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19 March - Solemnity of Saint Joseph
Homely given by Joseph De Piro in the Church of
St. Mary of Jesus in Rabat, on the occasion of a
General Assembly of the members of the
Confraternity of St. Joseph, in honor of the
Holy Protector upon the recent declaration of
this feast as a Holy Day of Obligation [28th
October, 1907]
After
the Church declared, my beloved brethren -
declared the Feast of St. Joseph as a Holy day
of obligation, you gathered this morning in this
holy temple for no other reason than to give
your love, your sincere devotion, to the spouse
of the Virgin Mary, to the reputed Father of
Jesus, the Great Patriarch Joseph, from whom
this Brotherhood takes its name. And surely,
you could not have offered a more beautiful act
of adoration than to gather around this Holy
Table to nourish your souls with the holy Body
and most precious Blood of the divine Lamb, our
Lord Jesus Christ, who is here present as bread
in the Eucharistic Sacrament.
The Church gives us the saints, my beloved
brothers and sisters, as a model of obedience to
the law of God. Therefore, the worship and
sincere devotion which we are asked to bestow
upon them consist, primarily, in imitating them.
Joseph, chosen by God to protect His only son,
Jesus, the epitome of perfection and holiness,
chosen to be the spouse of the Queen of Virgins,
Queen of Angels, Queen of Heavens… I will let
you imagine the lily of purity with which he was
adorned. Thus, first and foremost, with what
virtue should we adorn ourselves such that we
may be truly called devotees of this great
Saint?
In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit gives us His
praise, and rightly calls him just “Joseph
autem cum esset Justus”. Now we are told by
Saint James, the life of the just is the life of
faith, “justus ex fide vivit”, and we
know from the account of the life of St Joseph,
albeit we only know a small part, that he always
did everything in the light of faith, such that
in this light of faith, he always did God’s
will, as was revealed to him, sometimes through
an angel, sometimes through the laws, and
sometimes through the duties of his station.
Yes, enlightened by faith, he did not worry
about the kingdom of David of which he was heir,
and he thought only of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Indeed, another precious virtue to guide our
lives should be that we emulate Joseph. Even
for us, my dear brethren, faith makes us examine
our future lives; let us also be careful to look
towards the life that awaits us, and let us not
give in to trivial affairs during this brief
exile of our lives – What use are the comforts
of earthly riches, how burdensome the suffering
of earthly poverty, when compared to the wealth,
so great and eternal, that awaits us in the life
to come.
Joseph, elevated to the dignified role of the
spouse of the Mother of God, honoured as the
head of the Holy Family – in complete unity with
God in the mystery of the Incarnation – an
instrument of the Eternal Father’s authority
over Jesus Christ: We acknowledge him in
prayer, in work, in obedience and in the most
humble existence. Oh! How easy it is for us to
draw comparisons with our neighbor. Oh! How
readily we judge ourselves as superior. Oh! How
easily we foster in ourselves this ugly passion
of conceit, which in heaven, caused the fall of
thousands upon thousands of angels - Ah! Let us
imitate Joseph, let us always judge ourselves
with humility and consider ourselves unworthy of
the gifts of heaven. Let us be united! Let us
love our neighbor, let us be careful that
nothing in our words and our actions, shall hurt
his feelings. On the contrary, let us always be
prepared to help him in all that he may need.
Thus, in short, for us to be truly devoted to
Joseph, we should love that which he loved, hate
that which he hated, and live the virtues which
were so dear to him.
But who ever, I hear you ask, who could ever
achieve the holiness and perfection of Joseph?
Who could ever imitate his immense virtues? Who
amongst us had his good fortune? For all of
thirty years he lived and conversed with the
Divine Word of God made Man, whilst bestowing
upon him the duties and rights of a truly loving
father. And it is precisely because of this
intimate life that was to be his, the charity,
the humility and all the other virtues that for
so long emanated from Him, who is the author of
all perfection … these were bound to lead to a
state of perfection.
Ah! How fortunate is Joseph! But we too are
fortunate my dear brethren – That in contrast to
so many other races that remain in the darkness
of paganism and idolatry, we have God so near in
the Sacrament of the Altar.
Joseph is fortunate! But happier are you that
through the Holy Eucharist…No, not only do you
come nearer to Jesus, but you become one with
him in a unity so complete, that it is
impossible to envisage a unity more intimate
than this. So much so, that after communion
each one of you may say with St Paul “vivo
ego iam non ego, vivit vero in me Christo” –
I live, but it is not I that live, but Christ
that lives in me. He that eats my flesh and
drinks my blood – he, Jesus tells us – shall
live in me and I in him: “in me manet et ego
in illo”.
Now when we have means so strong, when we can
have a bond so intimate with Jesus, who of us
could have the courage to say that he cannot be
pure and chaste, humble, and loving of his
neighbor! Therefore, if we truly want to be
devoted to Joseph by imitating him in his
virtues as the Church wants of us, when She has
given him to us in so special a way as to
declare his day a Holy day of obligation, we
need not do otherwise than use this means, so
strong. Yes, come forward to communion, receive
communion often, indeed receive communion
daily. It is not I that tell you this, but it
is the bread form you witness that does so, it
is the will of Jesus, of his bride the Church,
as told to us by His Holiness, Pius X. Receive
Communion, and the Eucharist will keep you
devoted to St Joseph, who will help you in this
life, and It will also help you at the end of
this life, with a holy death opening the door to
the Glory of Heaven. Amen.
We
thank Mr. & Mrs. Saliba for their contribution
in the translation of this homely
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