“The God of the universe has formed you out of nothing and called you into existence by name. You cannot earn this great gift; you can only receive it. Everything else about what you are trying to decide or accomplish must center on and return to the truth: I am willed and loved, I have a purpose, and God wants me here.
Sit with this reality. Do you believe it? Does it seem too good to be true? This truth may take time to take root in your heart. Pray for the grace to let go of the lies and receive this truth at a deep level: you are willed, you are loved, and you are necessary.” (p. 13 from “Pray, Decide and Don’t Worry”)
In my prayers with St. Joseph I often wonder about the life he dreamed about. What were his plans as a young boy? I wanted to be a United States Marine beginning about the age of five, did St. Joseph have a similar desire as a young boy. As a teen, a young man, in seeking Mary as his wife and then as the foster father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, what were his thoughts and dreams. What ever they were, we do know that he was a model of faith and faithfulness as Archbishop M. de Langalerie describes in his book, “The Month of St. Joseph.”
The quote above comes from a book on discerning our call in life and asking the greater question of what is God’s plan and how best can I follow this plan. Like St. Joseph our plans will be interrupted by God’s greater and more perfect plan but if we walk by faith then we will seek to move forward in trust and hope because we are beginning to know our Father in heaven.
Often we are encouraged, in good faith, to make plans…to map out our life…to make sure we are perfectly ready before we begin. I hear this continually from young men and women who are discerning the married life or are married and planning for children. Happily this isn’t how life usually works…God’s plans may be our plans but we are always seeking God’s plan first and foremost. This means when we plan we always make room for our faith life, especially prayer. “Faith adds to the light of reason by manifesting new objects of knowledge, and it confirms truths of the natural order by its unexceptionable testimony. If the human intellect would gain in strength and power, let it be penetrated by the life of faith.” (p. 27)
St. Joseph is a great example of how this works always seeking to grow a greater love. As a man of faith he didn’t throw out reason or planning but rather knew how to adjust to the new circumstances, the deeper call to faith he was invited to share. Maybe he thought this invitation to follow God in his marriage to Mary and as foster father would bring special worldly blessings, riches and protections. But we know this didn’t happen and yet St. Joseph continued to be the faithful steward of God’s household in caring for and protecting the Holy Family.
This is important because our faith life is a continued invitation to grow deeper in trust and knowledge of our Lord and God’s plan for us. Like St. Joseph we should enter the mystery of God’s love ever more fully, ”He revered the mysteries that were successively revealed to him, and he lived in the hope of the promised Redeemer, ardently desiring and awaiting his coming… Though here on earth we may faintly perceive the greatness of the love that God bears us, it is only in heaven that we shall fully understand its plentitude.” (p. 28) This is a great act of trust…in relying on God to provide. At many of the major decision points in my life I have understood this trust. (Not always because I am a stubborn man) I remember clearly when I was offered a job to teach 7th grade at St. Bonaventure Indian Mission in Thoreau New Mexico. I had never really considered being a grade school teacher but in prayer…it just seemed the right thing to do. Ultimately it led me to my vocation as priest, but in was the act of trust, that somehow this was the right thing to do that brought a breath of peace into the turbulence of life.
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” (Saint Mother Teresa)
It is a great gift to know while St. Joseph was asked to do this great thing, being the foster father of the Son of God, he also did the many small things a husband, a father, a worker does daily in living his life. In understanding in faith how God calls us to be good stewards of the gifts given and to be shared, the small things are so very important. “This life does not consist in the performance of great and singular actions, nor in certain religious practices, even though these practices should form a daily order of exercises. It is a series of acts ever active and always acting. Faith harmonizes the conduct and animates every work… It supports, animates, and strengthens us in our labors and occupations, by teaching us to offer them to the majesty of God, or to honor his infinite bounty. It reminds us of heaven, and detaches us from earth.” (P. 28–29)
If we are always waiting for the perfect moment, the time when we are totally prepared, the day when we do the great and glorious, then we are missing the small moments, the little points of light, the gift of grace drawing us into the greater and more perfect love. St. Joseph as a model of faith reminds us this truth: you have a part to play in God’s plan because “you are willed, you are loved, and you are necessary.”
God Bless
Fr. Mark
ps…links to both the book “Pray, Decide and Don’t Worry” and St. Bonaventure Mission are below.