The Pope announces the “Year of Saint Joseph”

Isabella Piro – Vatican City

Beloved father, father in tenderness, obedience and acceptance; father of creative courage, hardworking, always in the shadows: with these words Pope Francis describes, in a tender and moving way, Saint Joseph. He does it in the Apostolic Letter of heart, published today on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the declaration of the Spouse of Mary as Patron of the Catholic Church. It was Blessed Pius IX, in fact, with the decree like God, signed on December 8, 1870, to want this title for Saint Joseph. To celebrate this anniversary, the Pontiff has announced, from today until December 8, 2021, a special “Year” dedicated to the putative father of Jesus. In the background of the Apostolic Letter, there is the Covid-19 pandemic that – Francis writes – made us understand the importance of ordinary people, those who, far from being the protagonist, exercise patience every day and instill hope, sowing co-responsibility. Like Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, the man of daily presence, discreet and hidden”. However, his is “an unrivaled role in the history of salvation.”

Loving, tender and obedient father

In fact, Saint Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood “by having made his life an oblation of himself in love placed at the service of the Messiah”. And because of his role as “the hinge that unites the Old and New Testaments”, “he has always been very dear to the Christian people” (1). In it, “Jesus saw the tenderness of God”, the one that “makes us welcome our weakness”, because “it is through and despite our weakness” that most of the divine plans are carried out. “Only tenderness will save us from the work” of the Evil One, the Pontiff emphasizes, and it is by finding God’s mercy, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, that we can have an “experience of truth and tenderness”, because “God does not it condemns us, but does not welcome us, embrace us, sustain us and forgive us. ”(2) Joseph is also a father in obedience to God: with his ‘fiat’ he saves Mary and Jesus and teaches his Son to” do the will of God. Father. “Called by God to serve the mission of Jesus,” he collaborates in the great mystery of Redemption and is truly a minister of salvation “(3).

Welcoming father of the will of God and of neighbor

At the same time, José is a “foster father”, because “he welcomes Mary without preventive conditions”, an important gesture still today – affirms Francisco – “in this world in which psychological, verbal and physical violence against women It is obvious”. But the Spouse of Mary is also the one who, trusting in the Lord, welcomes even the facts that he does not understand into his life, putting reasoning aside and reconciling himself with his own history. Joseph’s spiritual life “is not a path that explains, but a path that welcomes”, which does not mean that he is “a passively resigned man.” On the contrary: his leading role is “brave and strong” because with “the power of the Holy Spirit”, that “full of hope” knows “to give way to the contradictory, unexpected, disappointing part of existence”. In practice, through Saint Joseph, it is as if God were repeating to us: “Do not fear!”, Because “faith gives meaning to every happy or sad event” and makes us aware that “God can make flowers sprout among the rocks”. Not only that: Joseph “does not look for shortcuts”, but faces reality “with open eyes, taking personal responsibility for it.” For this reason, their welcome “invites us to welcome others, without exclusion, as they are”, with a “predilection for the weak” (4).

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

of heart He then highlights the “creative courage” of Saint Joseph, which arises above all in difficulties and which gives rise to unexpected resources in man. “The carpenter of Nazareth – explains the Pope – knows how to transform a problem into an opportunity, always placing trust in Providence first.” He deals with “the concrete problems” of his family, exactly as do all other families in the world, especially those of migrants. In this sense, San José is “truly a special patron” of those who, “forced by misfortune and hunger”, have to leave their homeland for “wars, hatred, persecution, misery”. Guardian of Jesus and Mary, José “cannot but be guardian of the Church”, of her motherhood and of the Body of Christ: all needy, poor, suffering, dying, stranger, prisoner, sick, is “the Child” that Joseph keeps 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 worked “to ensure the sustenance of his family”, José also teaches us “the value, dignity and joy” of “eating the bread that is the fruit of one’s work”. This meaning of the father of Jesus offers the Pope the opportunity to launch an appeal in favor of work, which has become “an urgent social question” even in countries with a certain level of well-being. “It is necessary to understand – writes Francis – the meaning of work that gives dignity”, which “becomes participation in the very work of salvation” and “opportunity for fulfillment” for oneself and for one’s own family, “the original nucleus of the society”. Those who work collaborate with God because they become “a little creator of the world around us.” Hence the Pope’s exhortation to everyone “to rediscover the value, importance and necessity of work”, to “give rise 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: “Not young people, not people, not families without work!” (6).

Father in the shadows, decentralized by the 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 towards Jesus as “the shadow on earth of the heavenly Father”. “Parents are not born, they are made,” says Francisco, because “we take care of a child” assuming responsibility for his life. Unfortunately, in today’s society, “children often seem to be orphans of parents”, of parents capable of “introducing the child into the experience of life”, without embracing or “owning” him, but making him “capable of choosing, of freedom, of departures “. In this sense, José has the nickname of “very chaste” which is “the opposite of possession”: he, in fact, “knew how to love in an extraordinarily free way”, “knew how to decentralize” to put at the center of his life not if he himself, but Jesus and Mary. His happiness is “in the gift of himself”: never frustrated and always confident, José remains silent, without complaining, but making “concrete gestures of confidence.” His figure, therefore, is very exemplary, the Pope emphasizes, in a world that “needs parents and rejects bosses”, rejects those who confuse “authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, confrontation with oppression, charity with well-being. , force with destruction “. The true father is the one who “renounces the temptation to live the life of the children” and respects their freedom, because fully lived fatherhood makes the father himself “useless”, when “the child becomes autonomous and walks alone through the walks of life “. Being a father “is never an exercise of possession”, Francis emphasizes, but “a sign that refers to the highest paternity”, to the “heavenly Father” (7).

The Pope’s daily prayer to Saint Joseph and that “true challenge” …

Finished with a prayer to Saint Joseph, of heart also reveals, in note 10, a custom in the life of Francis: every day, in fact, “for more than forty years”, the Pontiff has been reciting a prayer to the Wife of Mary “taken from a book of French devotions, 800, of the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary “. It is a prayer that “expresses devotion and trust” to Saint Joseph, but also “a certain challenge”, the Pope explains, because it concludes with the words: “Let it not be said that he invoked you in vain, show me that your goodness is so great like your power ”.

Plenary indulgence for the “Year of Saint Joseph”

Accompanying the publication of the Apostolic Letter of heart there is the Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary that announces the special “Year of Saint Joseph” announced by the Pope and the relative granting of the “gift of special Indulgences”. Specific indications are given for the days traditionally dedicated to the memory of the Wife of Mary, such as March 19 and May 1, and for the sick and elderly “in the current context of the health emergency.”