Homily for Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent (1)

Homily for Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent

Theme: SOLEMNITY OF SAINT JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY……. “His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph”

By: Abbé Marc VAILLOT
(París, France)

Homily for Saturday March 19 2022

Today, the Church invites us to contemplate the kind figure of the Holy Patriarch. Chosen by God and by Mary, Joseph lived like all of us between sorrows and joys. We must look at any of his actions with special interest. We will always learn from him. We should put ourselves in his shoes to imitate him, for in this way we will be able to respond, as he did, to the divine will.

Everything in his modest, humble and ordinary life is luminous. For this reason, famous mystics (Teresa of Avila, Hildegarde of Bingen, Therese of Lisieux), great Founders (Benedict, Bruno, Francis of Assisi, Bernard of Clairvaux, Josemaría Escrivá) and so many saints of all times encourage us to treat him and love him to follow in the footsteps of the Patron of the Church. It is the shortcut to sanctify the intimacy of our homes, putting us in the heart of the Holy Family, to lead a life of prayer and to sanctify our work.

Thanks to his constant union with Jesus and Mary — that’s the key! —Joseph can simply live the extraordinary, when God asks him to do so, as in the Gospel scene in today’s Mass. He performs, above all, ordinary tasks, which are never irrelevant as they ensure a successful and a happy life, which leads to the heavenly Beatitude.

Pope Francis writes: “Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Joseph, then, teaches us that faith in God includes believing that he can work even through our fears, our frailties and our weaknesses. He also teaches us that amid the tempests of life, we must never be afraid to let the Lord steer our course.”

Abbé Marc VAILLOT
(París, France)