Consecration to St. Joseph (Day 16). Livestream

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen glorious st. Joseph spouse of the Virgin Mary we beseech you to the Heart of Jesus Christ grant to us your fatherly protection o you whose power reaches all our necessities and who knows how to make possible the most impossible things open your fatherly eyes to the needs of your children in the confusion and pain which press upon us we have recourse to you with competence deign to take beneath your charitable guidance this important and difficult affair the cause of our worries and make that its happy outcome serve for the glory of God and the good of his devoted servants amen Heavenly Father on this 16th day of our consecration to Saint Joseph we come to you once again asking you to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us so that we can come to know and love the great st. Joseph and that he can guide us closer to Jesus Christ our Savior amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen I got a really bright light here looks okay to me but if it doesn't look right to you let me know I think it looks okay and I'm sitting right under st. Joseph's hands so it looks like he's given me his paternal fatherly blessing which is awesome so I decided well you know I'm practically halfway through so I wanted to just change up the background and it's really nice isn't it this is remember this is one of the ones that you can buy not this size you buy the canvas image which is about that big and it's one of the ones that you can win and the can't that canvas image size in the contest at the end so I just wanted to change it up a little bit a few things from yesterday you know quite a few people send me private messages about miracles that are happening or have happened or have recently happened as recent as you know the last couple days about st. Joseph's interceding for family members in their health or a particular situation that's going on in a marriage or you know relationships praise God there I get a lot of those which is wonderful so I'm not really talking too much about those because sometimes they're really long the descriptions and I it would take a very long time to go through those but praise God that st. Joseph's is you know doing his wonders doing what he does being a good father and you know really helping out in situations another thing somebody had mentioned the night I just assumed that everybody would know this like whenever because somebody was asking father where does the money go when you know we buy stuff from you or you know we we get stuff from the website yeah it doesn't go to me I don't know I don't I don't get any money for that it goes to the religious community so like when you go to father Calloway calm for example where you find out about the pilgrimages and all that you'll notice that all that stuff when you buy something that goes to shop mercy which is my religious communities website and you know I have my own website but that doesn't mean that the money is coming to me I don't get a dime from that stuff and that's the right you know I've made vows of poverty chastity and obedience so I don't see that it goes on my religious community same thing with consecration is st. Joseph's dot org you know my community set it up and when you buy something all that money it goes to the religious community it doesn't go to me so you know just in case you're wondering about that for sure it doesn't go to me it goes to the community let's see oh yes another thing that somebody brought up that I guess I just I wasn't clear enough about it yesterday it's a good point I'm glad that she raised it one lady said father you talked about st. Joseph's workshop in Nazareth but how is it still there if you said that the Muslims came through in 1296 and completely sacked the town of Nazareth how is it that people can visit st. Joseph's workshop well yeah you're totally right so what I meant was that's the location where st. Joseph's workshop was I mean that was completely sacked as well so in most of those places where there is now a church it's built on top of where something once was it's the exact location but the church that's usually there now is either was either built by the Crusaders when they came back to try and reclaim the Holy Land or even sometimes even more modern you know times they built something which oftentimes is night not as attractive I mean you'll you'll know what I'm talking about you know a lot of modern architecture to me is like let's go back to like the 15th century 16th century stuff you know it's not that complicated guys you know it's just make it beautiful we don't need these whitewash bunkers that are just like nasty the only way I can close pray pray in those is to close my eyes so I don't see what I'm seeing not saying that that's the case here it's not with the st. Joseph's workshop the church it's also called the Church of the nutrition because remember in Latin it's fille de Nutrition we translate that foster father of the son of God but it's nutrition she is a nurturer so that's also the name of that particular church st. Joseph's workshop or the Church of the nutrition fascinating so I'm sorry if I wasn't clear on that so you're not like going there and checking out st. Joseph's like workbench and the tools that he used you know or anything like that all that stuff you know was destroyed but it's the location where it is so but great great point I'm glad that you brought that up okay we got a lot of ground to cover again today my friends and I apologize today again was another one of those long readings really long mm-hmm so it's just the way that it is because there's so much that I have to get across so let's go to day 16 we're from the litany of st. Joseph's we read Joseph's most just pray for us I start with a quote from pope pius xi by the way he was an awesome Pope he doesn't get the attention that he deserves um he was a no-nonsense Pope he just said it like it was he upset a lot of people but I'm fine with that I mean the truth hurts man and he he hammered the truth which was great so he said he st. Joseph won for himself the title of the just man and thus serves as a living model of that Christian justice which should reign in social life now before we proceed any further it's good that we set we get a definition for what justice is because you hear that a lot today all place so the Christian understanding of justice as a virtue and is something that were called to practice can actually be practiced even towards God so we can exercise the virtue of justice and we need to even in our relationship with God and actually primarily in our relationship with God so let me give you again this is going to be important for what we're going to read in the second reading today because if you don't have this in your head you might start thinking hmm I'm not this isn't convincing to me but once you have this definition you'll understand what's going on so theologians and not just theologians but you know they work it out and in the church you know affirms it in official you know documents and you find it encyclicals and the Catechism and so forth so theologians defined the virtue of justice as quote giving to another his due for example in our relationship with God we owe it to him to be grateful for our existence and to praise him for his goodness we act justly towards God giving him his due when we worship Him especially by our participation in Holy Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation if we fail to do this we are not loving God we are not acting justly towards God we are not giving him his due now I remember when I was a seminarian you know fresh in my studies and somebody said to me because I went to a dominican seminary which was fantastic you know studied the Summa of st. Thomas not a lot of this modern garbage and it talked about things I had never really heard of like they were talking about you need to act justly towards God and I was like I don't understand what that means but then when I you know learned from these great theologians st. Thomas and many others the definition like this I was like oh that makes total sense I mean I God made me and I should be grateful for that and he is owed my you know faith and in in in in my service and I should worship him and he's told me how to do that in the New Testament very clearly and he did in the Old Testament as well but now we have the New Testament in the New Covenant and it's very clear that you know we have to do this in memory of him the Holy Mass the Last Supper so very very very clear so what's important to know too is that God is not the only one of course that we are to act justly towards you also need to give others their due because we don't just you know we're not living on an isolated place where it's just you and God there's new relationships everywhere do you love venerate and honor Mary your spiritual mother she's worthy of your veneration and it's actually due to her because of who she is do you love venerate honor Saint Joseph your spiritual father do you treat members of your family with love respect and dignity because it's owed to them it is that's amazing to think about sometimes it doesn't seem like it should be because you see all their faults and transgressions and sometimes they wound you and so forth but that that relationship is there and they're still made in the image and likeness of God and they're owed respect you don't want to take away their their dignity what about your neighbors co-workers and everyone else with whom you daily interact if you're an employer do you offer a just wage remember the golden rule do unto others what you would have them do unto you your spiritual father acted justly and lovingly toward everyone especially God keep that definition in mind to be just is to give others their due what belongs to them you don't take from them and what is owed to them you give to them keep that in mind that's essential for understanding where we're gonna go next so let's turn to page 141 - the just and reverent man this is good stuff all this is stuff when I discovered this along I discovered this part of the book a long time ago when I was in seminary I was kind of turned on to the these dis understanding of where we're gonna go right now and I was like totally that makes so much sense to me and it it reveals something great about st. Joseph that so many people are unaware of completely unaware of all right so I start with the quote from st. Francis DeSales in this section Marais says to be just is to be perfectly United to the Divine Will and to be always conformed to it in all sorts of events whether prosperous or adverse that st. Joseph was this no one can doubt let st. Francis DeSales so remember if you're called to give to God what belongs to him not taken away and whether it's of prosperous to you or adverse meaning whether you're going to benefit from it on an emotional level on a physical level or whether you're going to be deprived of certain Goods when you act justly towards God you're willing to undergo whatever because you don't want to take away what belongs to God remember that now the church has always understood st. Joseph to be a just and holy man always loving God and neighbor as he ought but it hasn't always understood the deeper theological significance of what those words actually mean that he's a just man especially when applied to certain actions of st. Joseph observed in the New Testament it has taken the church centuries to advance a theology of st. Joseph that shows his greatness and his holiness and as I've been saying it's been only within the last 150 years that we've come to this and we're still coming to this and I think again that were headed somewhere to an end here that is going to church is going to recognize the greatness of st. Joseph on so many different levels and one of them is going to be the justice that he exercised towards God because you know in the beginning of the book I talked about you know the first theological Journal of Joseph ology of theologians thinking deeply on this and you can hear you'd be amazed at how you can you know get theologians who will just make distinctions after distinctions after distinctions about the most minut small things and can write an 80 page article on it with citations in Greek and and Latin and German and you know Italian and French and just mind-blowing but it's fascinating you know when you when you realize what they're doing the arguments the systematic method that they're using to to to bring about you know a greater awareness of things so this is what's been happening with Saint Joseph it's been there for a long time it just hasn't been really brought to the fore until recently so today the church teaches that st. Joseph is the holiest human person after the Virgin Mary and the most just remember that's the superlative only he and Our Lady had that no other saint can be called most just or most courageous our most humble or most whatever only Mary and Joseph had that most he is our spiritual father and the pillar of families the glory of domestic life the patron of the universal church and the terror of demons for this reason certain passages in the New Testament that present the actions of st. Joseph need to be re-examined in light of what is now unequivocally taught by the church to be true about st. Joseph namely that Saint Joseph as he confronted all sorts of events whether advantageous or adverse always acting in accords with God's will and gave God and others their due all right so what what passage am I talking about here in particular in the New Testament it's in Matthew and I'm going to read it to you so you've heard it a million times but I'm going to read Persian to you officially approved by the Catholic Church it comes from the RSV C II the Revised Standard Version Catholic edition fully approved you know by the bishops stamp of approval from the Catholic Church this is what I want you to hear now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph but before they they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit and her husband Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame resolved to send her away quietly but as he considered this behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not fear to take Mary your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit she will bear a son and you shall name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the Prophet behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel which means God with us when Joseph woke from sleep he did as the angel of the lord commanded him he took his wife now I looked up at a certain point in that because I wanted you hopefully to to just get what I was doing there there's a certain word that I did not read do you know what it is because I bet you many of your Bibles use the word but this one officially approved by the Catholic Church doesn't what is it that he did not want to divorce Mary yes many times you will read in certain translations the word divorce why is it and this officially approved translation that we don't have that it says that he resolved to send her away quietly my friends there is a massive difference between wanting to divorce someone and wanting to step out quietly from the scene to separate yourself from that scene quietly what's up with why is the church a lot why visit Church allow for multiple translations of this well it all hinges on one particular word in greek apple ooh oh now we won't get too technical here but it hinges upon the translation of that word and the context in which you understand Joseph is he the second greatest person after the blurts Blessed Virgin Mary or is he not is he you know so super virtuous the most just or is he not well the church has grown in this understanding throughout the centuries and now we believe that he is and that translation of that word apple ooh oh we got a relook at that we've got to see if we've actually been translating that word correctly because some people from the very beginning have never said that it should be translated as divorced and I'll go through that as we continue and this is getting stronger so now that we were unpacking the greatness the dignity the wonders the titles the virtues of st. Joseph it needs to be looked at did you know that for from the beginning there have been of the church three possibilities for understanding this episode in the life of Our Lady and Saint Joseph when he discovers that his wife is pregnant his response his desired action once he discovers that the church has allowed for three different ways of understanding it now I'm gonna go through those with you and I'm not I don't don't please don't get the impression that I'm forcing you to believe one particular way I believe one particular way and I believe it very very strongly and I actually think that the church in time as we continue with this age of st. Joseph will also at some point come to this understanding a more fuller way but let's go through them the first is what's been called the suspicion theory st. Joseph suspects mary of adulterer and as a result he decides to obtain a divorce remember because they're already married right according to Jewish law if a just man wants to divorce his wife because she has been unfaithful he's required to stone her I mean that's in the priests crypts in the Old Testament you can look it up and find it so he Joseph being a just man he doesn't want to stone marry so he seeks to divorce her quietly I'm not actually sure what a quiet marriage is but at any rate this theory was promoted in the apocryphal literature remember I've been talking about that stuff legends myths fairy tales but it was put in the apocryphal literature but some Fathers of the Church did buy into it especially in the East in the Eastern Churches so okay all right so we got some Fathers of the Church we got some saints actually buying into this so it begins to be promoted on some level this understanding that he wanted to divorce her but he was just he didn't want a stoner he was a good man so but he thought she had cheated on him that's the first option the second is called the stupefaction theory I love this title because who uses that word right stupefaction but it's called the stupefaction theory st. Joseph is perplexed and stupefied by Mary's pregnancy I mean yeah I'd be a wondering right but he does not doubt Mary's innocence he's dumbfounded and doesn't know what to do confused he decides to divorce Mary some fathers of the church adhere to this theory and greatly promoted it becomes the most common theory of what took place and what st. Joseph wanted to do and is known as joseph´s doubt he doubts so this is why if you look in certain translations of the Scriptures not the one that I read to you but maybe like maybe the new American Bible like I don't have them in front of me so it could be I could be wrong there but and a lot of them it's that title you know sometimes in the New Testament you get a title that's put in there by the church to describe that section so you like the annunciation or you get John the Baptist or the wedding of Cana or whatever right it that that you know Matthew Mark Luke and John didn't have those there but the church later put those little titles for that little section you're going to read well in a lot of Bibles you will read when you're reading this particular passage it's titled josephs doubt but it's interesting that in the ones that work I'm going to read you next the third theory it's not called Joseph's doubt you know what it's called Joseph's Annunciation it puts a more positive spin on what is going to take place because the interpretation of what Joseph's his response was and what he wanted to do so the third theory is called the reverence theory st. Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant but he does not doubt her purity and innocence instead he doubts his worthiness and ability to take care of Mary and the child a just man he knows that Mary belongs to God remember that definition of justice as a just man he knows that Mary belongs to God and he considers himself unworthy of living with her he decides to separate himself from her quietly out of justice to God and reverence for Mary he is willing to leave the picture so as not to reveal her mystery some fathers of the church as well as many medieval Saints theologians and mystics promote this theory now which one do you think I adhere to it's a no-brainer the reverence theory because this is shows the greatness of st. Joseph myself I very highly doubt that he thought that Mary cheated on him we are talking about a man who was well aware of the prophecies of the Old Testament like in Isaiah that when the Messiah would come behold a virgin would conceive this child the Messiah he wasn't dumb he wasn't some no ignorant you know guy living out in the woods unaware of the Scriptures he knew and all of a sudden he found himself in countering this mystery and guess who it was his wife he knew she didn't cheat on him that man kissed the ground she walked on he knew that that woman was holy he was well aware of this and you know he wouldn't have wanted to to divorce her you know because I mean as many people have tried to interpret they try and throw more positive slant on it and say well it was it was a quiet divorce shall be a quiet divorce man who's not going to be aware of this you know Nazareth was like a really small village you're not gonna be doing this in secret everybody's gonna be you know aware of this how you gonna pull that one off you're not you're not so that's why for me this reverence idea because of that definition of justice which I want to go through and unpack more in light of you know how how should we interpret that word pallulah in Greek so I say here you know because I don't want to trick anybody I want you to know that in Greek at Ballou ou can have multiple meanings and the meaning chosen for a particular passage is usually determined by the context in which it appears for example according to the context Apple Luo can mean separate conceal hide distance oneself from or divorce it can mean divorce it can but remember it's the context in which you're reading it which determines the interpretation and the subject matter in hand who are we talking about here well st. Joseph would it not be a tragedy if the foundation of the New Testament hinged upon the possibility of your spiritual father wanted to divorce your spiritual mother that's a nightmare situation and think about it what's another reason why Saint Joseph has not got the proper attention that he deserves for the last eighteen hundred years remember it kicking in in the last 200 years because many people thought well I mean the guy was gonna divorce her I mean he can't be really that stellar I mean I mean he wanted to you know just completely do away with her and be done with it and so you know he's there and we have really no choice but to acknowledge that he did play that role but remember there were people at the beginning of the church as I said the beginning of this series that didn't even think that they should call him the father of Jesus they were they were like well I mean I don't know he he's just kind of a guy that God used God could have used anybody he doesn't seem to be that important and one of the reasons was because they thought gosh I mean the guy was previously married and had children and he's you know now 80 years old and now he wants to divorce this one I mean stellar so he just never people didn't look to him and say I want to be like that I want to be like st. Joseph a man who wanted to divorce his wife that's not he didn't get elevated he didn't get highlighted he didn't get imitated he didn't get influenced you know the emphasis on him he was just the old man in the back in the icons and in the paintings almost almost like an embarrassment really I'm not making this up why because they interpreted these things because they didn't really know the depth the gravitas man the intensity of who st. Joseph is but now the churches come to be dissin Asst that he's the greatest saint come to the Blessed Virgin Mary more in line with the Holy Spirit than anyone except the Blessed Virgin Mary filled with created races than anyone except the Blessed Virgin Mary fully aware of acting always whether prosperous or adverse in union with God's will in union with God's will always and always giving God his due that's the turn justice and st. Joseph the definition of justice and st. Joseph remember is the most just Wow so let's let's keep going with that because I'm going to read this passage to you here that's in both you can read it on your own okay what's the big deal well there's a big difference between st. Joseph's desire to divorce his wife versus desiring to distance himself from her out of a sense of justice and reverence the reverence theory let's see the latter explanation of what he intended to do distance himself out of justice and reverence is what has caused many an erudite scholar to opt for a translation of a pole ooh that does not mean divorce and this goes way back and I'll prove it to you with great the greatest theologian st. Thomas Aquinas talks about this and many many others today in light of what the church now clearly discerns to be true about st. Joseph maintaining the position that st. Joseph's desire to divorce his wife is very hard to reconcile with st. Joseph's virtues after all the idea that st. Joseph intended to divorce his wife places the very foundation of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ on shaky ground divorcing Mary would have been an extremely unjust thing for st. Joseph to do he had no proof that she had cheated on him she's pregnant sure it's it's baffling to him but remember this man knew the Scriptures a virgin is going to be found with child he knew this and all of a sudden he was in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant of God's dwelling place he knew what was going on and he was like um I don't I I can't do this how is it that that that I can be the one to be here and and he wanted to step out he needed a further revelation from God lest I come too close to the Ark and died remember there was there was a man in the Old Testament a priest who the the Ark of the Covenant was actually god bless him you know God said nobody could touch the Ark except the priests and it was starting to fall and this guy went to kind of hold it up and he died simply because he touched it well Joseph was aware of all of this stuff and although all of a sudden he's seeing that his wife is pregnant and he knows what's going on does that mean that he knew you know the the hypostatic Union you know that God is taking on human nature you're assuming human he wouldn't have been able to unpack it theologically like that but he wasn't dumb he knew that he was in the presence of some great mystery and he's thinking um she belongs to God and I I'm unworthy I cannot come near her I am I'm not able to do this I have to give to God what belongs to God she belongs to God and the child in her womb comes from God and so he didn't want to divorce her he wanted he was thinking I can't do this and out of reverence and justice to God I have to give to God what belongs to God Wow when you look at it from that perspective that's amazing because it's showing that this man is willing to sacrifice a possible future with Mary the love of his heart he was in love with her they were already married right he's thinking I I if I have to give to God what belongs to God at great cost to myself so be it God comes first now some people have said what that doesn't seem very just either father I mean was he walking away from her how is she gonna take care of the child that doesn't seem right huh I mean that doesn't seem to be much better than him actually wanting to divorce her we'll think this through Joseph's eyes and his heart and his understanding he is encountering a virgin who is pregnant that's not normal that doesn't happen if God can bring about a child and a Virgin's womb God is the source of it God is the real father of the child well then certainly God can take care of the mother whom he's espoused and the child in her womb because both the woman and the child belong to God if God can make a virgin pregnant he can certainly take care of her and all of her needs and everything that will be required so Joseph wasn't thinking he was bailing out no God's gonna take care of her and he's thinking I I can't I'm not worthy I I shouldn't be here he was aware he was so self aware of his own you know inability to do this task that he was like I got a step back quietly reverently but I got a distance myself and I gotta wait for forgot to tell me what to do here and did it hurt him all you bet it did he was being put to a test he had to be willing to sacrifice everything the desire the joy the beauty of his heart why because he was going to be a new Abraham remember in the obrah ham in the Old Testament who was asked to sacrifice his son at the last second God you know through his angel he doesn't ask him to do that it was a test are you gonna are you gonna obey God on every level even something that seems contradictory and seems crazy you have to go all the way and so that's what Joseph was willing to do and he passed with flying colors and God hate made him like a new Adam a new Abraham the father of a new covenant with children more numerous than the stars of the heavens because of his faithfulness because of his self-sacrificing heart that's what God did for Joseph that's our spiritual father all right so does this mean that for 2,000 years the church was wrong about a very important aspect of divine revelation I mean this is part of the scriptures no it doesn't mean that at all remember since the time that the New Testament was written and you know codified set in you know it's official nasai the Catholic Church the church has allowed for various translations of Apple ooh ah just like the one that I read to you so it's not like we've come up with oh the church got it wrong no we've had this multiple possibilities of how to interpret this and now that we've got this development of st. Joseph and it's understanding his greatness and his virtue being the most just we need to relook at it we need to look to see if well in some of these translations mean maybe we do need to give a preferential option for the reverence theory now in light of what we now have affirmed and the church has affirmed this we're praying that let me everyday calling him the most just the pillar of families would would the man who we called the pillar of families be the same man who wanted to divorce his wife that don't even make sense with the man that we call the glory of domestic life be the man who wanted to divorce his wife don't even make sense because that's not what he wanted to do he encountered this mystery and he thought of himself so lowly and in all and unworthy of doing it and that's exactly what God wanted to hear that's exactly what God wanted for him because then God knew God knew right but Joseph had to pass that test get the stamp you are the man Joseph I can trust you with everything you're willing to sacrifice your own heart you're the love of your life you're willing to give up everything to do my holy will you are the man Joseph and I'm gonna make you so fruitful that everybody's gonna call you spiritual father everybody that's what we're dealing with here my friends that's what God did so this stuff just for me it changes so much when you when you when you read that passes in Scripture and in and in your prayer life you know when you're praying through these things okay now there's been some some recent theologians and great ones that have talked about this I'll mention them first and then we'll back up through history and we'll mention you know that some great Saints some incredible Saints to talk about this I don't know if you've heard of this guy father Rene Laurent and he was a the greatest Mary ologist of the 20th century actually he was one of my teachers and when I got my life Sentret and mary ology I he I had him for the last class that he taught he was amazing he was so brilliant this guy I think he died just a few years ago and I think he was maybe he's a few days shy of his hundredth birthday I think I mean he yeah he was he was up there and then you got father John McHugh got a phenomenal volume on this whole thing father John sywert who say word who's a convert still alive writes about this and then probably one of the greatest theologians who's now deceased he died not too long ago father Ignatius de la Pokkiri this guy wrote a book which is out of print and it's ridiculous what they're selling it for like if you find it on Amazon I mean literally it would be selling for like 900 bucks it's worth it but I mean that's insane the book is called Mary in the mystery of the Covenant oh man it's a masterpiece it is brilliant theological stuff bringing together the best of the tradition with what I'm talking about here with wanting to you know emphasize some of these things that the church and her development has come to understand now and he gives in my opinion what is the most phenomenal translation of that passage from Matthew I'm not going to read it again and not going to read his translation it's in the book you can read it okay let's see I've kind of hammered some of these points I don't have to dwell on them too long I wonder all right let's get into some of these figures most of them are Saints from way back they talked about exactly what I've been telling you this reverence theory because it's been there from the beginning of the church and I want you to know that unless you think well this is father Callaway and some you know recent theologians are saying this but you know show it from from the old school guys from the Fathers of the Church and all that all right no problem so the first one we're going to read from its origin now that's a dude that's his name it's a weird name I have to admit I mean it's kind of cool name but is different and he's not a saint because remember he's that guy who took that passage from Scripture literally literally about if your right arm causes you to sin cut it off if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out well he had a certain appendage that caused him to sin and he cut it off so yeah he ain't gonna get canonized so he that was a big mistake so this is what he says but he has great writings and from reading he wasn't a heretic or anything he just you know was like radical I'm radical but I need a radical all right Joseph was just and the version was in Mass Gillett but when he Joseph wished to put her away this happened from the fact that he recognized in her the power of a miracle and a vast mystery which he himself which he held himself unworthy to approach humbling himself therefore before so great and ineffable a phenomenon he sought to retire just as st. Peter humbled himself before the Lord and said depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man and as the ruler confessed who sent word to the Lord I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof for I have considered myself not even worthy to come to thee you see isn't that faster than what we're dealing with here remember they weren't living together yet and so when he encountered this he's thinking we can't be under the same roof because I'm not worthy to be in the same dwelling place as this holy woman and the child in her womb or as st. Elizabeth said to the Most Blessed Virgin and how have I deserved that the mother of my lord should come to me in like manner did the just man Joseph humble himself and fear to enter into a union with such exalted holiness see this dude Origen for all of his other faults got it he understood it but let's get into the Saints st. basil the great this is a great great Saint Joseph discovered both Mary's pregnancy and its cause namely that it was of the Holy Spirit therefore he feared to be called the husband of such a wife and wished to put her away privately since he did not dare to reveal what had taken place in her yet because he was just he desired a revelation of the mystery and he waited and that's when God sent his angel to him to tell him Joseph son of David do not be afraid do not be afraid you are the man you passed the test Saint Ephrem the Syrian know he's a great one too if you don't know much about him he was great he has a lot of poetry and beautiful stuff on our lady but he st. Joseph thought especially of sending her away so as not to commit a sin and allowing himself to be called the father of the Savior he knew what was going on he feared to live with her lest he dishonor the name of the Virgin's son that is why the angel said to him do not fear to take Mary to your home all right let's get into a heavy-duty one st. Bernard of Clairvaux he is called the Marion doctor you know when you're a doctor the church they give you some times a designation you know the angelic doctor st. Thomas Aquinas or the doctor of grace you know San Agustin or doctor of this doctor that he's called the Marion doctor st. Bernard of Clairvaux because he was like super Marion this is what he said why did he st. Joseph wished to leave her listen now no longer to my opinion but to that of the Fathers of the Church Joseph wanted to leave her for the same reason Peter begged the Lord to leave him when he said depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man and for the same reason the Centurion kept him from his house saying lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof thus Joseph considering himself unworthy and a sinner said to himself that a man like him not to live under the same roof with a woman so great and exalted whose wonderful and superior dignity filled him with all he saw with fear and trembling that she bore the surest signs of the Divine Presence and since he could not fathom the mystery he wanted to depart from her Peter was frightened by the greatness of the power the Centurion feared the majesty of the presence Joseph - as a human being was afraid of the newness of the great miracle the profundity of the mystery and so he decided to leave her quietly are you surprised that Joseph judged himself unworthy of the pregnant virgins company after all have you not heard that Saint Elizabeth - could not endure her presence without fear and all as she says whence is this to me that the mother of my lord should come to me this then is why Joseph decided to leave her did you hear the word divorce in any of that no and that was a circulation at the time he caught up totally put the word divorce in there but he didn't because he was talking about reverence Joseph knew what was going on considered himself unworthy and distance himself from this presence and waited for a further revelation because he knew that this woman and the child in her holy womb belonged to God give to God his due do not take from God what belongs to God that's what he was encountering that's why we call him the most just because he's sacrificial to the point of emptying himself no matter what prosperous or adverse at all times in accord with God's will and giving God his due that's st. Joseph st. Thomas Aquinas the greatest theologian the angelic doctor said this according to st. Jerome and Origen remember we read from origin Joseph had no suspicion of adultery because he knew the modesty and chastity of Mary moreover he had read in Scripture that the virgin would conceive and that a shoot should sprout from the stock of Jesse and from his roots of bud shall blossom he knew also that Mary was descended from the line of David thus it was easier for him to believe that Isaiah's prophecy had been accomplished in her than to think that she could have let herself descend into debauchery that's I came just to think that st. Joseph would have suspected her of you know cheating on him that's just aa thought discussed my soul that is why considering himself unworthy to live with a person of such great sanctity he wanted to send her away secretly like when Peter says to Jesus depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man and there's so many more that I could go through that again I had to limit myself with how many I put in here or the book would be this thick but let's go to a mystic one I haven't mentioned yet st. Brigid of Sweden try to talk about venerable Mary of Agreda blessed and Catherine Emmerich maybe some others well now we're going to get into this one st. Brigid of Sweden she was awesome and our Lord and our lady frequently appeared to her you know in private revelations but check this out this is what the Virgin Mary herself said to st. Brigid of Sweden this is on page 150 from the moment I marry gave my consent to God's messenger Joseph seemed that having conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit I was pregnant and that I was growing wondered greatly because he would not suspect evil but remembered the words of the Prophet who foretold that the Son of God would be born of a virgin he reputed himself unworthy to serve such a mother until the angel in a dream commanded him not to fear but to minister to me with charity these are the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary to st. Brigid of Sweden you know what's fascinating about that these are the exact same words that the Blessed Virgin Mary would have told st. Matthew think about it where do we get the infancy narratives and the Gospels of Matthew and Luke Matthew and Luke weren't there when it all went down when they weren't living in Nazareth they weren't aware of what an angel came to a virgin you know of the tribe but you know they clueless they were little probably little children themselves they had no idea so so this you know this always cracks me up because you got scholars today and these are intelligent people man you know they got PhDs and doctorates and they know so many languages it's crazy but in so many ways they're like theologically dumb because they they see the stories of the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke and they don't know where they come from either then they come up with stupid theories like well they had to kind of fudge an infancy narrative because you know there's other stories of you know deities from the Middle East that you know this particular people talk about so we need to kind of come up with one of those to give it a history of how Jesus you know came about and so we're just going to kind of create a narrative here and throw it in there and hope that we you know it slides through it people don't start asking questions and it's so stupid man how do you think that Matthew and Luke were aware of how this all went down Mary told them they're right I don't need a PhD to know this that's why the blessing for our sons were they were writing these things down of what to put in there things that they had no idea Mary told them so when we gets the story of Jesus birth how does Joseph end up in the New Testament and in most instances cuz Mary put him there seriously it's the Blessed Virgin Mary he's actually talking about him and what what Mary sees my Facebook thing went out again because the devil doesn't want people you know hearing this stuff when when when Mary was telling Bridget of Sweden this centuries later would she have been telling Saint Matthew um he wanted to divorce me is that what Mary would have said because that would cut totally contradict what she told Saint Brigid of Sweden it was out of reverence that you know he wanted to distance himself from that divorce and he waited for a further revelation because he knew the prophecy of Isaiah and he's encountering it and he's like I'm not I can't I'm unworthy I'm in all God what do you want me to do what Mary told Saint Brigid is exact same thing she would have told Saint Matthew when he wrote it down that's why now coming to know the all these things I've been telling you we've got to reinterpret that word apple ooh oh not his divorce but his wanted to distance himself out of reverence for the mystery that he's encountering that's what we're dealing with here my friends that's what we're dealing with here all right yeah the reverence theory teaches us that God that wait the reverence theory teaches us that in the mind and heart of st. Joseph God comes first it doesn't matter what the sacrifice is going to be no matter how much it'll pain you to go through a difficult you know hardship you will be rewarded beyond you anything can imagine if you give God his due if you give what belongs to him to him never seek to deprive that his glory and everything that belongs to him see this is what we forgotten in modern times this is why we have got to adhere to this this virtue of justice not just these social justice more your crazies out in the world right talking about fully warped understanding of most of all we're talking about here we're talking about holiness we're talking about such love for God that we want to give him his due we want to go to Mass faithfully because a lot of people say well I don't go to church because you know I don't get anything out of it I got news for you it ain't about you homie it's about you giving God his do because he's worthy and you owe it to him and as I think I've put in the same checker and ain't even about how stellar you know it's gonna be because I'll be the first to tell you a lot of times at mass the music sucks you know the the fellowship sucks it ain't about that it really isn't now every priest should be able to preach cuz I'll be the first to tell you two most homilies that I hear suck they're so lame it's ridiculous I'm like wow dude seriously wow that's what you're given to the people they're gonna listen to you for like ten minutes once a week and that's what you're laying down in front of them that is so lame it's ridiculous you know but again it ain't even about the homily it's about you giving God his due and he's told you how to do it do this in memory of me do this you're not gonna be able to up Jesus you're not because a lot of people again they're like remember I talked about the beginning oh I'm a spiritual person I'm not into institutionalized religion you know well that's lame and that's a cop-out because you think that you know a better way to give God is dude than the way that Jesus Christ the Son of God told you how to do it you don't rough you don't you got to humble yourself you got to realize you ain't worthy and you ain't givin no gift that's worthy of God unless you give the gift of God knowing this gave you himself to offer to him and the Holy Sacrifice of the mass that's what we're dealing with here that's why we got to look to st. Joseph even if it pains me to go and listen to some of these goofy songs that we sing I'm givin God his due even if I go on a yacht all the people are just yap yap-yap and talking is just one big gigantic social event before mass and you know I'm just like I can't even pray because everybody's just talking and homies up there singing some lame song we gotta practice for that you know I'm here to give God his due I pray that you know there is a place where all this is done differently and there are those places where you can go to a holy liturgy where people don't yep yep yep and people are dressed reverently and piously and modestly all along for the days when this is the norm used to be but it's not anymore unfortunately I mean there's places for sure this is why we got to look to him this is why we got to look to the just man we need to be like him we got to be sacrificial we've got we've got to go that this we gotta be long-distance runners here and we'll be rewarded we've got to make the sacrifice whether prosperous or adverse we got to be like st. Joseph my friends we got to be like st. Joseph's ok so I think I'm going to end it there today we've gone a very long time and I apologize sorry I know I know I know it just goes forever so remember we're not doing the the contest announcement today we'll do that tomorrow so today we're praying to litany of st. Joseph in English because yesterday we prayed it in Latin so the litany is on page 233 in the book ok in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen lord have mercy lord have mercy Christ have mercy Christ have mercy lord have mercy lord have mercy Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us God the Father of heaven have mercy on us God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy on us God the Holy Spirit have mercy on us Holy Trinity one God have mercy on us Holy Mary pray for us st. Joseph pray for us noble offspring of David pray for us light of patriarchs pray for us spouse of the mother of God pray for us Chace guardian of the virgin pray for us foster father of the son of God pray for us jealous defender of Christ pray for us head of the Holy Family pray for us Joseph most just pray for us Joseph most chaste pray for us Joseph most prudent pray for us Joseph most courageous pray for us Joseph most obedient pray for us Joseph most faithful pray for us mirror of patience pray for us lover of poverty pray for model of workmen pray for us glory of domestic life pray for us guardian of virgins pray for us pillar of families pray for us comfort we'll be afflicted pray for us hope of the sick pray for us patron of the dying pray for us terror of demons pray for us protector of the holy church pray for us Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world spare us O Lord Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world graciously hear us O Lord Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world have mercy on us he has made him Lord of his household and Prince over all his possessions let us pray O God who in your loving Providence chose blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your Most Holy Mother grant us the favor of having him for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our protector you who live and reign forever and ever amen Heavenly Father we thank you for filling the heart of st. Joseph with such reverence for you as God Almighty that he desired to sacrifice everything the desire the delight of his heart because he believed firmly that Mary and the child in her womb belong to you heavenly father this is the greatness of st. Joseph looked at church be aware become aware of this acknowledge this and her liturgy and her preaching in her writings let this greatness of our spiritual father be known and help all of us seek to imitate him father that we would always seek to give you your due to being faithful to our attendance at Holy Mass being faithful and giving you always that worship that belongs to you that is owed to you and help us to be just in all our relations with everyone in our lives to give them their due as well we ask all of this through Jesus and Heavenly Father as your priest I bless everyone here their families their intentions and especially for conversions blessing of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen all right guys so we'll see you tomorrow tomorrow we got a really cool reading it's a shorter one I promise but it's gonna be really awesome you guys are gonna be really loving tomorrow what we're gonna cover remember ETA odd Yosef go to Joseph god bless you so we'll see you tomorrow [Music]

Channel: Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC

Views: 24,698

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Id: GIiIiN7RB_8

Length: 58min 25sec (3505 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020