My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Today on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we also praise God for the gift of fathers — humankind, born of God to serve God. These holy men guide us to faith in God by their example of daily living, introducing us to the Sacraments and leading us to receive Jesus the Eucharist, that we craft all our labor to God. The pilgrimage of our heart journeys to St. Joseph, the father of Jesus, whose very fiat brought forth great love of our Blessed Mother and opened wide the pages of salvation history as Jesus is born to us through this Holy Family.
Pope Leo XIII wrote a short encyclical, Quamquam Pluries, on devotion to St. Joseph. The opening paragraph of this encyclical, written Aug. 18, 1889, offers a description of a world mimicking what many of us echo today. “We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues, lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation daily growing in depravity of morals and views; the Church of Jesus Christ attacked on every side by open force or by craft . . . In circumstances so unhappy and troublous, human remedies are insufficient, and it becomes necessary, as a sole resource, to beg for assistance from the Divine power.” Pope Leo XIII invites all people of good will to prayer, to bring our focus back to God. He suggests a greater devotion to St. Joseph, to see his attentiveness toward God and his desire to serve God, as we unite our thoughts with Mary our Mother, our blessed advocate guiding us always toward her Son, Jesus.
“Thus, in giving Joseph the Blessed Virgin as spouse, God appointed him to be not only her life’s companion, the witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honor, but also, by virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity. And Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as His father among men . . . He set himself to protect with a mighty love and a daily solicitude his spouse and the Divine Infant; regularly by his work he earned what was necessary for the one and the other for nourishment and clothing; he guarded from death the Child threatened by a monarch’s jealousy, and found for Him a refuge; in the miseries of the journey and in the bitternesses of exile he was ever the companion, the assistance, and the upholder of the Virgin and of Jesus.. . . It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ.”
May we each think of ourselves as God’s craftsman, as St. Joseph lived, bringing all the people to God by our daily living as His holy people. May we emulate St. Joseph as guardian of God’s treasure upon the earth, that we have Peace with God through Jesus Christ. May we serve as pilgrims of hope because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
I invite you to join me on Saturday, June 21, 10 a.m. at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe for The Eucharistic Pilgrimage: Gift of Sacred Mystery with keynote speaker Father Miguel González followed by the celebration of Mass and Corpus Christi Procession. This celebration will align our heart with God’s through a greater understanding of the Sacred Gift of the Eucharist.
