San José is a model of holiness for his faithful obedience to the will of the Father, although he did not understand “the scope of the mission and what God asks,” said Mons. José Libardo Garcés, Bishop of Cúcuta (Colombia).
In an article published On the website From the Colombian Episcopate, the prelate reflected on the adoptive father of Jesus, patron of the Universal Church and whose party is celebrated on March 19.
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A party, he said that “it is an opportunity to reflect on the virtues of San José, which we are discovering every time we enter their custodian mission of Mary and the Child Jesus.”
“Today obedience is a rare virtue in society, because each one wants to defend their autonomy and their desire to prevail with their own plans and projects.
In that sense, the Colombian bishop referred to the episode in which José decided to separate himself from Mary, not to denounce her in public when she learned that she was pregnant.
However, “when San José has everything determined and his organized plan, God asks him to give his life to his will.” Mons. Garcés recalled that, in dreams, the angel of the Lord told him not to accept Mary, “for the son who expects comes from the Holy Spirit.”
Citing the Gospel, the prelate recalled that “‘When Joseph woke up from the dream, he did what the angel of the Lord had sent him,” obeying “God in contemplative, prayer and silent attitude.”
“He accepted the mission that God entrusted to him and fulfilled it in an attitude of obedience without limits.
In his article, the Colombian bishop encouraged to follow the example of the Holy Custodian, because with his firm faith he teaches to hear the voice of God with docility.
“The mission entrusted to him was not easy to understand at the time, however, with the simplicity of his inner life, he knew how to contemplate the Lord and obey his mandates from a silent life,” he explained.
Likewise, “it teaches faith without seeking prominence, to live hope with trust placed in God even in moments of pain, namely being as Mary at the foot of the cross waiting for the promise of salvation, and to live in every moment charity as a total love for God and to others in a installment of total donation to the will of God.”
Before culminating, the bishop indicated that the Catholic Church has always recognized San José and the Virgin Mary as “the sign of the believer who is sanctified obeying the will of God.”
Therefore, he encouraged to contemplate the figure of Saint Joseph to put himself on his way, “letting the Word of God be our light, so that our heart ignites for it, we can be authentic missionary disciples of Jesus, fulfilling the missionary mandate that asks us: they are my witnesses, for all the confines of the earth.”
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Press, I have been sent to cover the trips of Pope Francis to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synod of Sinodality in the Vatican in 2023.