He allowed…

This year, I took on praying the 30 days of prayer to St. Joseph provided by The Catholic Crusade. It is a beautiful set of prayers, offering our intention in union with the various sorrows and joys experienced by St. Joseph. One passage that struck me was pertained to Joseph’s experience trying to find shelter as Mary was on the eve of giving birth to Jesus. All had to go to their ‘own city’, that of their birth and tribe. Joseph, being of both the house and lineage of David (Luke 2:4), went to Bethlehem, a Davidic town where David himself had been born. Joseph was not just from the extended family of David (the ‘house’) but from his direct line. A direct descendent of David himself. Joseph was the legitimate king kept hidden as the illegitimate King Herod ruled ruthlessly with terror. 

This prayer begins contemplating Joseph’s weariness and suffering as he sought earnestly to find shelter. In a hurry and flurry he had to leap into action to fulfill Caeser’s demands for a census. Perhaps coming to mind were the scriptures prophesying the Messianic suffering servant who now is in Mary’s womb. But Joseph was not a man of disordered emotions and irrational behavior. He was virtuous and prudent. How would he have reacted? Perhaps frustrated, concerned, but not lashing out in anger. Our anger usually is disordered because it is birthed by fear. Fear of being cared for, or stopping harm, can leave us too confused to know the next step we should take. Joseph’s suffering would have been experienced in love, his deep love for the soon-to-be-born Messiah and His Queen Mother. It would have been a sorrow properly ordered. From this deep place in the heart, he was prepared to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. 

The prayer goes on to say, “Then, being everywhere refused, you had to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to the world’s Redeemer in a cave”. Everything in Joseph’s nature would have fought this. Men are caretakers by nature of being men. In fact, the first job God ever created for man was to be a caretaker. Upon creating Adam, God put him in the garden of Eden to “cultivate and care for it” (Gen. 2:15). Both men and women will properly worry if circumstances prohibit them from living their vocation including taking care of each other, their children, and sometimes extended family members. But for men, threats to their ability to properly manage this responsibility hits at the deeper level of identity. It is innate and subconscious. Thus Joseph, having to accept the second-worst choice of sheltering in a cave (the worst being no shelter at all), would have been disturbed deep within his soul. Perhaps God was giving him a spiritual exercise. After all, even Mary who was immaculately conceived and held by grace in perfection, needed to grow from her earthly motherhood into spiritual motherhood at the foot of Jesus’ cross. So, the earthly father whom Jesus Himself had chosen for this very moment, allowed the Queen of Heaven and Redeemer of the world to be sheltered in a cold, stale, smelly cave. Yet Joseph would have looked for the grace of the present moment and perhaps was grateful that, given it was nighttime, the animals may have been quiet, allowing Mary to rest. 

Joseph didn’t just accept Providence. He accepted the mystery of Providence, the reality that he (nor we) will ever fully understand God’s ways. He embraced mystery, letting himself be moved by the Spirit to a seemingly-deplorable outcome, trusting that if God permits it, then it is ok. Certainly, after hearing the testimony of the shepherds and later the Magi, in hindsight Joseph would have gained understanding of the need for the Messiah to be born in these conditions. It rendered Jesus available to be adored by all, whether wealthy, poor, or outcast. Jesus modeled the spiritual poverty we will need to one day join Him in His Kingdom. 

In every moment, we are living God’s providential plan. But how well do we live Providence? Happily in happy circumstances and otherwise begrudgingly? Asking, “how do my ways cause me to reject God’s?” can be a framework for the daily Examen:

• Did I accept or reject Providence?
• If accepted, was it in loving surrender or anger and fear?
• What is the cause of my rejecting it and acting according to my own designs, or accepting it begrudgingly?

Taking that to mental prayer, ask God for the grace to embrace the mystery of Providence. He will never disappoint you! 

O sovereign goodness of the sovereign Providence of my God! I abandon myself forever to Thy arms. Whether gentle or severe, lead me henceforth whither Thou wilt; I will not regard the way through which Thou wilt have me pass, but keep my eyes fixed upon Thee, my God, who guidest me. My soul finds no rest without the arms and the bosom of this heavenly Providence, my true Mother, my strength and my rampart. 

Therefore I resolve with Thy divine assistance, O my Savior, to follow Thy desires and Thy ordinances, without regarding or examining why Thou dost this rather than that; but I will blindly follow Thee according to Thy divine will, without seeking my own inclinations.

 Hence I am determined to leave all to Thee, taking no part therein save by keeping myself in peace in Thy arms, desiring nothing except as Thou incitest me to desire, to will, to wish. I offer Thee this desire, O my God, beseeching Thee to bless it; I undertake all it includes, relying on Thy goodness, liberality, and mercy, with entire confidence in Thee, distrust of myself, and knowledge of my infinite misery and infirmity. Amen. (St. Jane Frances de Chantal)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊

(Image: author unknown, public domain via Wikipedia commons)