Gospel of Mt. 1, 16 ff.
“Let us allow ourselves to be invaded by the silence of St. Joseph” (Pope Benedict XVI).
As every year we return to read and listen to the Gospel of St. Matthew where we reflect on the mission of St. Joseph, every time we read a passage of Sacred Scripture a new teaching is extracted. Let us imagine Joseph at the moment of receiving the news that his fiancée is pregnant and the confidence of the Virgin Mary, aware of what could happen to her, trusting that Joseph will know how to listen to the voice of God and together carry out the mission entrusted to him… how much prayer and abandonment to God they had to have, long hours of silence that nourished their faith.
What can we learn from our patriarch St. Joseph? We can extract three virtues: Prudence, trust and obedience.
Prudence:
When the Angel of the Lord asks him not to secretly disown Mary, what is Joseph’s reaction? Unlike Sarah when Abraham shares with him what the three visitors told him (Gen. 18:2, 12) Joseph does not laugh, he believes he obeys without understanding.
Trust:
He put his trust in the words of the Angel sent by God, i.e. he fully trusts God obeying immediately to take Mary to live with him.
Obedience:
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him.” he obeyed the voice of the Lord who told him: ‘take your wife and take her with you’ he gave himself to the task of taking care of his son and his wife thus fulfilling the task that God had entrusted to him from the beginning of his life, protect, care, educate, with his example and testimony of life without letting the salvific plan of God be interrupted in the life of humanity.
Joseph by committing himself to Mary and by attentively contemplating her way of life during the time she was entrusted to his protection became the most faithful witness of her chastity, faithful witness discreet silent obedient.
This discretion of Joseph, his extraordinary humility is so far-sighted that no one should doubt it, even those who do not share our faith, let us allow ourselves to be invaded by Joseph, in him we can learn to be born in the knowledge of God.
If we want to enter into the heart of truth, if we want to receive all the light that emanates from Christ, we must learn to love in silence, which is indispensable to achieve an authentic, essential religious and human life.
Joseph is a master of interior life who, with will, blind and deep faith, surrendered himself to God’s plan and his designs without question, without questioning, he only obeyed God’s call.
Consecrated Life:
God called us in freedom and in freedom we have responded and, no matter how long we have been consecrated women we need a deep life of interiorization that is to say to be permanently in the Holy Spirit letting ourselves be enlightened day by day in search of God’s will, let us make of our consecrated life a visible witness let us allow ourselves to be enveloped by the grace of the Holy Spirit and respond with fidelity to what God wants from us.
“Never more than today is religious life urged to be new, finding new forms that have the capacity to solicit in others the sources of communion to which it reaches, making possible relationships that are born from the crossing of gazes, concerns, desires and reflections” (Apostolic Letter Patris Corde). (Apostolic Letter Patris Corde)
The Anunciata Family Group makes a contribution from their vocation as Couples
There are many fathers of families who have been used to fulfill the will of God in spite of their human weakness according to the will of God seeing St. Joseph, a just and obedient man; we wives are similar to him because there is obedience and faith in each one of us to lead and accompany our Family.
We are born and we have a mission that day by day we are forming with our husbands and children, growing them, educating them so that they do not stray from God’s path.
Why don’t young people get married nowadays? There is much selfishness in the new couples who do not want to have commitment to form a family, there is no formation in the family, they are not instilled the value of forming a family, they take everything without any value, replacing the children with pets, so it is good to ask ourselves what does Saint Joseph say to me? And what does Mary say about marriage? When Joseph knew that the virgin was pregnant, there was only abundance in obedience to God.
What did the scandal of Mary’s pregnancy mean at that time? Joseph listened only to the voice of God and not to the voice of men; Joseph demonstrates his obedience and his being a man of faith, through prayer he understood what God was asking of him… he was the substitute father, the caretaker of Mary and Jesus.
We could compare them in mission accepted and rejected between Judas and St. Joseph, Judas did not accept what God asked him instead Joseph knew how to accept God’s plan, we must strive to live the values that Joseph lived highlighting the patience being kind, loving, obedient spouses and living the events with generosity and in silence.
The marriage between Mary and Joseph transcends the heart: from carnal love to spiritual love, obedience not negativity, invitation to follow their example.
Lent can be lived not with sadness and despair but rather as an effective means of salvation. Let us ask the Lord through the intercession of St. Joseph for the grace to love so that he may lead us to adhere to God in a firm and constant way with sufficient tenacity to rise up in the hour of trial.
Sister Argelia Vargas Acosta and the Anunciata Family Group
Izucar de Matamoros. Mexico, Province of St. Martin de Porres
