Well, today marks the start of the second week of this blog. I thank those of you who have been reading this regularly, and welcome those of you who are starting to read it today. This blog gives me a forum to express what is on my mind, which, as I stated in the first entry, became important to me after some recent developments in society that made me realize I had to stand up and do more for the Faith than I had before. I had no idea which direction the blog would take. I am very delighted with the direction it is taking. I feel the Lord has a message He wants to get out. I am not at all saying that His words are my words. I believe, though, that through the words on this blog, He is sending a message, and I very humbled that He is using me as his messenger.
Towards the end of his life, Our Lord said to Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Thomas, you have written well of me." I can only pray I am doing the same.
Saint Joseph seems to have been the silent type. As I stated, no words of his are spoken in Holy Scripture. There exist no writings attributed to him, at least to my knowledge. Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity, and His Mother (Joseph's wife) was conceived without sin, so it would be easy to minimize Joseph's role in Our Lord's upbringing, and to minimize the influence Joseph had on how well Our Lord turned out as a person. But, this is a blog that is devoted to Saint Joseph, so why not give Joseph some credit. Think of it, Mary was sinless, so I am sure she could have handled the role of being a single mother pretty well. Yet, in God's plan, Joseph stayed, and was there throughout Our Lord's formidable years. There has to be a reason for this. It was not an accident that Joseph was there. I am sure things turned out the way they did, at least in some small measure, due to the influence of Joseph.
Apparently, in Our Lord's time, Joseph was not seen as anything special. The people asked about Jesus later in his life "is he not the carpenter's son" (Matthew 13:55). They also asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" (John 1:46) This is a lesson for us. Being a good and holy person may not be seen in the eye's of the world as much, but where it counts, in God's eye, it means everything. Joseph did his job so well that he is now the patron of the universal Church. This humble man, from a humble place, in a humble corner of the world, now sits guarding the entire Church from east to west, north to south, throughout the 7 continents, the young, the old, and everyone in between. Joseph watches over the entire Church. This is another lesson for us. Be faithful in "small" things (though really there is nothing small in God's eyes), and only then, can you be ready to take on the "larger" things.
It seems like today Joseph is getting a similar reaction that he did in his time, a combination of indifference, ingratitude, and under-appreciation. Perhaps one of the purposes of this blog that God had in mind was to bring Saint Joseph back to the forefront in discussion and in the life of people today. He has something to say, perhaps not so much by his words, but by his actions and personal qualities. He is truly a man whose actions speak louder than his words. We have not spoken much about his actions yet in this blog, but will as time goes on. At the Shrine where I attend Mass, just about every stained glass window has Saint Joseph in it. They depict different scenes in his life, as noted in either Scripture, Tradition, or both. There are paintings, as well, of him. I look forward to sharing them with you and speaking about different events in his life, while at the same time, discussing current events in the world and the Church, as well as the Christian spiritual and moral life. God, of course, could have other plans for me and this blog, but for now, I do not see that happening.
Feel free to bookmark this page and share it with anyone you know who might be interested. My Facebook and Twitter friends are aware of this blog, but I do hope to spread the word about it in the weeks and months ahead to a wider audience on the Internet.
I wish you all another great week in the Lord, and I thank you for your time.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
-Jim
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