“Remember, O man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.”
I remember my first Ash Wednesday Mass. The words rang in my ears and echoed in the church. The ashes scraped on my forehead. I could smell the charcoally, burnt smell and the oil. “Remember, O man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.” I’m in my second Lent as a practicing Catholic. Granted, I was only officially received into the Church late last year, but I have worshipped as a Catholic and considered myself Catholic for awhile now. Lent has become my favorite of the liturgical seasons. The reason for this is my own pride. I am a man who is beset with pride. I need it beat out of me, I suppose. Maybe my parents didn’t whoop my butt enough. Maybe I was successful at some things I should have failed at. Or maybe I’m just human and this is part of our fallen human nature, the stain of original sin. I am a man beset with pride. Therefore, Lent flies in the face of my prideful heart. Through Lent, the Holy Ghost bids me come and die to myself. During Lent, Christ bids me to walk with Him in humility and repentance. This is good for my soul. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot recently due to a consecration I am going through. Humility, I mean. Know who I think the humble dude (other than Christ Himself) in the history of the world was? St. Joseph. The husband of the Blessed Virgin and the earthly father of our Lord Jesus. Think about it. He bore the responsibility of protecting the chastity of the Ever-Virgin Mary all while working full time and teaching Jesus how to brush his teeth and properly trim his beard. And yet, we know almost nothing about him from Holy Scripture. He is hardly mentioned at all. The Church has traditions about St. Joseph but the Scriptures themselves tell us almost nothing. I’m struck by this man’s humility and strength, his fortitude and careful responsibility, his devotion and faithfulness. And yet, we know almost nothing about him. In today’s readings for Mass (from the Traditional calendar), we find some interesting things that can help us understand, perhaps, a bit of why St. Joseph is hardly heard from. The Epistle reading is Isaiah 58:1-9, “Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins. For they seek me from day to day, sad desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God. Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors. Behold you fast for debates and strife. and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high. Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.” You may read this and wonder what’s the point. Look at what God is saying to His people. He is castigating them for their pride. They have “fasted” and they have “humbled” their souls and they say God has not taken notice. How very vain of them. And God calls them out for it through His prophet. He says they have fasted for debates and strifes. In other words, they fasted for their own purposes. Jesus says something very similar in today’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew’s gospel, chapter 5:43-48 and 6:1-4, “You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect….Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth. That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee.” Do you see that? Jesus tells His disciples, “Don’t do like the prideful people. Don’t do your good works, your fasting and prayer and such to gain attention and for your own purposes. Do it secretly.” The ones who do things publicly have had their reward; they have earned the praise of their fellow man. And that’s really what they (and us) are after, isn’t it? I mean, if we’re being honest. We are just as prideful as the publicans and the people of Israel whom God reprimands for fasting in a way that “your own will is found.” What does any of this have to do with St. Joseph? Think about it for a second and you’ll see my point. St. Joseph spent his entire adult life in almost complete obscurity. We know almost nothing about him, and he seems to like it that way. Yet, from his unknown life and the daily, secret ways in which he trusted in God and his earthly Son, we have the person, the God-man Jesus Christ. I suspect that Jesus learned some of His humility, not just from being divine, but from watching the humble and quiet and faithful life of His adopted father. During this Lent (and I pray forevermore), let us strive to serve our Lord in our own humble way; to keep our fasts and our penance private, to walk humbly before our Lord, like His father did. Deo gratias!
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