First Sunday of St. Joseph 2012

First of the Seven Sundays preceding the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19.

The Truth of Mary is “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk. 1, 45). Because she made the gift of herself in receiving the Word of God into herself and saturating Him with all of her humanity, he became the Theotokos. She is the first one who heard the Word of God and did it, as Jesus replied to the woman who shouted out “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the breasts that gave Thee suck:” “Yeah, rather, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and do it.” She heard; she did; she became the mother of God.
Joseph, in like manner, heard the word of the angel and did it. The blessedness of Mary “can be referred to Joseph as well, since he responded positively to the word of God when it was communicated to him at the decisive moment. While it is true that Joseph did not respond to the angel’s ‘announcement’ in the same way as Mary, he ‘did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife.’ What he did is the clearest ‘obedience of faith’ (Rom 1, 5; 16, 26; 2 Cor. 10, 5-6).” “Together with Mary, and in relation to Mary, he shares in this final phase of God’s self-revelation in Christ, and he does so from the very beginning… He is also the first to be placed by God on the path of Mary’s ‘pilgrimage of faith.’”

Then, “It follows that Joseph’s fatherhood – a relationship that places him as close as possible to Christ, to whom every election and predestination is ordered (cf. Rom. 8, 28-29) – comes to pass through marriage to Mary, that is, through the family.” Therefore, Joseph was empowered to name the Child, although not born of his seed. It is due to the act of faith that was complete and in the same line of totality as Mary’s. Therefore, “The Son Mary is also Joseph’s Son by virtue of the marriage bond that unites them.” That marriage bond is one of the acts of obedience of faith of Joseph. St. Augustine wrote: “By reason of their faithful marriage both of them deserve to be called Christ’s parents, not only his mother, but also his father, who was a parent in the same way that he was the mother’s spouse: in mind, no