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...