Dear Friends at Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Frances Cabrini Parish: Praised be Jesus Christ!
About a month ago now, on December the 8th, Pope Francis officially declared that the Universal Church would enter into a whole year dedicated to Saint Joseph. He did so to mark the 150th anniversary of Saint Joseph being officially declared as the patron saint of the Universal Church, and also in the context of the ongoing reality of a global pandemic in which Saint Joseph is offered to us as a source of hope and strength.
Over the course of the coming year the parishes will be observing the Year of Saint Joseph in a manner that would certainly match the life and example of the Saint: in ways that are simple and subtle. Still, our devotions to him, even if subtle, will be very important. Saint Joseph is indeed a powerful and wonderful example and helper. In recent years I have especially come to value his assistance with difficult challenges I am facing on a personal level, and also for challenges and needs that confront the parishes. We will all benefit from spending some extra time in prayer to him and in love of him during this coming year.
We know from the Gospels that Saint Joseph was poor and that he was a simple laborer, working at a physically demanding trade. We think of him as a carpenter, but I am told that “mason” is a better translation of how he is described in the Gospels. He was a construction worker, essentially, in his own town and probably in the neighboring Roman town of Sepphoris for most of the childhood of Jesus. The context of that era suggests that nothing would have come easy for him or his family, and that he had to work hard without letting up.
We also know from the Gospels that he had to make difficult decisions for the sake of the safety of his family, and also that he did so at great risk to his personal popularity, defying the conventional wisdom of his day. It must have been an extraordinary endeavor to relocate his wife and the child Jesus to Egypt, and then to bring them home again. It must have been a great personal sacrifice to him to face the many years of quiet ridicule of his decision to accept Jesus as his own son, knowing the unusual circumstances surrounding his conception and birth in a small village that would have harbored many questions. He must have faced great pressure to follow the conventional custom of his day which was to divorce Mary quietly over the news of this child, but he chose not to. He did all of this in faith, as a father, in obedience to how he understood God’s will, and for the sake of his family.
Parishes are like large households. Pastors are the fathers of these households. These days, pastors and parishioners alike need to look to the life and example of Saint Joseph more than ever to understand how to navigate the difficulties that confront us all. Like Saint Joseph we will probably be poor as contribution patterns change and demographics change. We will face a lot of uncertainty about the future, and continue making our own way “to Egypt” as we leave behind things that were once so familiar in parish life. We will do what we can to be safe in the face of harms and threats, but we will not fear them as long as we see them in their proper perspective. We will also do our share of defying the prevailing attitudes and sentiments of the voices around us that do not see the world through the eyes of faith in the way that we do.
Saint Joseph was a man of deep trust, and he led his household accordingly. In these days especially our approach to all that we are living through must be the same.