During his homily at morning Mass on this Solemnity of the Feast of St. Joseph, Pope Francis called the Lord’s guardian the protector of weaknesses who gives young people “the ability to dream, to risk, and to undertake the difficult tasks that they have seen in dreams.”
Vatican Radio is reporting on the sermon given today on the feast of St. Joseph in which the pope focused on St. Joseph as “the guardian of weaknesses and of the “dream of God.” Joseph was obedient to the angel who appeared to him in a dream and who took Mary as his wife, silently and obediently doing his part to fulfill the dream of God.
“And this man, this dreamer, is able to accept this duty, this grave duty. He has so much to say to us in this time of a strong sense of being orphaned. And so this man takes the promise of God and carries it onward in silence, with strength, he carries it onward so that God’s Will might be done.”
Saint Joseph can tell us many things even though he does not speak at all in the Scriptures, the pope said. He is the “hidden man”, the man of silence, “who has the greatest authority in that moment without letting it be seen.”
“He is the man who doesn’t speak but obeys, the man of tenderness, the man capable of carrying forward the promises so that they might become solid, certain; the man who guarantees the stability of the Kingdom of God, the paternity of God, our sonship as children of God. I like to think of Joseph as the guardian of weaknesses, of our weaknesses too: he is able to give birth to so many beautiful things from our weaknesses, even from our sins.”
Joseph is the guardian of weaknesses so that we might become firm in faith. But it’s important to remember that he received this duty in a dream, making him a man “able to dream.” And so he is also “the guardian of the dream of God” which is to save us all.
“How great was this carpenter!” the Pope exclaimed.
He was silent, but he worked, he guarded, he carried forward the weaknesses, and he was capable of dreaming. And so he is a figure who has a message for all:
“Today I want to ask, grant to all of us the ability to dream, that when we dream great things, beautiful things, we might draw near to the dream of God, the things God dreams about us. [I ask] that he might give to young people – because he was young – the capacity to dream, to risk, to undertake the difficult tasks they have seen in dreams. And [I ask] him to give to all of us the faithfulness that tends to grow when we have a just attitude – Joseph was just – [the faithfulness that] grows in silence, with few words; that grows in tenderness that guards our own weaknesses and those of others.”
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