Solemnity of St. Joseph
Matthew 1: 16, 18-21, 24a
Introduction
Silence….
Silence is an uncomfortable way to begin a
homily. Did the preacher forget what he was going to say? Did he have a stroke?
Let me ask you; in those few moments of
silence, what thoughts went through your minds, what happened in your heart?
We gather on this Solemnity of a man of silence
– St. Joseph – and we ask God to speak to us.
In
the first reading from 2nd Samuel, we hear, “that same night the
word of the Lord came to Nathan.”
God speaks to his prophet in the silence of the night to reveal that the
Davidic throne will have no end.
In today’s Gospel we find a “son of David” as
the angel calls him, in the midst of a great dilemma. His betrothed wife is
with child, and he is not the father. He considers the situation in silence and
contemplation and decides to “dismiss her quietly,” St. Matthew tells us. That
is, he decides to release her of their betrothal. His consideration of the
situation was in silence. He determined that his actions must be done quietly.
When God reveals through an angel that Joseph
not only must receive Mary into his home but also name the child – that is,
take on the role of earthly father – he does so without whispering a word of
protest. In fact, here is the only indication that Joseph ever said anything.
He must have said the name “Jesus” at the circumcision in order to obey God’s
command. We do not have that fact recorded nor do we have any words of St.
Joseph recorded in Scripture. Why? He was a man of silence.
Joseph is a man without fanfare. He does not
want attention. He lacks the motivation of modern football players who, after
scoring a touchdown, engage in some communal dance in order to bring attention
to themselves. Joseph, on the other hand, is happy in the shadows.
When the census it announced, there is not a word
of complaint that escapes Joseph’s mouth. He searches all of Bethlehem for a
place for his wife to give birth without a whisper of anxiety. He takes the
child Jesus and Mary to Egypt without a murmur. 12 years later we find him in
the Temple but Mary does all the talking.
Joseph doesn’t speak. He just does.
Now, silence is not the inability to speak but
the choice to listen. Silence is not passive stillness but active tranquility.
Silence is not the death of the tongue but the life of the soul.
We gather at Mass on this Solemnity to hear God
speak to us through the silence of St. Joseph.
Many today are afraid of silence. Pascal once
said, “All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot
stay quietly in their own chamber.”
Silence frightens us a bit. We reach for our
headphone, we turn on the radio, we have to see the latest news story or Tik
Tok video. When we have down time or are waiting, the phone suddenly emerges
from our pockets and a dull noise enters us by way of our ears and eyes.
Why can't we just be silent?
One evening at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,
when all the seminarians were receiving “Zoom formation,” I stood on the front porch
of McSweeny Hall and just listened. There was no noise from Route 15. No trucks
braking or shifting gears. There was no noise coming from campus. No ultimate
frisbee players yelling for the disc. There was no noise from inside the Seminary.
I couldn’t even hear Louis McHale’s laugh.
All was quiet. And I was shocked how refreshing
this was! Our minds and hearts find silence a refreshing change from the
cacophony of our modern world.
We need silence. We need it for a whole host of
reasons.
We need silence to grow interiorly.
We know that as the spiritual life grows and
prayer becomes more intense, words diminish into the silence of the
contemplative gaze. As Pope Benedict XVI once said, when John the Baptist
proclaimed that Christ must increase and he must decrease, there is a direct
parallel – the Word “must speak and I must be silent.”
Active silence is active listening. Contemplation
is a gaze of love without words. It means that we have to humble our intellect
and it involves the willingness to learn and be guided not by our own voice but
by the voice of another. Our spiritual lives cannot grow without the
nourishment of silence.
We also need silence to discern the will of
God.
Federico Suarez in his book Joseph of
Nazareth says, “A man who keeps quiet can listen, and a man who listens is
able to learn much” (p. 24). When St. Joseph was considering what to do, he
heard God speak through an angel. He was struggling to know his role in God’s
plan. It became clear to him because he was willing to let God speak in the
silence of his heart.
Silence opens a door for God to step through. It
was only in silence that Joseph discerned the divine will. For those still
discerning their vocation, or discerning any decision big or small, St. Joseph
shows us that a calm, listening soul can best determine God’s will.
Finally, we need silence surprisingly to
practice fortitude.
You know, there are times in which we need to
speak up about difficulties in order to correct things but, overall, we can
complain way too much. We grumble about difficulties, whine about frustrations,
protest about how others treat us. We can also try to justify our defects and
failings by telling everyone our excuses for not doing our duty.
We do this often because we have not learned to
bravely face trouble in our life and just bear it with a level of supernatural
spirit, cheerfulness, and silence. To do so takes courage and courage comes by
way of silence. So, the next time there are difficulties, stop complaining and
just courageously face it without complaint. St. Joseph had plenty to complain
about. Life was tough. But we do not hear a single word of protest. He bears
it. He embraces it. He does it in silence.
We now move toward the altar to find Our Lord
coming in the quiet disguise of the Holy Eucharist. He arrived for the first
time on this earth in the quiet of the night. St. Joseph was there without
words, contemplating a mystery that cannot be fully captured with words.
His silence shows us that moments without words
and without noise can help us grow in the interior life, discern the divine
will, and acquire the virtue of fortitude. For these reasons and many others,
silence is not only golden; it is necessary for each of us.
