The greatness of St. Joseph

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IT’S definitely his humility and simplicity that built up his greatness. And because of these qualities, faith in God’s will and ways was easy for him to follow and comply. In fact, especially in some crucial moments, he attracted some kind of special divine intervention that quashed his doubts and baffled condition.

This was shown, for example, when he found out that Mary, to whom he was engaged, was found already with child in her womb before they lived together. (cfr. Mt 1,16.18-21) He at first thought of separating from her. But being a just man, as the gospel narrated, he planned to do it not publicly but privately.

That’s when some special divine intervention came in the form of an angel appearing to him in his sleep, clarifying the whole matter to him. And with that, he immediately changed his mind and, without further question, accepted Mary as his wife.

St. Joseph is worth emulating, worth giving more and better attention than a cursory, casual one. His condition is very much identifiable with that of the majority of the people all over the world. Like him, many of us do very ordinary simple duties, with hardly any public or social consequence. But the possibility of being great, like St. Joseph, is always there.

We need to strengthen our realization about the very intimate and mutual relation between humility and greatness. When one is truly humble and simple, it can only show the greatness of his heart. That mutual relation enables one to do God’s will faithfully, and eventually to share in the very life and nature of God himself. True greatness is never shown in pride and vanity. It is proven and verified in humility and simplicity.

This mutual relation between humility and greatness is expressed when we manage to value others, whoever and however they are, above ourselves and when we look after their interest instead of our own. (cfr. Phil 2,3-4)

This is what we clearly see in the life of Christ. Let’s call to mind that stunning example of his when he shocked his apostles when he started and insisted to wash their feet at the Last Supper. (cfr. Jn 13,1-17)

With humility and simplicity, we, like St. Joseph, would be enabled to see the sacredness of what may appear simply as ordinary duties according to our human standards. By being faithful to these ordinary duties, we, like St. Joseph, can practically manage to touch heaven while here on earth. The many ordinary little things we do can somehow acquire eternal and redemptive value.

Of course, it must have helped St. Joseph a lot to be keenly aware of whom he was taking care of. Proximity helps. But that should not be an excuse for us to feel not as lucky as St. Joseph. Christ is always close to us. He is always watching over us and guiding us all the time. We just have to learn how to discern and correspond better to that reality.

That’s why it’s important that from time to time we pause and pray so that we can have or regain our spiritual and supernatural bearing, and feel’s Christ’s continuous presence and guidance in our life and in our affairs, and be moved to react accordingly.

St. Joseph is showing us that the ordinary things in life, the performance of the duties inherent to our state in life, are the very occasions we can be with Christ and deal with him as we ought.

That’s when, like St. Joseph, we can also aspire to greatness in the very simple things of our life!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com