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V. THE PRIMACY OF
THE INTERIOR LIFE
25. The same aura of silence that envelops
everything else about Joseph also shrouds his work as a carpenter
in the house of Nazareth. It is, however, a silence that reveals
in a special way the inner portrait of the man. The Gospels
speak exclusively of what Joseph "did." Still, they allow
us to discover in his "actions"--shrouded in silence
as they are--an aura of deep contemplation. Joseph was in
daily contact with the mystery "hidden from ages past," and
which dwelt under his roof. This explains, for example, why St.
Teresa of Jesus, the great reformer of the Carmelites, promoted
the renewal of veneration to St. Joseph in Western Christianity.
26. The total sacrifice, whereby Joseph surrendered
his whole existence to the demands of the Messiah's coming into
his home, becomes understandable only in the light of his profound
interior life. It was from this interior life that "very singular
commands and consolations came, bringing him also the logic and
strength that belong to simple and clear souls, and giving him
the power of making great decisions--such as the decision to put
his liberty immediately at the disposition of the divine designs,
to make over to them also his legitimate human calling, his conjugal
happiness, to accept the conditions, the responsibility and the
burden of a family, but, through an incomparable virginal love,
to renounce that natural conjugal love that is the foundation and
nourishment of the family."
This submission to God, this readiness of
will to dedicate oneself to all that serves him, is really nothing
less than that exercise of devotion which constitutes one
expression of the virtue of religion.
27. The communion of life between Joseph and
Jesus leads us to consider once again the mystery of the Incarnation,
precisely in reference to the humanity of Jesus as the efficacious
instrument of his divinity for the purpose of sanctifying man: "By
virtue of this divinity, Christ's human actions were salvific for
us, causing grace within us, either by merit or by a certain efficacy."
Among those actions, the Gospel writers highlight
those which have to do with the Paschal Mystery, but they also
underscore the importance of physical contact with Jesus for healing
(cf. for example, Mk 1:41), and the influence Jesus exercised
upon John the Baptist when they were both in their mothers' wombs
(cf. Lk 1:41-44).
As we have seen, the apostolic witness did
not neglect the story of Jesus' birth, his circumcision, his presentation
in the Temple, his flight into Egypt and his hidden life in Nazareth.
It recognized the "mystery" of grace present in each
of these saving "acts," inasmuch as they all share the
same source of love: the divinity of Christ. If through Christ's
humanity this love shone on all mankind, the first beneficiaries
were undoubtedly those whom the divine will had most intimately
associated with itself: Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Joseph,
his presumed father.
Why should the "fatherly" love of
Joseph not have had an influence upon the "filial" love
of Jesus? And vice versa, why should the "filial" love
of Jesus not have had an influence upon the "fatherly" love
of Joseph, thus leading to a further deepening of their unique
relationship? Those souls most sensitive to the impulses of divine
love have rightly seen in Joseph a brilliant example of the interior
life.
Furthermore, in Joseph, the apparent tension
between the active and the contemplative life finds an ideal harmony
that is only possible for those who possess the perfection of charity.
Following St. Augustine's well known distinction between the love
of the truth (caritas veritatis) and the practical demands
of love (necessitas caritatis) , we can say that Joseph
experienced both love of the truth--that pure contemplative
love of the divine Truth which radiated from the humanity of Christ--and the
demands of love--that equally pure and selfless love required
for his vocation to safeguard and develop the humanity of Jesus,
which is inseparably linked to his divinity.
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