Title: Meditation: Tuesday, March 19, 2002
The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, March 19, 2002
St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
2 Samuel 7:4-5,12-14,16
Psalm 89:2-5,27,29
Romans 4:13,16-18,22
Matthew 1:16,18-21,24
A reflection on today's Scripture . . . .
St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, has been called by our Holy Father
Pope John Paul II "The Guardian of the Redeemer" in one of his many
writings on this most holy example of Fatherhood. Outside the divine
Fatherhood of God, St. Joseph is the most resounding example of
self-sacrificial love required of fathers. Think -- would you have
considered taking to wife a woman already pregnant no matter what you
were told in a dream? Think of the ridicule, think of the ignominy
with which this man had to live the rest of his life.
Then we no sooner have a child then we must flee to Egypt to protect
the boy and his mother. Life seems an endless series of duties and
obligations. And yet the life that Joseph led, the giving and the
caring, are intimately reflected in the details of Jesus' own life.
Some scholars have speculated that Jesus started on his mission so
late in life (thirty was older then than it is now) because he stayed
with his family until his Earthly father died.
St. Joseph is an example to all men about what it means to be a man,
the privileges and obligations of being a father, and the love that a
father can have for his wife and children. The next time we face a
problem centered on our family, let us remember to turn to St. Joseph
and ask for his prayers. He has a heart that knows us fathers.
- JuandelaCruz T.O.Carm. ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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