(The Voice of Christ) “My child, allow me to do what I will with you. I know what is best for you. You think as a man; you feel in many things as human affections persuades”
(The Disciple) “ Lord, what you say is true. Your care for me is greater than all the care I can take of myself…If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You. And if You wish me be in light, again I bless You. If You stop down to comfort me, I shall bless You, and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall bless You forever.” (p. 75)
The above quote from Thomas à Kempis’ work “The Imitation of Christ”, I think, speaks boldly of how St. Joseph lived his life as husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus on earth. It is also how we should seek to begin and continue to live our lives seeking to be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“I want to know! And I want to know immediately!” are two statements encompassing many things in the world. We type in a few words to do an internet search and impatiently wait the few seconds it takes to bring the answers to our eyes with thousands of options to choose from. We drop our frozen food into a microwave and wait impatiently the few minutes it takes to make our meal hot and edible. We lift our petitions to God and desire he answer right now or conclude God is not listening and so seek other avenues of redress to the problem and suffering we are going through at the moment. And we could all of us list many many other things.
We also know this isn’t the true measure of desire and happiness, nor does it lead us to holiness and stability of life. In reflection on “St. Joseph, Cooperator in the Secret Designs of God” we see how patience and love bring about a fuller understanding of our true and deepest desires.
The word cooperation gives us a glimpse into the blessing of relationships where the demand immediacy for the individual is replaced by patience and seeking the understanding of the other. “St. Joseph understood perfectly well the necessity of this cooperation. Steeped with gratitude for the favors he had received, he strove only to correspond faithfully with them. We must likewise concur in the great design for our sanctification.” (p 99 from The Month of St. Joseph) How many times do I lift my voice, my heart, my soul in gratitude each day? When we do this the irritation of immediacy begins to slip into the graciousness of love and blessing.
It is not the absence of “we need to get this done” urgency in our lives but rather we begin to see how the blessings make what is not urgent or necessary less stressful in the calendar of our lives, both today and tomorrow.
This “need to know” is often centered on a control we desire over life and the hurt, anger and frustration that comes from discovering so much is not in our hands to control. This is clearly seen in the want of so many to control life and death. But when we are united first and foremost in the blessing of God then we see how like St. Joseph in his life he experienced this abundant grace in and through “the mysteries of grace and love attached to the persons of Jesus and Mary. This successive and gradual knowledge gave place to transports of admiration and delight. What must have been the happiness of St. Joseph in being so closely united to Him whom the angels and saints revere, and before whom they bow in lowly adoration!” (p 100)
Like St. Joseph we are called to live with the presence of Jesus in our homes, in the daily joys and sorrows of life. In doing this we do gain the wisdom and knowledge of living within the Divine Providence of God our Father. It is in this we do lift our souls in gratitude in honoring God and recognizing how we, following God’s plan, find true peace, joy and happiness in trust and hope.
St. Paul says it best when he writes, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” (1 Cor 15:10) Trusting and knowing God’s love for us and living and working in this same trust, as St. Joseph did, brings us with God’s grace the peace and steadiness of a life filled with gratitude and blessing.
God bless