518. March 19, Solemnity of St Joseph (II)
Meditations no. 450 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Devotion to St Joseph, Patron of the interior life.
We are celebrating the feast of St Joseph, our Father and Lord, the protector and patron of the universal Church and of this family of daughters and sons of God which is Opus Dei. Sometimes I suppose you wonder how it is possible that devotion to St Joseph in the Work is so strong and deep when it is a relatively recent devotion, which began to flourish in the West around the sixteenth century. I will answer you then that our affection, our piety, our devotion to St Joseph, is a consequence of our contemplative life. Because all of us in the Work are obliged to deal very much with Jesus and the Blessed Virgin; and one cannot deal intimately with our Lord and with his Mother, our blessed Mother, if we are not on very familiar terms with the Holy Patriarch, who was the head of the family of Nazareth.
On the other hand, my children, the Church has proposed him to us, and rightly so, as the patron of the interior life. Who had more interior life than Joseph? What human being had a more intimate relationship with Jesus and Mary? Who was more humble than Joseph, who passes completely unnoticed?ā¦
Sacred Scripture hardly mentions him. But it shows him fulfilling his duty as head of a family.
For this reason as well, if St Joseph is the patron of our interior life, if he is a stimulus for our contemplative life, if dealing with him is a help for all the sons and daughters of God in Opus Dei, it seems to me that St Joseph is an excellent example for those in positions of government in the Work. He does not intervene unless it is necessary, and then he does it with fortitude and without violence. This is Joseph.
Donāt be surprised, then, that the Mass of his feast begins by saying: iustus ut palma florebit (Ps 91: 13). That is how the sanctity of Joseph flourished. Sicut cedrus Lybani multiplicabitur (Ibid. ). I think of you. Each one in Opus Dei is like a great father or mother of a family, and is concerned about so many souls in the world. When I explain to my young daughters or sons that, in the work of St Raphael, they should deal especially with three or four or five friends; that perhaps only two of those friends will fit in, but each of them will then bring three or four more, attached to each finger, what is this but to flourish like the just man and to be multiplied like the cedars of Lebanon?
Plantatus in domo Domini: in atriis domus Dei nostri (Ibid. , 14). Like Joseph, all my children are secure, with their soul in the house of the Lord. And this even though they live in the middle of the street, in the midst of the concerns of the world, feeling the concerns of their colleagues, of their fellow citizens, their equals.
St Joseph teaches us how to love Jesus.
St Joseph, after his Immaculate Spouse, is the human being who has loved God most, who has poured himself out most in his service. It is not surprising that the liturgy of the Church applies to the Holy Patriarch those words from the book of Wisdom: dilectus Deo et hominibus, cuius memoria in benedictione est (Sir 65: 1). It says that he is loved by God, and it presents him to us as a model. And it also invites the good children of God - even though we may be poor people, as I am - to bless this holy, marvellous, young man who is the Spouse of Mary. They have made me a sculptured relief of him in the oratory of the Father which depicts him as old. But no! In other places I have had him painted young, as I imagine him, perhaps a little older than the Blessed Virgin, but young, strong, in the fullness of youth. Implied in that classical way of representing St Joseph as old is the thought - an excessively human one - that a young person does not find it easy to live the virtue of purity. It is not true. The Christian people call him Patriarch, but I see him like that: young of heart and body, and old in virtues; and, therefore, young also in soul.
Glorificavit illum in conspectu regum, et iussit illi coram populo suo, et ostendit illi gloriam suam (Ibid, 3). Let us not forget it: God wants to glorify him. And we have placed him at the centre of our homes, making him also the Patriarch of our house. For this reason the most solemn and intimate feast of our family, the one on which all the members of the Work come together to ask Jesus, our Saviour, to send labourers into his harvest, is especially dedicated to the Spouse of Mary. Then, he is also a mediator; then, he is the master of the house; then, we rest assured, trusting in his prudence, in his purity in his affection, in his power. How is our Father and Lord, St Joseph, not going to be powerful?
How often I have been moved on reading that prayer that the Church proposes for priests to recite before Mass: O felicem virum, beatum Ioseph, cui datum est, Deum, quem multi reges voluerunt videre et non viderunt, audire et non audieruntā¦ Havenāt you felt envy towards the Apostles and the disciples, who had such an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ? And afterwards, havenāt you felt ashamed because perhaps - and without the perhaps: I am sure of it, given my weakness - you would have been among those who escaped, who fled like villains and did not stay close to Jesus on the Cross?
ā¦ quem multi reges voluerunt videre et non viderunt, audire et non audierunt; non solum videre et audire, sed portare, deosculari, vestire et custodire! I canāt hide it from you. Sometimes when I am alone and aware of my shortcomings, I take an image of the Child Jesus in my arms and I kiss it and rock itā¦ I am not ashamed to tell you this. If we had Jesus in our arms, what would we do? Have you had little brothers or sisters, much younger than you? I have. And I have taken him in my arms and rocked him. What would I have done with Jesus?
Ora pro nobis, beate Ioseph. Of course we have to put it like that!: ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. St Joseph, teach us to love your Son, our Redeemer, the God Man! Pray for us, St Joseph!
We should dedicate ourselves completely to the service of God, as St Joseph did.
What does Joseph do, along with Mary and with Jesus, in order to follow the command of the Father, the motion of the Holy Spirit? He dedicates his whole being; he puts his life as a worker at his service. Joseph, a creature, nourishes the Creator. He, a poor craftsman, sanctifies his professional work, something Christians had forgotten for centuries and which Opus Dei has come to remind them of. He gives him his life, the love of his heart and the tenderness of his care, he gives him the strength of his arms, he givesā¦ everything he is and can do: the ordinary professional work proper to his condition.
Beatus vir qui timet Dominum (Ps 111: 1). Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, blessed the creature who loves God and avoids displeasing him. This is the timor Domini, the only fear I understand and feel. Beatus vir qui timet Dominum; in mandatis eius cupit nimis (Ibid). Blessed is the soul that has ambition, that has desires to fulfil the divine commands. This restlessness always remains. If you should ever hesitate, because your mind does not see clearly, or because your passions rise up like vipers, it is the moment to say: My God, I desire to serve you, I want to serve you, I am dying to love you with all the purity of my heart!
What will we be lacking, then? Nothing! Gloria et divitiae erunt in domo eius (Ibid. , 3). We are not seeking earthly glory: it will be the glory of heaven. All the means - for this is what the riches of the earth are - should help us to become saints, and to sanctify our work, and to sanctify others through our work. And in our heart there will always be a great serenity. Et iustitia eius, the justice of God, the logic of God, manet in saeculum saeculi (Ibid. ), will remain forever if we do not cast it out of our life through sin. That justice of God, that sanctity that He has put in our soul, demands - always with joy and peace - a personal interior struggle which is not noisy and does not make any commotion. It is something more intense, very personal, which is not lost unless we ourselves crack, unless we shatter it like an earthenware vessel. To fix it we have the Norms, Confession and the fraternal conversation with the Director. And once again, peace and joy! And once again, we feel more desires to fulfil the commandments of God, more ambition of the good sort to serve God and, through Him, all souls!
Today, on renewing our commitment of love, we manifest our desire to struggle without letting up so as to incarnate perfectly in our life the spirit of Opus Dei. If we have recourse to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and of St Joseph, God will not fail to hear our prayers.