St. Patrick and St. Joseph
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March 16, 2024During the season of Lent, the memorial and feast of many saints are not celebrated due to hierarchy in liturgical festivities. The Sundays and Weekdays of Lent occupy a higher position. But two saints are difficult not to remember and to reflect on.
The first is St Patrick whose feast day is March 17th. Many of our parishioners find their ancestral roots in Ireland. Not to mention, our parish was founded and served by many Irish priests from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SS.CC).
St. Patrick was born towards the end of the 4th century to wealthy upper-class parents living perhaps on the west coast of Roman Britain. He tells us that his home was not a place of great Christian piety and prayer. As a boy of 15, he was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery. For six years, he worked on a farm. Patrick managed to make his escape back to Britain, felt called there by God to become a priest and to return to Ireland – this time to work freely as a missionary bishop. It was there that he spent the rest of his life bringing the message of Christ to the people of Ireland.
Despite this, Patrick remains humble. He humbly acknowledges that all of this was very much God’s work in him: “I am very much God’s debtor, who gave me such grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that clerics were ordained for them everywhere. God chose me for this office - to be, although among his least, one of his ministers. Hence let me render thanks unto him for all that he has done for me.”
Another is St. Joseph whose feast day is on March 19th. Unlike other saints, his feast day is always celebrated even during lent (except when it falls on a Sunday) because of his role in the economy of salvation.
We know his story from Sacred Scripture. St. Joseph, the model of humility, and one of the world's greatest saints, is often mentioned as being silent. This silence speaks volumes. In it, the Church realizes his faithfulness, his love and his acceptance of the Holy Will of God. He was not a man of many words: he was a man of action. We have only one direct statement about his personality: in the Gospel, he is described as "a righteous man" (Mt. 1:19).
His actions alone reveal everything else we know about him. He brings Mary and the Child she bears into his home when, in the sight of the world, he would be justified in divorcing her. He leads the expectant Mary into Bethlehem and flees with her and her Child into Egypt. When it is safe, he returns with the two into Galilee. He does all of this, because God asks it of him. He never hesitates. Each time we read that the angel spoke to Joseph, the following sentence begins with the action St. Joseph took. "Joseph awoke," "Joseph rose," "He went." Each time he received a summons, his reaction was to follow the call immediately. Never once did he hesitate.
May we all be inspired by St. Patrick’s humility in ministry and St. Joseph’s total obedience to God’s will. Happy feast day!
