love, if it is authentic, does not get tired or discouraged when confronting obstacles. It does not wane with the passing of the years. On the contrary, difficulties reaffirm it, strengthen it, give it a deeper meaning. What is more, one can say that love which has been able to overcome contradictions and obstacles is the better love. The reason is that in the struggle it has become more pure and detached from other motives - all too human sentiments and affections - which, although not bad in themselves, must be purified in order to make way for true love.

The scenes of the life of the Holy Family which we are considering - Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth - are an invitation to develop a very intimate relationship with Jesus, with the daring of people in love. To achieve this we can count on the help of the Holy Patriarch. As our Father reminded us so often, In human life, Joseph was Jesus’ master in their daily contact, full of refined affection, glad to deny himself to take better care of Jesus. Isn’t that reason enough for us to consider this just man, this holy patriarch, in whom the faith of the old covenant bears fruit, as a master of interior life? Interior life is nothing but continual and direct conversation with Christ, so as to become one with him. And Joseph can tell us many things about Jesus.

Divine filiation, the foundation of our spiritual life.

The foundation of the spiritual life of the faithful of Opus Dei is their consciousness of their divine filiation in Christ. This creates in them an ardent and sincere desire, both tender and deeply felt, to imitate Jesus Christ, Only-Begotten Son of the Father, and be aware at all times that they are in the presence of God. Their divine filiation also leads them to live a life of faith in Providence and facilitates their peaceful and joyful abandonment to the divine Will.

The awareness of our divine filiation is a gift from God, a grace which he gives to whomever he wants. But each person can and ought to foster this gift by being docile to the inspirations of God and by corresponding to his grace. When we know ourselves to be children, and when we consider that God is a good and merciful Father, our heart is moved and it seeks him. We become aware that our behaviour, at all times and in all places, should be that of good children; of children who strive to develop the divine gift in their soul, and who are kindled by desires to live in the presence of God and to please him.

The spirit of divine filiation is so important in the Work that, each week, we ask ourselves in the examination of the Circle whether we have considered this reality frequently each day. On contemplating this truth frequently - that I am a beloved child of God - and on growing in a deeper understanding of what it means, we come to have an habitual relationship with our Father God. This in turn identifies us more and more with Christ, for when he comes we shall be like him; we shall see him, then, as he is.

The frequent awareness of our divine filiation, nevertheless, is not a mere theoretical, cold exercise, a lifeless intellectual reflection. It is a profound attitude of the soul which should influence the whole of our life, impregnating our thoughts, affections and actions. And just as earthly children, without even realising it, act like their parents and have the same points of view, the same mannerisms and customs as their parents, so will we be with respect to our Father in Heaven. We will see things as he sees them; we will love others as he loves them.

To be and to feel ourselves children of God, we must be very united with our Lord. Let us ask St Joseph, who saw, dealt with and looked after the Child Jesus, to teach us to live always in the presence of God. In this way we will be able to go to enjoy the company of God as he did. Others are glorified after a holy death, the Church sings to her Patron, and those who have deserved the crown of martyrdom are received into the bosom of glory; but you, by an admirable design of God, in a way similar to the saints yet even more fortunate, have enjoyed the presence of God already in this life.

We finish our prayer by going, as always, to Holy Mary. St Joseph leads us to her, and with her we make our way to Jesus. We have the good custom of going to our Mother, to whom we take every day those little flowers of our resolutions, those humble and hidden violets we pick up during the day. You should call on Mary and you should call on Joseph. See how our meditation today gives us much to think about, much to ask for, much to put into practice.