Lenten Retreat – Week Four, Feast Of St. Joseph
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It’s interesting that St. Joseph is a saint to whom many have a great devotion, but little is know about him. It’s true that there are many saints about whom history is largely silent, but this silence is all the more strange in Joseph’s case, because of his special role as Jesus’ foster father. However, it would be a great mistake to equate this silence with dullness or weakness of character on Joseph’s part. Indeed it is quite the opposite. It is the silence of a man who had to listen to God to discover his vocation. And his vocation was very special indeed. Firstly, he had to accept the vocation of Mary, who was to bear the Son of God. Then he had to accept the task to form and protect Jesus, his most precious charge. And it was the silence that allowed Joseph to care for Jesus and help him to flourish.
In current times the world is so information dependent, and we are bombarded from every side by words and noise. Yet we rarely have the time or the space – or even the silence – inwardly to digest all that is thrown at us. And this of course is just as true in a religious setting such as the local Church or a religious community. St Joseph reminds us of the need for silence to make sense of the world, to make sense of God. And the silence of St Joseph is a silence of strength, and of virtue. It is often easy to keep God at arm’s length by a barrage of noise, but it is more difficult to remove the sources of noise and stay silent and still. Nevertheless, we need to be silent from time to time so that we can learn something from God, to discover something new, something that might change us and help us to grow.
