Pope: May Joseph give us the ability to dream great
things
(Vatican Radio) Saint Joseph gives young people “the ability
to dream, to risk, and to undertake the difficult tasks that they have seen in
dreams.” That was the message of Pope Francis during the morning Mass at the
Casa Santa Marta.
The day’s liturgy commemorated the Solemnity of St Joseph,
which is normally celebrated on 19 March, but which is transferred when that
date falls on a Sunday in Lent.
In his homily, Pope Francis focused on the figure of St
Joseph, the guardian of weaknesses, and of the “dream of God.”
The Gospel of the day tells how Joseph, in obedience to the
angel who appeared to him in a dream, took Mary, who had conceived by the Holy
Spirit, as his wife. Joseph, silent and obedient, is a man who carries with him
the promises of “ancestry, heritage, paternity, sonship, stability”:
“And this man, this dreamer, is able to accept this duty,
this grave duty. He has so much to say to us in this time of a strong sense of
being orphaned. And so this man takes the promise of God and carries it onward
in silence, with strength, he carries it onward so that God’s Will might be
done.”
Saint Joseph, the Pope said, is a man “who can tell us many
things, but who does not speak,” “the hidden man,” the man of silence, “who has
the greatest authority in that moment without letting it be seen.” And the Pope
emphasized that the things God confides to the heart of Joseph are “weak
things”: promises – and a promise is weak. And then there is the birth of the
child, the flight into Egypt, situations of weakness. Joseph takes to heart and
carries forward “all these weaknesses” as weaknesses are carried forward: “with
so much tenderness,” “with the tenderness with which one takes a child in one’s
arms”:
“He is the man who doesn’t speak but obeys, the man of
tenderness, the man capable of carrying forward the promises so that they might
become solid, certain; the man who guarantees the stability of the Kingdom of
God, the paternity of God, our sonship as children of God. I like to think of
Joseph as the guardian of weaknesses, of our weaknesses too: he is able to give
birth to so many beautiful things from our weaknesses, even from our sins.”
Joseph is the guardian of weaknesses so that they might become
firm in faith. But he received this duty in a dream: he is a man “able to
dream,” Pope Francis said. And so he is also “the guardian of the dream of
God”: God’s dream “of saving all of us,” of redemption, was entrusted to him.
“How great was this carpenter!” the Pope exclaimed. He was silent, but he
worked, he guarded, he carried forward the weaknesses, and he was capable of
dreaming. And so he is a figure who has a message for all:
“Today I want to ask, grant to all of us the ability to
dream, that when we dream great things, beautiful things, we might draw near to
the dream of God, the things God dreams about us. [I ask] that he might give to
young people – because he was young – the capacity to dream, to risk, to
undertake the difficult tasks they have seen in dreams. And [I ask] him to give
to all of us the faithfulness that tends to grow when we have a just attitude –
Joseph was just – [the faithfulness that] grows in silence, with few words;
that grows in tenderness that guards our own weaknesses and those of
others.”
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