Page 29 - Reflections on St. Joseph

a moment of waiting, because history proceeds according to the heart and wisdom of
God.

Joseph’s call to care for and make safe of life of both Jesus and Mary, signifies his entering
into a will, into very precise plan - that of God. The stability and serenity certainly
realized on the part of this father and husband, will once again be put to the test.
Punctually the Angel returns to re-organize the plans, most likely the projects too, of
Joseph for the future. Deep down, what man is not looking for serenity, for the stability
of his home, security at work, happiness in his family? Once again for Joseph, his way
will present two paths: enter or not the plan of God. What will Joseph do?

Very little of what we plan in life leads to a clear, certain or full realization. There is
always something that interferes with the accomplishment of personal plans; thus we
find ourselves often at a crossroads of whether or not to enter into that which appears
unexpectedly and different. To enter or not those things desired by God, not as we would
want them. This indeed is a challenge! In the ups and downs of our going, we should not
be surprised that crises occur. That which tempers our maturity and forges the stature
of a man wise in life is his capacity to understand and deal with these crises.

All the events of Joseph show the unexpected and different than supposed, the contrary
to what was imagined and even the paradox of what one would never have dreamed. It
was very real that moment when Joseph was called to take with him Mary, pregnant with
Jesus. That he did not want to denounce her declares all the active will of this man.
Joseph receives a role: that of father and husband. He is thus called to decide whether to
give or withhold his “yes “. He will understand more and more that it is the powerful hand
of God which molds his yes and that nothing happens by chance.

The crisis moment for Joseph, constant in all four dreams, was to be continuously placed
before a decision to be made; he was called regularly to recognize whether the events
before him were simply human facts, or situations in which God could be acting. The
mystery of the unforeseeable and the unexpected generates either rebellion, refusal and
ego, or it becomes the whispered hearing of a voice which calls to trust, perceiving a will
which accompanies and saves.

To believe in this possibility to be part of our story today, our own stories as filled with
the presence of Jesus Christ, despite all the catastrophic events which we have before our
eyes. This is man’s true challenge in his relationship with God.

Joseph yet again accepts the command of the Angel to leave everything, the comfortable
and secure land of Egypt, his patterns of life, the whole world he had built, to depart and
start over. This is something humanly not simple. It is a continuous crucible of
recognizing in the whispers of the Angel, whether this is the work of God or not, and thus
to embrace it or not. Joseph is the man of interior life. He is the man of intimacy. Dreams,
thoughts, whispers, actions are all moments of profound interiority. Joseph will not be
left on his own in this story. He will always, punctually receive the whisper of a Word

Reflections on st. joseph 5