Lent: Our Journey to Bethlehem

Today, we begin lenten journey of fasting, which I would like to suggest is our annual journey to Bethlehem. The name 'Bethlehem' literally means 'House of Bread', and why would anyone go to a house of bread, if one had plenty of bread? We lack bread—not just any bread, but the "living bread that came down from heaven" (John 6:51). In other words, we are running short on the life of Christ, and we need to travel year after year and replenish ourselves; this is one reason why we as Catholics need to receive Communion at least (frequently is encouraged) once during this time of Lent and Easter.

I'm reminded of a scene from The Nativity Story, one of my favorite movie renditions of the Infancy Narratives (you can watch it here). There is a scene (01:02:20 - 01:06:00) that demonstrates the role Joe has in our journey to Bethlehem. At the beginning of the scene, there is another traveling family whose donkey stumbles and falls. Joe says to Mary, "Their animal is weak."

Following this scene, Mary and Joe break for the night, but before sleeping, they partake of the simple meal of bread. Joe prays a traditional Jewish prayer that can be translated as "Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life." (If this prayer sounds familiar, it's because the priest prays this prayer at every Mass; although, you might not hear him all the time.) Then Joe breaks the bread and gives half to Mary, he takes a bite from the other half and then puts the rest of his half into his satchel bag.

We then take a quick break to watch the three magi re-find their bearings (which is what we do in the Mass), and then we're back to the Holy Family. In this part of the scene. Joe takes that piece of his half of the bread and gives it to their donkey. Joe feeds the donkey from his half of the bread! He's probably been doing this the whole trip, which is why Mary and Joe's donkey is not weak, like the other family's.

This scene is significant because it visualizes what happens at every Mass. Joe is the priest, we are the donkey, and Mary is the whole Church. We are only able to travel through Lent with the difficulties of our lenten practices (indeed, all of life), because we are fed the Bread of Life by the hand of the priest, who took bread, broke it, and gave to us some from his part.

So, as we begin and enter into this Lenten Journey—our journey to Bethlehem—let us turn to Joe who does give to us the nourishment that gives us strength to continue to encounter the Lord face-to-face!

Son of David, Do Not Fear

Next week, we begin the season of Lent, so I thought it would be good to offer some reflection on the infancy narrative before we being. I came across this article entitled, Joseph, Son of David, by Fr. Nicholas Solak, an Orthodox Priest. I strongly encourage you to read the entire article, but here are some quotes that I consider thought-provoking:

• How often we forget that we belong to God. So often we allow ourselves to be guided by fear and shame.
• He [God] offers us a righteousness far beyond our own when we accept that we are “sons of David.” We are part of the divine genealogy.
• Joseph does not rely on his own righteousness but rather is simply open and responsive to his divine vocation as “Son of David.” He is one who belongs to God, and he abandons his own ways in order to follow the Lord.
• Celebrating the Feast of our Lord’s Nativity in the flesh is a time for us, like Joseph, to offer our fear to the Lord. It is a time for us to recognize that our true vocation is a divine vocation, a time for us to embrace this divine calling fully and to become “sons of David.” Let this Feast of our Lord’s Nativity be a time for us joyfully to actualize in our lives the festive shout, “God is with us!”

This Lent, let us not be filled with fear. Instead, let us imitate Joe who "did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him" (Matthew 1:24).

St. Joseph's Oratory, Montreal

I was recently reminded of a pilgrimage to Montreal that I went on almost 5 years ago during my first year of seminary. In Montreal is the Oratory of St. Joseph that was begun by St. Andre Bessette, who called himself the "St. Joseph's little dog". 

Today, it stands as a testimony of the incredible and powerful intercession of Joe, and it's HUGE! I highly recommend it as a pilgrimage destination. Here are a few pictures of the Oratory from that trip:

This is the interior of the original chapel that still stands to the side of the Oratory Basilica.

Joe, the High Priest

I came across this icon of the Holy Family several months back, and it greatly intrigued me because Joe is clothed in the vestments of a Greek bishop. Since encountering the icon, I have been thinking a great deal about why he would, or should, be clothed as bishop. I think I might finally have an answer.

Last week, I shared St. Francis de Sales analogy of two mirrors and the sun for the Holy Family. I'm currently in a class entitled "Sacraments and the Christian Mystical Tradition" and in this course we're reading a short book written by Dr. David Fagerberg entitled Consecrating the World: On Mundane Liturgical Theology. In this book, Dr. Fagerberg speaks about the proper understanding of the term 'hierarchy', which comes from two Greek words: hiereus (priestly/sacred) arche (source of power). Then, quoting from Dionysius's Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter 3:

The aim of Hierarchy is the greatest possible assimilation to and union with God, and by taking Him as leader in all holy wisdom, to become like Him, so far as is permitted, by contemplating intently His most Divine Beauty. Also it moulds and perfects its participants in the holy image of God like bright and spotless mirrors which receive the Ray of the Supreme Deity — which is the Source of Light; and being mystically filled with the Gift of Light, it pours it forth again abundantly, according to the Divine Law, upon those below itself.

In other words, the hierarchy should be seen as a series of mirrors that each receive the Light of Christ from another and shares the same Light with another. The first mirror in the hierarchy is Mary; the second is Joe, all the way down to you and I. Joe is clothed as a bishop, that is a high-priest, because he is the first to receive the Light of Christ from another mirror (i.e. Mary, who receive the Light of Christ, not from another "mirror", but from Christ Himself). We too are called to be priests who sanctify this world (as Dr. Fagerberg write throughout his book).

For this reason I have begun to extend the phrase "To Jesus, through Mary" to "To Jesus, through Mary, with Joseph."

Joe, the second mirror

Last week, I shared St. Francis de Sales' analogy of the date-palm tree for Joe. This week, I'm sharing another analogy that de Sales offers in this conference: Joe as a mirror. This analogy should not be surprising though; after all, Joe is invoked as the "mirror of patience" in his litany. Simply put, as a mirror does not emit any light of its own but only reflects light from a source, Joe too does not emit any light of his own but only reflects that light, which is the Light of the World (John 8:12). Joe, however, does not reflect the Light directly. He receives the Light of the World from Mary, who is also a mirror. Here is what de Sales writes:

Oh divine union between Our Lady and the glorious St. Joseph! By means of this union, that Good of eternal goods, Our Lord Himself, belonged to St. Joseph as well as to Our Lady. This is not true as regards the nature which He took in the womb of our glorious Mistress, and which had been formed by the Holy Ghost of the most pure blood of Our Lady ; but is so as regards grace, which made him participate in all the possessions of his beloved Spouse, and which increased so marvelously his growth in perfection; and this through his continual communication with Our Lady. For although it is true that she possessed every virtue in a higher degree than is attainable by any other pure creature, yet it is quite certain that the glorious St. Joseph was the being who approached most nearly to that perfection.

And just as we see that a mirror placed opposite to the rays of the sun receives those rays perfectly, and another mirror placed opposite to the first, though it only takes or receives the sun's rays by reflection, yet reflects them so absolutely that you can scarcely judge which receives them directly from the sun and which only by reflection, so it was in the case of Our Lady. She was like a most pure mirror, receiving on a spotless surface the rays of the Sun of Justice, which poured into her soul all virtues in their perfection. All these virtues and perfections were then absolutely reflected in St. Joseph, so that it almost seemed as if he were as perfect, and possessed all virtues in as high a degree, as the glorious Virgin our Mistress.

More coming up next week...

Joe, the Holy Date Palm?

Today stands between the feasts of St. Francis de Sales (Jan. 24) and St. John Bosco (Jan. 31). In looking for something to share this week, I began my search for anything that St. John Bosco might have said about Joe. However, I really couldn't find anything, but I was inspired to look at what St. Francis de Sales had to say. After all, John Bosco had such a great devotion to Francis de Sales that he named the religious order that he established after de Sales: the Salesian Order. I came across a talk that de Sales gave, entitled On the Virtues of St. Joseph. You can read the talk here.

What struck me most about this talk was how Francis de Sales compared Joe to a date-palm tree, and it truly is an amazing comparison. He begins the talk by quoting Psalm 92:13, "The just shall flourish like the palm tree..." He basically compares Joe's three "primary" virtues (virginity, humility, and courage) with the date tree:

1. Virginity (pg. 366-371): The date-palm tree is either male or female (the male tree exclusively produces the pollen, and the female tree exclusively produces the flower). Therefore, "the male palm-tree does not bear fruit, and yet it is not unfruitful, for the female palm would bear no fruit without it, or without its aspects." Similarly, Joe does not produce children of his own (de Sales believed that Joe was a young-virgin spouse of Mary, pg. 369); yet, he is not unfruitful because Jesus becomes his son through his spousal relationship with Mary.
2. Humility (pg. 371-378): The date-palm tree does not produce flowers until summer-time. Francis de Sales interprets summer-time spiritually as one's entrance into heaven and the putting forth of flowers as the recognition of virtue. He says that the humble person does not try to make their virtue public, but tries to keep it hidden, and prefers that God will reveal the person's virtue after he or she has died. De Sales points out that the Sacred Scriptures do not directly reveal much about Joe because Joe truly lived a humble and hidden life (pg. 372-373).
3. Courage (pg. 378-383): The date-palm tree does not bend low the more it becomes laden with fruit; instead, the more fruit it has, the taller it seems to grow. This seems to correspond with the virtue of courage, which does not back away when given a heavier load, but rather, seems to grow even stronger. De Sales relates this to Joe who was given the very difficult task of providing for Jesus and Mary in the midst of dangers, poverty and uncertainty.

So, who knew that Joe could be compared to a date tree? 

In case you were wondering about the biological statements about date trees, consider this Encyclopedia Britannica article on date trees. To make the comparison even more interesting, this article concludes by stating that date-palm leaves are commonly used on Palm Sunday. What was proclaimed on Palm Sunday? “Hosanna to the Son of David..." (Matthew 21:30) 

And is not Joe a son of David? (Matthew 1:20)

Coincidence? I think not.

More Pictures from Mexico

So, here are the last set of pictures that I would like to share from my latest trip to Mexico:

 

 

 

  

La Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia, Mexico City, Mexico

As I mentioned last week, I just spent some time in Mexico. While there I visited la Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia (the Parish of the Holy Family), a Jesuit parish in Mexico City. The primary purpose of my visit was to visit the relics of Blessed Miguel Pro, a Mexican Jesuit priest who was martyred in 1927; the fact that the parish had the Holy Family as its patron was an additional bonus to the visit. Relative to the many other churches I visited, this one was certainly a young church - its construction began in 1910 and concluded in 1925. Naturally, there were many images of José. This week, I share a couple of my favorite pictures of this beautiful church:

 

 

 

 

 

A New Find in an Old Book

I have been blessed to be able to travel to Mexico for the last couple days, and I happened to come across a library that held a collection of books from several Franciscan Convents and had the opportunity to stop in to browse through a couple of very old books (I thought I died and went to heaven!). One of the books, Chronica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico by Fray Augustin de Vetancurt (published in 1697), included a long dedication to Joe. I took a picture, but if you don’t understand Spanish, here is, in part, my translation:

DEDICATION

GLORIOUS PATRIARCH SAINT JOSEPH, Spouse of the Spouse of God, Guardian of the mystical ark, Mary Most-Holy, presumed Father of Christ, Patron of this New Spain, my love and master, whom I serve unworthily, I have dedicated the Mexican Theater to our patron, and I return to dedicate this Chronicle, the fourth part of the Theater, in which the works of those great apostles, who established, and have enlightened the Provincia del Santo Evangelio, and preached the Catholic Faith in this Kingdom, whose Patron you are... Recieve with pleasing joy that which I offer to you—a devoted heart—not as a bribe, but as tribute. Perfect my offering because you gave me the will, not judging my offering by its size or weight, but by the desire and will with which I consecrate it. Enlighten my spirit, enhance my discourse, and sanctify my words because they direct the honor of your servants, the respect of the Faith, and the benefit of our souls to the greater honor and glory to God.

Father of Love

This is one of my absolutely favorite images of Joe.

There is just something very real about the image. I have had a lot of experience of newborns in my family, and from what I have observed, there are not many things that makes a new-mother happier than when the new-father gets up in the middle of the night to take care of the wailing child in order to allow his wife to rest. There is just something very manly and fatherly of Joe taking care of Jesus in the quiet of the night.

If I had to put a narrative to this picture, I don’t think I could express it any better than how Michael Card did in Joseph’s Song. If you were Joe and had the opportunity to hold our God in your arms, what would you say? Would you say the same to Him when you receive Him in the Holy Eucharist? I pray that I would.