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March 20, 2022Abu Dhabi.
His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness Pope Francis on his visit to the UAE for participating in the celebrations of the National Day of the Holy See, celebrated the Holy Mass for the Solemnity of St. Joseph at St. Joseph's Cathedral on 19 March 2022 at 6:30 pm.
Below is the full text of his homily.
Homily
Solemnity of Saint Joseph
Abu Dhabi, 19 March 2022Dear priests, men and women religious, civil authorities and lay faithful: I offer an affectionate greeting to each of you.
I greet in particular Bishop Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia and Apostolic Administrator of Northern Arabia. Your Excellency, I thank you for making it possible for me to celebrate this Eucharist on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, to whom this Cathedral is dedicated.
As part of my visit to Expo 2020 in Dubai for the National Day of the Holy See, I have looked forward to this meeting with you. I want to assure you once more of the closeness and blessing of Pope Francis, who three years ago visited the United Arab Emirates, describing himself “as a believer thirsting for peace, a brother seeking peace with the brethren (Interreligious Meeting, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019).
The Lenten season urges us to lift our gaze to the crucified Christ, in whom we readily see reflected the faces and stories of so many of our brothers and sisters who are the victims of violence. In addition to the many conflicts that cause immense suffering in our world – I think, for example, of Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia – in recent weeks we have also seen the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Once more, with the insistence of children, inspired by our faith in Jesus Christ, let us implore the gift of peace, and renew our resolve to be credible witnesses of hope in the God who raised his Son from the dead.
We now turn to Saint Joseph, as we contemplate with joy the abundant graces that God bestowed upon him. Joseph was the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary; he gave a name to the Redeemer and he watched over him as a father watches over his own child. These were marvellous graces, which no doubt brought great happiness to that “just” man, while in us they inspire deep admiration. Saint Gregory Nazianzen rightly observed that “the Lord gathered in Joseph, as in a sun, all the light and splendour reflected in the saints.”
From the Gospel of Luke, we have heard the account of the loss and finding of Jesus in the Temple. In this episode, the very human anguish and concern of Mary and Joseph is set against the solemn, even authoritative, presence of the young Jesus among the teachers of the Law. Mary then intervenes to speak those pointed but loving words that could only be spoken by a mother: “Son, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you with great anxiety” (Lk 2:48).
Yet Joseph, in Saint Luke’s account, says nothing. Chosen by God to be “guardian of the Word”, spouse of the Mother of the Word made flesh, he remains silent. The Gospels report no word spoken by Joseph, and yet his silence was so eloquent as to have changed the course of history. For that matter, God himself chose the same humble and hidden style. In silence, Joseph fulfilled the vocation he had received from God in a dream. Each day he came to understand that vocation more fully through the words and the life of Jesus. To Jesus, he gave everything that a human father can give to a son: love, protection, a name.
Let us try to enter into the mind and heart of Joseph, into his silence, his way of seeing things and acting as a “most chaste” spouse and father. This traditional title of Saint Joseph – “most chaste” – perfectly describes the life of a man with a free heart, respectful of the mystery of Jesus’ life. For Joseph, as for all fathers and mothers, it is no simple thing to discover the true identity of a child.
Yet this is itself the great teaching that we receive from the silence of Joseph. He showed himself capable of loving, quietly and generously, inspired by the infinitely generous love of God. That kind of love cannot fail to be joyful. Joseph loved Jesus with a father’s love, and thus became a model for all parents, pastors, and educators. Yet in that same love, there is also a touch of suffering. In the life of Joseph, we find a deep demanding self-renunciation, which does not diminish love but elevates it to sublime heights. A crucified love, which does not seek its own interest, but puts itself completely at the service of the beloved. Joseph, the “most chaste father”, knows that Jesus does not belong to him. His only desire is to provide Jesus with everything he needs to fulfil his mission.
To Mary and Joseph, so deeply troubled, Jesus gives a remarkable answer: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49). Mary and Joseph had come to the Temple in search of their child, and there they found the Word of the Father. Like those women who, many years later, would come to the sepulcher, the place of death, and instead find life. His words to Mary and Joseph invite us to see Jesus in a new and greater light. It is significant that in Luke’s Gospel, those were the first words that Jesus utters. After his silence in the womb of the Virgin, the first word that Luke puts on the lips of Jesus is “Father”. It would also be his last word, uttered on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). God’s fatherhood is the lens that enables us to understand everything that Jesus says and does in the Gospels: every action and every word of the Son points to the primacy of the one he calls “my Father”.
That fatherhood, which becomes prayer in the “Our Father”, takes on life in our fraternal relations with one another. The Second Vatican Council saw in human fraternity a most precious fruit of God’s fatherhood: “We cannot truly pray to God, the Father of all, unless we treat others as sisters and brothers, for all are created in God’s image” (Nostra Aetate, 5).
Pope Francis reaffirmed this here in Abu Dhabi: “The point of departure is the recognition that God is at the origin of the one human family. He, who is the Creator of all things and all persons, wants us to live as brothers and sisters, dwelling in the common home of creation which he has given us” (Interreligious Meeting, 4 February 2019).
Today’s Solemnity of Saint Joseph invites us to reflect on this mystery of fatherhood, divine and human. As a good father, Joseph watched over Jesus, protected him and introduced him to the world of work. In the lowly life of Nazareth, the Son of God learned how to love, to speak, to walk, to work, to suffer and to rejoice. It is consoling for us to realize that even now, as a good father, Saint Joseph watches over the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church.
Let us entrust all our intentions, then, to the intercession of Saint Joseph. We are emerging from the hardships created by Covid-19, which has reaped victims and caused damage throughout the world, including these lands. It is my prayerful hope that this celebration, in which we sense our closeness and communion with the Holy Father Pope Francis, may encourage each of us to start anew and face together whatever difficulties still lie ahead. May this celebration rekindle hope in our hearts!
Saint Joseph is the great model of that hope. Like Abraham, who in today’s second reading, taken from the Letter to the Romans, is presented as one who “hoped against hope” (Rom 4:18), Joseph believed in God even in the moments of greatest uncertainty and difficulty. Dear brothers and sisters, whenever we feel saddened or dismayed, let us think of the faith of Joseph; if anxiety threatens our serenity, let us think of the hope of Joseph; if uncertainty grips our heart, let us think of the love of Joseph. By imitating his docility, may we bear good fruit in sincere fidelity, patient honesty, quiet industriousness and generosity in serving others.
Saint Teresa of Avila, who had great devotion to Saint Joseph, once said that she never recalled having prayed to Joseph for a favour without immediately obtaining it. That is true, dear brothers and sisters. With the same assurance, let us now turn to him and to Our Lady, spouse of Joseph and Mother of the Lord.
Amen.