Behold I stand at the door and knock...

St Joseph - silent adorer

March 19, 2021 Fr Paul Chandler Season 2
Behold I stand at the door and knock...
St Joseph - silent adorer
Show Notes Transcript

Happy Solemnity of St Joseph in this Year of St Joseph!!
This is a reflection upon St Joseph and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament given at a neighbouring parish for a Holy Hour on March 19th 2021.

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Speaker 1:

As you probably know, Poe Francis decreed that there is a year dedicated to St. Joseph, which began in December last year on the 8th of December, 2020 and runs until the 7th of December this year, 2021, he coincides with 150 years since Pop Pius the ninth declared St. Joseph to be the patron of the universal church. I was asked to give a talk on St. Joseph more a reflection that was part A of a holy hour of adoration at a neighboring parish. So I wanted to share that with you because it's important we come to know St. Joseph better, to love him more because he is a very important figure, not only for the church, but also for the world. And he's closely connected with the story of our salvation. So because this was within the context of a holy hour of Eucharistic adoration, I have titled this reflection St. Joseph the Silent Adora. So I'd like to lead you, lead you in what is an imaginative reflection upon St. Joseph and I do this on his feast day on the solemnity of Mar of his his day March 19th. This will be imaginative, not in the sense of being made up or fictional, but rather based on what we know from our scripture and our beautiful tradition. It will, it will be what we might say are probabilities that are both pious and reverent and also in line with what the church teaches. And I hope that these ideas will lead you into greater devotion to and love of St. Joseph. Firstly though, I want to talk about why St. Joseph can be looked upon as our spiritual father. God's plan for the salvation of the human race was very careful and it was perfectly crafted. Nothing happens by chance and nothing is coincidence. And even the slightest details are carefully planned Before sin entered upon the scene in the story of the human race, God's plan was to bring about the beginning of the human race and the development of the human race through a family. And this was of course Adam and Eve whom he directly created, but then they were to create a family which would be the human race to Adam and Eve. Guard gave the very first command that he ever gave to humanity and that was to be fruitful and multiply. But then of course we know sin entered the human race and there was need for a savior. So the salvation of the human race was also to begin with the family, Joseph and Mary and Jesus. And let's remember too that the covenants made in the Old Testament, which were progressively leading towards Christ, also involved a family. For instance, Noah and his family, Moses and his sister and brother, and also Abraham and Sarah. So the Old Testament begins right in Genesis with a father Adam, a Mother Eve and their children, Kane, Abel, and Seth and other sons and daughters who are not named. The New Testament begins with a father Joseph, a mother Mary, and a son Jesus who is conceived and born, not naturally but supernaturally. We also know that at that awful and awesome time, as he was dying upon the cross, our Lord Jesus gave his blessed mother to St. John for him to care for her as his own mother. We have always understood this to mean that Jesus' desire that Mary become the spiritual mother of all who follow Christ. So wouldn't Jesus also be pleased if we were to look upon Saint Joseph as our spiritual father As well? Jesus loved Saint Joseph as his father and in him Jesus recognized and loved the earthly image of his heavenly Father. That is why some call St. Joseph an icon of the Heavenly Father. Let us remember too that Jesus in his human nature needed a father. Like all of us, there is only so much a mother can teach a child, especially a boy, as a boy, as male. Jesus needed a father to teach him what it is to be a man. St. Joseph provided for Jesus a model of masculinity for him to imitate Jesus, learnt from St. Joseph how to sacrifice as a man, how to work as a man, how to pray, and how to have the man. As of a gentleman, Joseph fulfilled every aspect of a paternal role for Jesus in his human nature. So if Jesus looked upon Saint Joseph as his real father, though not his biological father, he would delight that we would do the same. So while God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our father by adoption through holy baptism and we have our own biological fathers, we also have St. Joseph as our spiritual father and Mary as our spiritual mother. This is a further fruit and grace of the sacrament of baptism that we can enter into the holy family itself. Jesus is our brother, Mary is our mother, and Joseph is our father. So when we spend time in Eucharistic adoration before our Lord and Savior, we can be powerfully assisted by our spiritual father St. Joseph, who loved Jesus on this earth and continues to love him forever in heaven. So what more might we say about St. Joseph? Well, as you heard me say at the beginning, I want to propose to you that St. Joseph is not only our spiritual father, but also the silent adora of Christ, the silent Ado of Christ. Let's focus first upon his silence. Of course, St. Joseph had a voice. It's interesting to wonder if Jesus spoke like him, if he had the same accent and used the same sort of expressions. Remember that Jesus in St. Matthew's gospel was referred to as the carpenter's son. There must have been something about Jesus that reminded them in some way of Joseph, not only, not only just the occupation, but of course you know when it comes to the holy scriptures, we do not hear St. Joseph's voice. He is silent. We hear Mary's voice and of course we hear our lord's voice quite a lot, don't we? But this silence of St. Joseph in the scriptures can be taken as a sign of his great humility. He didn't want to be at the forefront of the drama of salvation. He wants all the attention to be given to Jesus at Mary. And isn't that what we are meant to do? When we come to Eucharistic adoration, we have to put aside our activities, even our necessary tasks, our preoccupations, and let Jesus have all our attention. He must be first and we must be second. St. Joseph will help us to be that humble. Furthermore, St. Joseph will be pleased with us, his spiritual children, when we imitate him in putting Jesus first and surrendering a whole hour for him.

Speaker 2:

Justice

Speaker 1:

St. Joseph gave his whole life for Jesus in silence and humility. Let's now turn out attention to St. Joseph as the ado of Christ. First of all, let us marvel once more at how carefully and appropriately with hidden but real meaning God set up the salvation of mankind. Here's another example. Christ was born in Bethlehem. Now in Hebrew, the word Bethlehem means house of bread. In Arabic it means house of meat or house of flesh. How fitting then that Jesus, who is the bread of life in the Eucharist and who would give his flesh for the life of the world would be born in that place? Let us now imagine the scene of the birth of our savior who were the first to adore him. None other than Mary and Joseph. The shepherds came a little while later and the Magi some days later, almost all Christmas nativity scenes show Mary and Joseph in the center kneeling or standing gazing with fixed attention at their newly boot born son, who is God made man? This was the first act of adoration on this planet of God become man. And every act of Eucharistic adoration is in direct connection with that first one in the stable and Bethlehem[inaudible]. From that moment on until his death, St. Joseph was able to engage in daily adoration of the divine, failed in the humanity of Jesus justice. Christ's divinity has failed for us in the species of bread in the monstrous at Eucharistic adoration. For for Joseph, it was a real experience of being in the true presence of God. So for us to be before the blessed sacrament, it is a real experience of being in the true presence of God. And so Joseph will help us to adore, to reverence and to love the veiled presence of Christ in the Eucharist because he was with his beloved wife, the first Ado of Christ. So too he will help us to be faithful, reverent, and grateful ados of Christ in the blessed sacrament. It is good for our devotion and piety too to remember that on that long, long journey on foot of almost 200 kilometers from Bethlehem to Egypt, St. Joseph and our lady Mary staged the first Eucharistic procession. But even before that one from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census and earlier from Nazareth to Elizabeth and Zacharia's house in the hill country of Judah. For the visitation there were two more Eucharistic processions. And on these occasions, Mary's body was the monstrous that contained the real presence of Christ. St. Joseph wants to and will take great to light in leading you into a deeper relationship with Jesus and the blessed sacrament When we visit the blessed sacrament in the tabernacles of our churches. And when we spend an hour in adoration before the blessed sacrament exposed in the Mons, let us approach Jesus who is truly and really present there with the love of the blessed Virgin Mary, his holy mother. And with the love of St. Joseph, his holy Virgin father, we can turn to St. Joseph, our spiritual father and ask him to allow us to share in his great love for Jesus and ask him to obtain for us a deeper and stronger love for his presence in the most blessed sacrament. I hope you have benefited from these words and thoughts and ideas and reflections, and I'd like to recommend to you a book by Father Donald Calloway called The Consecration to St. Joseph. It's a beautiful book and some of the ideas that I've shared with you today, I obtained from that book I did last year in 2020 for the first time, the consecration to St. Joseph. And I renewed it over the past 33 days and remade my consecration today on the solemnity of St. Joseph. So I recommend the book to you, but I recommend two, consecrating yourself to this marvelous Saint who after Jesus and Mary has the highest place in heaven, and who is a powerful, strong, and faithful spiritual father for us all. St. Joseph. Pray for us.