Today the novena to Saint Joseph begins. “Joseph is a man of faith: that is why he was ‘righteous.’ Not only because he believed, but also because he lived out this faith. A ‘righteous’ man. He was chosen to educate a man who was truly human but was also God: it would have taken a God-man to educate such a man, but there was none. The Lord chose a ‘righteous’ man, a man of faith. A man capable of being a man and also capable of speaking with God, of entering into the mystery of God. And this was Joseph’s life. Living out his profession, his life as a man, and entering into the mystery… a man capable of speaking with the mystery, of engaging with the mystery of God. With the same naturalness with which he carried out his trade, with this precision in his work: he was able to fit a corner to the millimeter on wood; he knew how to do it; he was able to lower, to reduce by a millimeter, a piece of wood, the surface of a piece of wood. Righteous, he was precise. But he was also capable of entering into the mystery that he could not control” (Pope Francis).
Pope Francis reminds everyone of the “ordinary” extraordinariness of Saint Joseph. May his example of daily faithfulness to his commitments give us vital nourishment to face everyday life with fresh eyes.
