Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 Lectionary: 543

'When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm.
It is he who shall build a house for my name.
And I will make his royal throne firm forever.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.

Someone asked an American correspondent in Moscow if Putin is grooming his successor, and who that might be. She replied, "He doesn't plan to die." 

But kings,emperors, presidents and dictators with ordinary common sense try to cement their names in history by choosing a clone-like heir who will maintain their policies beyond the foreseeable future. They try to establish dynasties; and some succeed. 

King David's dynasty survived but not well. His son Solomon built a spectacular Jerusalem and a corrupt bureaucracy. His temple was magnificent; his school was famous; his unified kingdom of Israel and Judah was unsettled. No sooner had he died than an unrelated official, Jeroboam, engineered a coup and split the two nations apart. They were never reunited. 

But the LORD's solemn oath, given to David through the prophet Nathan, would endure forever. Despite the evidence of  corruption in the smaller nation of Judah, despite the complete collapse of Israel and Judah before the invasions of Babylon, Greek, and Roman armies, David's heirs remembered God's promise. They did not forget who they were. Nor did the LORD, who sent Angel Gabriel to both Joseph and Mary; to the first, while he slept; and to Mary as she prayed. 

To Joseph he said,

“Joseph, son of David,

do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit

that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins.”

And to Mary, 

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

o He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,* and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The Word of the Lord endures forever. We read that repeatedly in scripture, and God's Word is the foundation of our faith. We believe in Him and we believe in His Word; especially as we have seen His Word made flesh and dwell among us. Even the testimony of history which has seen innumerable kingdoms rise and fall, cities built and abandoned, monuments fashioned and wasted, witnesses the Church which still gathers the faithful into the Kingdom of God.  

We pray that we will be faithful like the just man Saint Joseph who rendered to God, his wife, son, and neighbors their due. He will be remembered when Putin is familiar only to researchers of ancient history.