Taking a Break with St Joseph During Lent
Today is the feast of St Joseph, a first class feast. We take a break from our Lenten discipline on such a day. It's somewhat like a Sunday in importance to us Catholics. While not a holy day of obligation in the U.S., you might think about going to Mass today to honor our great patron. In Italy, St Joseph's feast is a holiday, and it's also their equivalent of Father's Day. How appropriate!
I came across some notes I took from my reading of the book Joseph of Nazareth. They referred to St Joseph as "A Quiet Man." Coincidentally, we try to watch the great movie The Quiet Man every year around St Patrick's Day, which just passed. The appealing main character in the movie, Sean Thornton, played by John Wayne, tends to be a man of few words, but tough as nails. While St Joseph doesn't remind me of John Wayne or Sean Thornton, my notes reminded me that ST Joseph was the real "Quiet Man."
As a Quiet Man, St Joseph provides the perfect antidote to the endless flow of noise and activity that characterizes most of our lives these days. Moments of silent recollection are rare. The business and routines of daily living don't even leave time for family meals anymore. We run from one activity to the other and fill any “dead” space with distractions like TV, movies, pop music, talk radio – the list is endless. Our senses are hooked on visual and aural stimulants. We even put on headphones to listen to some form of noise to keep out the noise.
In addition to all that running around, we’re always yapping: face-to-face, cell phone, email, text messaging, etc. About what? You would think, being drenched in noise, the last thing we’d want to do would be to add more of our own. And what is all this talk? How much is complaint, arguing, annoyance, demands, posturing, pontificating, gossiping, just plain blabbing about any silly thing that enters our minds?
Enter St Joseph, the quiet man. He’s a man of discernment, understanding and action. When he discovers Mary is with child, he doesn’t complain, seek the support of others, or even share his disappointment. A dream provides the understanding he needs to decide on a right course of action: Marry Mary. When his family faces the threat of Herod’s sword after the birth of Our Lord, he is told to flee with his family to Egypt in a dream.
Yet he is no idle dreamer. He is a listener. Compare this to the vain dreams of the weak-willed person with his confused stream of meaningless and aimless fantasies. How often we, as the Bible says “imagine a vain thing.” We fill our minds with plans for the future, while the present languishes right before our eyes. The work of today goes unfinished while we imagine a better future. We create “mental noise” that distracts us from our daily work. Joseph uses imagination to serve the task at hand. Joseph was attentive to duty and hard work, not to imagining an unreal and fanciful distant future.
In order to listen, you have to keep quiet. When your mouth is yapping or your brain is daydreaming, you can’t hear, see or feel what’s around you. A man who keeps quiet can listen; he can learn. A man who sees, feels and is immersed in the Immense and the Unfathomable, as was Joseph, does not speak. In this way, he hears God. When he hears, he can understand God’s Will. He responds to this understanding by an act of his own will; but it all starts with listening. And to listen, you need silence.
During this brief break from our Lenten discipline, let's resolve to be more like St Joseph. Knowing God’s Will, Joseph acts. He remains free of the limits and constraints that selfishness puts on all of us. He freely and generously responds to God’s will. And so can we, through his intercession.
St Joseph, help us to seek and embrace silence in our lives, that we may listen. This day, instead of thinking of ourselves, let us work for love of God. Help us pour ourselves into our work by attending fully to the littlest of tasks and completing that task perfectly.
St Joseph, pray for us.
I came across some notes I took from my reading of the book Joseph of Nazareth. They referred to St Joseph as "A Quiet Man." Coincidentally, we try to watch the great movie The Quiet Man every year around St Patrick's Day, which just passed. The appealing main character in the movie, Sean Thornton, played by John Wayne, tends to be a man of few words, but tough as nails. While St Joseph doesn't remind me of John Wayne or Sean Thornton, my notes reminded me that ST Joseph was the real "Quiet Man."
As a Quiet Man, St Joseph provides the perfect antidote to the endless flow of noise and activity that characterizes most of our lives these days. Moments of silent recollection are rare. The business and routines of daily living don't even leave time for family meals anymore. We run from one activity to the other and fill any “dead” space with distractions like TV, movies, pop music, talk radio – the list is endless. Our senses are hooked on visual and aural stimulants. We even put on headphones to listen to some form of noise to keep out the noise.
In addition to all that running around, we’re always yapping: face-to-face, cell phone, email, text messaging, etc. About what? You would think, being drenched in noise, the last thing we’d want to do would be to add more of our own. And what is all this talk? How much is complaint, arguing, annoyance, demands, posturing, pontificating, gossiping, just plain blabbing about any silly thing that enters our minds?
Enter St Joseph, the quiet man. He’s a man of discernment, understanding and action. When he discovers Mary is with child, he doesn’t complain, seek the support of others, or even share his disappointment. A dream provides the understanding he needs to decide on a right course of action: Marry Mary. When his family faces the threat of Herod’s sword after the birth of Our Lord, he is told to flee with his family to Egypt in a dream.
Yet he is no idle dreamer. He is a listener. Compare this to the vain dreams of the weak-willed person with his confused stream of meaningless and aimless fantasies. How often we, as the Bible says “imagine a vain thing.” We fill our minds with plans for the future, while the present languishes right before our eyes. The work of today goes unfinished while we imagine a better future. We create “mental noise” that distracts us from our daily work. Joseph uses imagination to serve the task at hand. Joseph was attentive to duty and hard work, not to imagining an unreal and fanciful distant future.
In order to listen, you have to keep quiet. When your mouth is yapping or your brain is daydreaming, you can’t hear, see or feel what’s around you. A man who keeps quiet can listen; he can learn. A man who sees, feels and is immersed in the Immense and the Unfathomable, as was Joseph, does not speak. In this way, he hears God. When he hears, he can understand God’s Will. He responds to this understanding by an act of his own will; but it all starts with listening. And to listen, you need silence.
During this brief break from our Lenten discipline, let's resolve to be more like St Joseph. Knowing God’s Will, Joseph acts. He remains free of the limits and constraints that selfishness puts on all of us. He freely and generously responds to God’s will. And so can we, through his intercession.
St Joseph, help us to seek and embrace silence in our lives, that we may listen. This day, instead of thinking of ourselves, let us work for love of God. Help us pour ourselves into our work by attending fully to the littlest of tasks and completing that task perfectly.
St Joseph, pray for us.
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