San JosƩ's mission (cf. Mt 1:24) He began by referring to the feast day of Benedict XVI: "We are close to him with our prayers, full of affection and gratitude". St. Joseph was custodianCustodian of whom? Of Mary and Jesus; but it is a custody that is then extended to the Church.As Blessed John Paul II has pointed out: 'Just as he lovingly cared for Mary and devoted himself with joyful commitment to the education of Jesus Christ, and his paternity also guards and protects her mystical body, the Church, of which the Holy Virgin is the figure and model'. (Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos, 1).
Pope Francis continued by asking himself: "How does Joseph live his vocation as guardian of Mary, of Jesus, of the Church? With constant attention to God, open to his signs, available to his plan, and not so much to his own.(...) He knows how to listen to God, he allows himself to be guided by his will, and precisely for this reason he is even more sensitive to the people entrusted to his care, he knows how to read events realistically, he is attentive to his surroundings and knows how to make the most sensible decisions. (...) He responds to God's call, with availability, with readiness".
Here you can see how San Joseph of Nazareth puts into practice a true discernment of the will of GodThe second Vatican Council speaks of the "signs of the times". That is to say, the signs of the workings of the Holy Spirit that are perceived when they are looked upon with faith and realistically assess the situation in question and make the decision to act accordingly, both from a personal and Church point of view, Gaudium et spes, 4, 11 and 44.
At the same time, the pope notes that,Ā in St. Joseph "we also see the center of the Christian vocation: Christ.". And so he invites us: "Let us keep Christ in our lives, to keep others, to safeguard creation.
All this is a school for Christians, especially for educators and formators.
But guarding, Pope Francis warned, is everyone's vocation: we must all guard the beauty of created realities; here, the evocation of St. Francis of Assisi, caring for the people around us, "especially children, the elderly, those who are more fragile and who often remain on the periphery of our hearts".
We must all take care of our relatives, our spouses, our parents and children, our friendships. "Be custodians of God's gifts," he advises us; for indeed, everything is a gift. If we fail in this, he says, destruction advances and the heart dries up.
If stewardship is everyone's responsibility, and this is understood and practiced by people of good will, it is the responsibility of all.Ā particularly of "those who hold positions of responsibilityĀ in the economic, political or social sphere". We must take care of nature created by God, the environment. But we mustĀ start with ourselvesIn order to "guard", we must also take care of ourselves. Let us remember that hatred, envy and arrogance make life dirty.
Custodianship means to keep watch over our own feelingsOur heart, because that is where good and bad intentions come from: those that build and those that destroy.Ā We must not be afraid of kindness, indeed, not even of tenderness."It is not a virtue of the weak but of the strong, like St. Joseph.
Indeed. Hence the importance of examining one's conscience together with a good formation. And if a sentimentalism that is not integrated with reflection and Christian formation can wreak havoc, so too would a education rationalist or voluntarist that did not integrate the feelings and their appropriate and necessary manifestations. Dietrich von Hildebrand, in his work "The Heart: An Analysis of Human and Divine Affectivity", puts it like this (Madrid 2009).
When Pope Francis delivered the homily of the Inaugural Mass In his pontificate, he invited everyone to be custodians of Creation as St. Joseph was custodian of the Holy Family.
The pope then explained what the power of the Petrine ministry consists of:
"Let us never forget thatĀ true power is service,Ā This is the title of one of his books, and that even the Pope, in order to exercise power, must enter more and more into that service which has its luminous culmination in the cross. Such is the power of love. We also learn it from St. Joseph.
And this is how the ministry of the pope should be exercised: "He must set his eyes on the humble, concrete, rich in faith, service of St. Joseph and, like him,Ā to open his arms to guard the whole People of God and to welcome with affection and tenderness all of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the smallest.that which Matthew describes in the final judgment on charity: to the hungry, to the thirsty, to the stranger, to the naked, to the sick, to those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-46).. And he concluded with another lesson: "Only he who serves with love knows how to guard.".
In the last part, he appeals to hope, on which Abraham relied (cf. Rom 4:18).. "Also today, before so many clusters of gray sky,Ā we must see the light of hope and give hope ourselves.. To guard creation, every man and every woman, with a gaze of tenderness and love, is to open a glimmer of light in the midst of so many clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope."
For us Christians, "like Abraham, like St. Joseph, the hope that we carry has the horizon of Godwhich has been opened to us in Christ, is founded on the rock which is God".
This is his way of explaining that title of the pope that comes at least from St. Gregory the Great: "Servant of the servants of God".
Mr. Ramiro Pellitero Iglesias
Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra.
Published in Church and new evangelization.
