THE DREAMS OF ST. JOSEPH
PART 1 of 4
As we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph this month, in the year dedicated to him by Pope Francis, we present stories honoring the human yet divine fatherhood of St. Joseph. As the earthly father of Jesus, Joseph humbly and faithfully showed us how a father’s guiding, protective love for his child should draw from the heavenly Father’s boundless love for His Son and for us.
FR. RAMON MA. LUZA BAUTISTA, SJ
Summary/Transcript by Teresita Tanseco-Cruz
The following text is taken from the recollection given by Fr. Ramon Bautista, S.J., on January 16, 2021, entitled ” St Joseph of Nazareth, a Man of Faith. Learning from him who refused to doubt God.” A summarization of statements was done wherever possible, but Fr. Bautista’s original words remain intact throughout this slightly ” shortened transcript.”
Pope Francis had declared this year (Dec. 8, 2020 – Dec. 8, 2021) as the year of St. Joseph to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church by Pope Pius lX. The celebration accompanies the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde (“With a Father´s Heart”) that Pope Francis wrote on Dec. 8, 2020
What a wonderful gift to have an entire year to prayerfully reflect on the person and holy witnessing of St. Joesph!
Indeed, we have so much to learn from our beloved Patron described by Pope Francis as “a tender, loving, obedient father; creatively courageous; often in the shadows.” So we learn from Joseph of Nazareth… a man of faith, the man who refused to doubt God.
One excellent way to understand and appreciate St. Joseph is to see him from the larger perspective of the story of Salvation. That is the story of our loving God and how God chose to save us and continue to save us because the history of Salvation continues to unfold, right now, in time and space. Conscious or not, each one of us would be part of this story because God’s redemptive, salvific story is the story of our church, and if so, then it is also our story.
One cannot mention Salvation history without mentioning the miracle of all miracles: the Incarnation, from which no mystery can be separated.
In the mystery of the Incarnation, the Son of God comes down humbling, emptying himself, becoming born of a woman, helpless, vulnerable, and living among us, to save us. The indispensable part of the Incarnation is God choosing, calling, humbly appealing to mere human instruments to unfold the greatest miracle.
It took 5 Yes’s for the work of salvation to reach its high point in time and space through the Incarnation event:
YES of the Father YES of the Son YES of the Holy Spirit YES of Mary YES of Joseph
Should any one of them had said NO, the history of Salvation would not have unfolded the way it unfolded.
The subject of the Incarnation usually focuses on Mary, and rightly so, for her role is so central. Believers and theologians insist that without the FIAT of Mary, there would have been no Incarnation. Christ would not have been born, lived among us. There would be no Passion, Resurrection, no apostles to call, words to preach, no Holy Eucharist to institute, no Church to follow. Without Mary’s YES, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit could not have redeemed us in the way they wanted.
Yet, in the light of all this, if Joseph had not said YES, it would have been a totally different salvation scenario and narrative.
Was not Mary’s YES dependent on Joseph’s YES? Just as God depended on Mary’s YES, did He not equally depend on Joseph’s YES? In the end, we cannot undervalue or take for granted the role of Joseph in salvation history, let alone his true significance in the Incarnation miracle.
Joseph’s YES, as described in Matthew 1: 18-25, has led scholars to call it “The Annunciation of Joseph.” It has Joseph’s YES, but God’s YES to Joseph as well.
What kind of God does Joseph’s Annunciation reveal? This is a crucial question because the God of Joseph’s Annunciation is our God. Consider 3 images of the God of Joseph:
– God of Intervention [God of the Eleventh Hour] – God of Assurance – God of Emmanuel [Presence]
PART 2 WILL CONTINUE ON TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 2021.