Of Saints, Penitence, and Consecration
19 March, 2022
Dear and gentle reader, what a busy week this has been. I began it by visiting my brother and his family for a few days, since I'd not seen them since Christmas, then back to the parish in time for the grand day of St. Patrick, then my sister's birthday, and now it's St. Joseph's Day. To cap it all off, there's the usual schedule of weekend confessions and Masses. Already I yearn for my day off on Monday.
Both St. Joseph and St. Patrick hold a special place in my heart. They are my two favourite saints, aside from Our Lady. When I was born in the last century I was given up for adoption at birth, and just a day old, I was baptised with the name Joseph, which I also took for my confirmation name at the age of nine.
When I was adopted, I was given the name Patrick, of which I am quite happy and proud. Genetically speaking I'm just 12% Irish, but still, that's more than enough to claim Irish heritage. Despite not having a genetic link to my adoptive family, I've nonetheless inherited my Dad's Irish outlook on life, as well as his Irish temper. Like him, (God rest his soul), I let my frustrations and anger simmer, until it boils over. If it's one emotion the Irish revel in displaying, it's anger. I suppose my purgatory will be a long one, due to that, and my other multitudinous faults.
It may seem a bit incongruous, gentle reader, that these lovely feasts of Saints Joseph and Patrick, fall during the Lenten season, but I see them as harmonious with the tenor of that somber time. For one, it's a joyous relief to celebrate the feasts, and to revel in one's heritage, all in moderation, of course. For another, both of these great men had tremendously difficult lives and vocations. That, gentle reader, teaches us to put things in perspective, and to buck up in carrying our crosses each day.
Saint Patrick came from a life of privilege as a Romano-Briton of the fourth century. He was born the son of a Roman decurion and grandson to a Catholic priest, yet, he admits that he didn't take his religion seriously. At the age of sixteen he, along with his family's slaves, were taken prisoner by Irish raiders, brought back to Ireland, and sold into slavery. For six years he tended his master's flocks, and during that time not only rediscovered and lived his faith, but learned the language and culture of the Irish. Eventually he escaped and was reunited with his family in Britania, but once safely ensconced in the bosom of his loved ones, he discerned God calling him to be a missionary to the people who had once enslaved him. St. Patrick studied in Gaul and was ordained priest and later bishop, setting out with a handful of companions to bring the light of the Gospel to his former masters. He was not the first missionary in Ireland, but he was the most successful. During the thirty or so years of his missionary work, he admits to being threatened almost daily with imprisonment or death, yet by the end of his life around the year 461, the Catholic faith had been firmly planted in that land which would become known as the "Isle of Saints and Scholars". Ireland was the first European nation outside of the Roman Empire to embrace the Christian faith, and without having the missionaries martyred for their labours. Not bad for a former juvenile delinquent and slave!
Saint Joseph, likewise, didn't have an easy go of it. Born into the royal lineage of King David, he was no more than a Jewish peasant in a backwater province under the yoke of the Roman Empire. No doubt he would have learned his trade as a "tekton", a craftsman (most commonly and poorly translated as "carpenter"), from his father. He would have worked with wood and stone. He would have crafted various items for the home and farm, as well as built and repaired the homes of his neighbours. We usually imagine him having his own workshop, but we cannot be sure of this. After all, he was poor. No doubt he would have had his tool kit, but perhaps he was one of those day-labourers who would stand in the local marketplace looking for work, and perhaps had days when no one hired him, and would go home hungry and worried about how to make ends meet. Unlike St. Patrick whose words we have in his own autobiography, the "Confessio", and his "Letter to Coroticus", we do not have one single word of St. Joseph recorded in Sacred Scripture. Yet, the gospels of Matthew and Luke paint a picture of him as a man of great faith. Matthew describes him as "righteous", that is having a right relationship with God and neighbour, a man of prayer and observance of the Law of Moses, a man who sought to do what is right. When he learns of his beloved betrothed wife's pregnancy, he is upset, confused, hurt, but he does not seek to punish her or shame her. God, through his angel, reveals to Joseph that Mary is not at fault, and that the child in her womb is by the Holy Spirit, and is the Messiah, and the he is to name him Jesus. Joseph does not hesitate in doing God's will, despite the undoubted gossip that would come from it, maligning him and his wife. He takes up the vocation of being a husband to Mary, yet in a virginal way, respecting the fact that God had chosen his wife to be the mother of the Messiah. He welcomes the opportunity to be a true father to a Child that is not his own, loving Him, protecting and nurturing Him, and instructing Him in all things as any father would for his son. It is he who would make sure that the young Jesus learned his trade of being a "tekton", who would observe the Law of Israel as a pious Jew, who would show the young Christ by word and example how to be a "righteous" man. The last time we encounter Joseph in the gospels is when he and Mary are searching for the young Jesus in Jerusalem, and finally find him in the Temple. There, Mary refers to him in speaking to her Son, as "your father", high praise indeed for this holy man. It is commonly held that Joseph died before Jesus began his public ministry, dying in the company of his beloved virginal wife, and his adoptive Son, Jesus; hence he is the patron of a happy death. Because of his fidelity to God in carrying out his vocation as husband of Mary, and adoptive father to Christ, Joseph is the patron of the Universal Church. What an extraordinary vocation!
Both of these holy men are so very ordinary, yet absolutely extraordinary, much like ourselves. Like Joseph and Patrick, we too are called to be saints, despite our weaknesses, despite the difficulties in our lives and circumstances. Like them, we are ordinary, yet called by God to be extraordinary, not as an apostle and evangeliser of a nation, nor as the virginal husband of the Mother of God and adoptive father to Christ, but as our own person in our own times. For us, that means that like Joseph and Patrick, we much pray and discern the will of God in our lives, and once assured of it, unhesitatingly follow it and carry it out. That, my dear and gentle reader, means taking up our cross each day and walking in the footsteps of Our Lord.
Gentle reader, if you have been keeping up with the news concerning the horrific war in Ukraine, you will have seen that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, intends to consecrate both Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on Lady Day, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. Pope Francis has asked all the bishops of the Universal Church, along with their priests to join him in this act of consecration. God willing, the powerful intercession of the all-holy Mother of God will obtain peace for the suffering people of those nations, as well as for the rest of us in this strife-torn world.
According to the messages of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, the Blessed Virgin asked that Russia be consecrated to her by the pope and all bishops in union with him, and thus be converted, and a time of peace would be given to the world. Other popes have consecrated the Russian people to her Immaculate Heart. Others have consecrated the world to Mary, but no pope has fulfilled Our Lady's request as Pope Francis will do. Word of this has been communicated to the bishops of the world by the Apostolic nuncios to the national bishops conferences, and from them to the priests of their dioceses. While the message of Fatima is only "private revelation" and adds nothing to the Deposit of Faith, it is reflective of the Gospel message of prayer and repentance. One can be a grade-A Catholic in good standing, and not believe in any private revelations approved by the Church. I will admit, Fatima is not one of my favourite Marian shrines. When I visited it back in 1990 with my classmate and dear friend, who is a fellow priest of the diocese, we were both struck down with food poisoning. I was sick for three weeks. That is a plague that not even Pharaoh and Egypt was afflicted with! I much prefer the silent apparition of Knock, Ireland, to all the secret messages of any other approved apparition.
Nonetheless, I think that this upcoming consecration is very important. Both Ukraine and Russia have had a long history of holding to the Christian faith throughout many difficult times, both Catholic and Orthodox, in which they both have a tremendous love of the Blessed Mother of God. On Lady Day, 25 March, I will offer that act of consecration in my parish church, in union with my diocesan bishop, Pope Francis, and all his brother bishops, and my brother priests throughout the world. If you cannot join your local pastor in doing this, please, spend some time that day in prayer. Offer the Rosary for both of those countries, that peace may prevail, and that Our Lady's Immaculate Heart may triumph over this demonic war. Since the Solemnity of the Annunciation falls on a Friday of Lent, the law of abstinence is dispensed with on that day. Perhaps consider abstaining from flesh meat on the Thursday preceding, or the Saturday following it, as a penitential sacrifice for peace.
As ever, gentle reader, may God bless you and yours through the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, and good St. Patrick!
Father P.
Comments
Post a Comment