Our
Happy Hearts group has the tradition of celebrating the solemnity of St Joseph
on the Friday closest to his feast day – March 19. So this Friday, March 20, we will celebrate
St Joseph and will have a lunch of Italian food following the mass and the midday
stations of the cross in keeping with the tradition that is celebrated by many
faithful Italian American Catholics on this special day.
It is in the midst of our holy season of Lent.
In fact, in little more than a week, we will celebrate Palm Sunday of
the Lord’s Passion and then move into our commemoration of Holy Week. But, today, we celebrate the celebration of St Joseph, the spouse of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. We hear a reading about Joseph from the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel
today. Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant during their engagement but before
they lived together; he was unwilling to expose her to shame, so he decided to
divorce her quietly. Although Joseph was a devout Jew and dedicated follower of God’s holy law, he
was not rigid or dogmatic about his adherence to the law. Joseph realized that God’s law must be applied with kindness and compassion,
that it must be interpreted with love, and that the very spirit of God’s law
must not be violated. So, following the instructions of the angel, he takes Mary into his home and
raises Jesus as his child. I bet we all wish at times in our life we can have an angel whispering
instructions in our ear or coming to us in a dream. Yet, the proper formation of our conscience, regular attendance at mass, and
full participation in our community of faith we help us discern how God is
leading us and guiding us in our decisions. This is particularly instructive to us in our
Lenten journey, as we examine our live to really see how we are trying to live
as Christ’s disciples.
I always associate the solemnity of St Joseph with the Italian American
Catholic community; this day is as much a part of their identity as St
Patrick’s Day is for Irish Americans. In Sicily and in Italian American communities, the practice is to set the Table
of Saint Joseph for this special day in his honor. Pasta, vegetables, fish, eggs, pastries,
fruit and wine are prepared and the poor are invited into the home to share in
this special meal. According to tradition, on the island of Sicily, there was a drought that
destroyed the harvest and created a great famine. The Sicilians prayed to Saint Joseph, the Patron Saint of the Family. The prayers were answered when the famine and the drought receded. This great banquet of the Table of St Joseph remembers his intercessions for
these Sicilian families in time of need and continues to gives thanks to him.
Our Catholic traditions are an important part of our faith. And here in Mississippi, especially in the
Delta, Italian Americans who immigrated from Sicily have had a great influence
on the development of Catholicism in our diocese and for the Catholic traditions
we continue to observed. We give thanks for that heritage, for the faith and steadfastness of those
Italian Catholic families to continue in their faith despite great
discrimination and hardship. And we give
thanks for St Joseph and for his intercessions.
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