8/2/2019 7:35:07 AM
Thought Of the Day
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"Is he not the carpenter's son?"
Brethren, do you recall the patriarch Joseph..., from whom Joseph, the husband of Mary, inherited not only the name but the purity, innocence and grace... To the Joseph of old was given interpretation of dreams (Gn 40;41), to the new Joseph a share in heavenly secrets. His predecessor kept a store of wheat, not for himself but for the whole nation; the latter became the guardian of the living bread from heaven that would give life to the whole world as to himself (Jn 6,51). A “good and faithful servant” (Mt 25,21) was the Joseph to whom Mary, the mother of the Savior, was espoused; a “faithful and prudent servant” (Mt 24,45) whom our Lord chose for the comfort of his mother and the fatherly support of his humanity, as well as the trustworthy co-operator of his design for the world. He was of the house of David..., descended from royal stock, a man of noble race and yet nobler mind, the son of David, in nothing degenerating from the nobility of David, his father. Yes, truly was he son of David less by kinship of blood than by inheritance of faith, of devotion, and of holiness of life: a man whom, like another David, God found “according to His own heart” (1Sam 13,14), and to whom he entrusted his most precious secret; to whom, as to David, he made manifest his “inmost wisdom” (Ps 51[50],8), and to whom he revealed a mystery hidden from the great ones of the world. To Joseph it was given to behold him Whom “many kings and prophets had desired to see and had not seen, to hear and had not heard” (Lk 10,24). And not only was he allowed to behold him and listen to his words, but to bear him in his arms, guide his steps, embrace and caress him, feed and protect him.