I can image God Himself, pointing to a door and saying, “That is the door my dad built.”
Last year was consecrated as the Year of Saint Joseph.
When I first heard that last year I was quite unimpressed and unmoved by that consecration. After all, Saint Joseph is barely mentioned in the Bible. He was not present for any of the miracles that Christ performed in His adult life. We barely hear of his being acknowledged in the Bible. Angels did not visit him in the daytime – only in his dreams. He was no poet, no artist, no preacher or king. He was a simple artisan. He was a man who was uneducated and lived a simple life.
Saint Joseph – in short – was a soul with whom I had no natural inclination.
And that is the beauty of a consecration. As part of that year of consecration to Saint Joseph, I committed to getting to know a little more about Saint Joseph. I completed a consecration to Saint Joseph, which is just a fancy way of saying that I read things about him and thought about him for several days in a row before making a pledge to be consecrated to his protection. And during that time everything changed for me.
You see, once we allow God in, He really does come into our lives. And that is exactly what happened to me. Once I started thinking about Saint Joseph, so many things became clear. For example, how holy must Saint Joseph have been?
Saint Joseph is the soul who was entrusted with the care of the Blessed Virgin and of God Himself. It was Sain Josephs hand that held God. It was Saint Joseph’s back that worked for God. It was Saint Joseph’s faith that taught God.
And knowing this, everything changed for me. You see, if Saint Joseph was living with God Himself, he surely was affected by God Himself. And that means something… you see, Saint Joseph lved in perpetual adoration of the Blessed Eucharist in the form of Christ. How could he sin, when he saw God before him? How could he fail when he saw God before him? And knowing this, he reached up to God – even as he reached down to carry his foster Son. And that is perhaps the greatest miracle of all.
You see, in the Gospels we are reminded of Saint Joseph and his humble origins… “Coming to His own country Jesus taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all His sisters with us? Where then did this Man get all this?’ And they took offense at Him.” (Matthew 13:54-58).
And reading that today I can imagine Christ walking through his village and pointing to this house or that one, where His foster father had done work.
I can image God Himself, pointing to a door and saying, “That is the door my dad built.”
And when I think of it like that it occurs to me that everything – literally everything – can be used for God’s Glory…
And one day I would like God to look at my work and say, “That’s the door my daughter built.”
And imagine the joy in my soul on such a day as that!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.