Pope Francis calls for a “Year of Saint Joseph”

Vatican News – Vatican City

A loving father, a father in tenderness, obedience and hospitality; a father of creative courage, a worker, always in the shadows: with these words Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph in a tender and moving way. He does so in the Apostolic Letter of heart, published today on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the declaration of the Bridegroom of Mary as patron of the Catholic Church. In fact, it was Blessed Pius IX with the decree like god, signed on December 8, 1870, who wanted this title for Saint Joseph. To celebrate this anniversary, the Pontiff has called, from today until December 8, 2021, a special “Year” dedicated to the putative father of Jesus. In the context of the Apostolic Letter, there is the Covid-19 pandemic which – writes Francis – made us understand the importance of ordinary people, of those who, far from being protagonists, show patience and breathe life into hope, sowing hope. joint responsibility. Like Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, the man of daily presence, discreet and hidden”. And yet his is “an unequaled leading role in the history of salvation.”

Loving, tender and obedient father

Saint Joseph, in fact, concretely expressed his fatherhood by having made of his life an offering of himself in the love placed at the service of the Messiah. Hence its role as “a part which unites the Old and the New Testament”, “it has always been loved by the Christian people” (1). In her, “Jesus saw the tenderness of God”, the tenderness that makes us “accept our weakness”, because “it is through and despite our weakness” that most of the divine plans are realized. “Only tenderness will save us. of the work “of the Accuser, underlines the Pontiff, and it is by finding the mercy of God, above all in the sacrament of reconciliation, that we can make” an experience of truth and tenderness, because “God does not not condemn us, but rather he welcomes us, embraces us, supports us, forgives us. ”(2) Joseph is also an obedient father to God: through his“ fiat ”he saves Mary and Jesus and teaches his Son to“ do the will of the Father. ”Called by God to serve the mission of Jesus,“ he cooperates in the great mystery of redemption and is truly a minister of salvation ”(3).

Father in accepting the will of God and of neighbor

At the same time, José is “a father in a foster family”, because “he welcomed Mary without setting any preconditions”, an important gesture that is still today – says Francisco – “in this world where psychological, verbal and physical against women is patent “. But the Bridegroom of Mary is also the one who, trusting in the Lord, welcomes even the events that he does not understand in his life, putting aside his reasoning and being reconciled with his own history. Joseph’s spiritual life does not “show a way that Explain, but in a way that welcomes”, Which does not mean that he is“ a man who passively resigns himself ”. On the contrary: her role is “courageous and strong” because with “the strength of the Holy Spirit”, that “full of hope” knows “how to make room even for this contradictory, unexpected and disappointing part of existence”. In practice, through Saint Joseph, it is as if God repeated to us: “Do not be afraid!”, Because “faith gives meaning to every happy or sad event” and makes us aware that “God can make flowers spring from the rocks. “And not only that: José” did not look for shortcuts “, but faced” “with open eyes” what was happening to him, taking responsibility in the first person “. For this reason, their welcome “invites us to welcome others, without exclusions, as they are, with a preference for the weak” (4).

Courageous and creative father, example of love for the Church and the poor

of heart highlights the “creative courage” of Saint Joseph, the one which arises above all in difficulties and which gives rise to unexpected resources in man. “The carpenter of Nazareth – explains the Pope – knew how to transform a problem into an opportunity, always trusting in Providence.” He was confronted with “concrete problems” of his family, like all other families in the world, especially those of migrants. In this sense, Saint Joseph is “truly a special patron saint” of those who, “constrained by adversity and hunger”, must abandon their homeland because of “war, hatred, persecution and misery”. Guardian of Jesus and Mary, Joseph “cannot cease to be the Guardian of the Church”, of her motherhood and of the Body of Christ: each needy, poor, suffering, dying, stranger, prisoner, sick, is “l “Child” who keeps José and from him we must learn to “love the Church and the poor” (5).

Father who teaches the value, dignity and joy of work

An honest carpenter who has worked “to provide for the subsistence of his family”, José also teaches us “the value, the dignity and the joy” of “eating the bread which is the fruit of his own labor”. This meaning of the adoptive father of Jesus gives the Pope the opportunity to launch an appeal for work, which has become “an urgent social issue”, even in countries with a certain level of well-being. “We must understand”, writes François, “the meaning of work which gives dignity”, which “becomes participation in the very work of salvation” and “occasion of achievement” for oneself and for one’s family, the “original core” of society. “Those who work, collaborate with God because they become” a little creator of the world around us. “Hence the Pope’s exhortation to all to” rediscover the value, the importance and the necessity of work to give birth to a new ‘normal’ in which no one is excluded. ”Looking in particular at the worsening unemployment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Pope calls on everyone to“ review our priorities ”to commit to saying: “No youth, no people, no family without work!” (6).

Father in the shadows, off center for love of Mary and Jesus

Following the example of the work “The shadow of the Father” by the Polish writer Jan Dobraczyński, the Pontiff describes the paternity of Joseph with regard to Jesus as “the shadow of the Heavenly Father on earth”. “No one is born a father, but he is made”, affirms Francisco, because he “takes care of him”, taking responsibility for his life. Unfortunately, in today’s society, “children often seem to have no father”, parents able to “present the child in the experience of life”, without holding or “possessing” him, but giving him back. “able to choose, to be free, to go out”. In this sense, José has the appellation of “chaste”, which is “the opposite of possessing”: he, in fact, “was able to love in an extraordinarily free way”, “he knew how to decenter” to put in the center of his life not himself, but Jesus and Mary. His happiness is “in the gift of oneself”: never frustrated and always confident, José remains silent, without complaining, but by making “concrete gestures of confidence”. His figure is therefore exemplary, underlines the Pope, in a world which “needs parents and rejects teachers,” which refutes those who confuse “authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, confrontation with oppression, charity with well-being, strength. with destruction. “The real father is one who” refuses the temptation to live the life of children “and respects their freedom, for fully lived parenthood makes the father himself” useless “,” when he sees that the child is become autonomous and walk alone on the paths of life “. Being a father “is never an exercise of possession”, emphasizes François, but “a” sign “which evokes a superior fatherhood”, to the “Heavenly Father” (7).

The Pope’s daily prayer to Saint Joseph and this “certain challenge”

Concluded with a prayer to Saint Joseph, of heart He also reveals, in note number 10, a habit of the life of Francis: every day, in fact, “for more than forty years”, the Pontiff recites a prayer to the Bridegroom of Mary “taken from a French book. of the devotions of the XIX century, of the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary “. It is a prayer which” expresses devotion and confidence “in Saint Joseph, but also” a certain challenge “, explains the Pope, because it is end with the words: “Let no one say that I called on you in vain, show me that your goodness is thus as great as your power”.

Plenary indulgence for “The Year of Saint Joseph”

With the publication of the Apostolic Letter of heart, the Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary was issued announcing the special “Year of Saint Joseph” called by the Pope and the relative granting of the “gift of special indulgences”. Specific indications are given for days traditionally dedicated to the memory of the Bride of Mary, such as March 19 and May 1, and for the sick and the elderly “in the current context of the health emergency”.