Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031912.cfm

A pileated woodpecker
plies his trade by
Lake MSF. 

We interrupt this Lent to bring you a special feast day, a Solemnity -- in honor of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary.

It was not through the law
that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants
that he would inherit the world,
but through the righteousness that comes from faith.
For this reason, it depends on faith,
so that it may be a gift....

Since at least the tenth century Catholics have had a special affection for Saint Joseph. We honor him in anticipation of March 25 which is also a Solemnity, the Annunciation of the Lord. On that majestic feast we will contemplate Mary's fiat. 

Clearly God wanted his Most Beloved Son to have a father and a mother who hear and keep the word of God. They should also honor one another as husband and wife. These are the natural rights of every child. If not every child is given these gifts, that does not mean the exceptions should be made the rule. Who would win by that? Everyone would lose! Rather, exceptions demonstrate the challenge we face in trying to rectify the injustice. We must find ways to provide every child with a safe, prayerful home where adults and children live in harmony. 

Recently I met a Veteran who grew up in a series of foster homes. He was "shunted about" from one house to another and, in his old age, suffers a deep sense of abandonment. He is one of the sweetest men I have met, and yet he suffers a deep suspicion of people around him. He is convinced no one can be trusted to really care about him. It is a story he has told himself so often that every time he suffers a moment of neglect, it reconfirms his belief. 

Jesus was born and raised under harrowing conditions: poverty, danger from King Herod, and exile in Egypt. And yet he had a deep conviction of God's abiding love. Was that simply a mystical conviction based solely on his identity as the Son of God? Was he given this extraordinary perception by his status as Messiah? 

I think not. Before he knew his right hand from his left, before he could pronounce the word mama or abba, he knew that life is good and people are good. In his infancy and childhood this couple were the incarnate face of God for him. Even his later experiences of torture and death could not shake that conviction.  He learned them at his mother's breast and on his father's lap. 

On this octave day before the Annunciation, nine months and a week before the Solemnity of the Incarnation, we remember the righteousness that comes from faith. Besides the story of Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew there is only one adjective used to describe Saint Joseph. He was a righteous man. 

Nothing more needs to be said of him. He was found worthy to be the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.