Our modern culture enjoys reading about the personal struggles, emotions, doubts, and triumphs in people's lives. It's as if our culture gives people the right to make ungodly choices if their struggles are intense enough. The Scriptures differ from modern culture. They didn't concentrate on St. Joseph's feelings or his struggles. They simply concentrate on what Joseph did. They reflect Joseph as a man of "obedient faith" (Rm 1:5).

God's ways are far above the ways of today's culture (Is 55:8-9). Certainly God is concerned about our struggles (see Ps 56:9; Dt 2:7). He gives us the grace necessary to live by faith (Heb 10:38), no matter how difficult our circumstances. Joseph apparently understood this. He was required to endure struggles which no man on earth ever has been asked to face, yet he simply trusted God and obeyed Him.

St. Joseph had a "fiat" to proclaim, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary did. God the Father entrusted His only begotten Son, Jesus, to the care and protection of Joseph, and he said "yes" to God. Each of us also have a fiat to proclaim, no matter the circumstances of our lives. Let us consider the sufferings of the present as nothing compared to the privilege of saying "yes" to God (see Rm 8:18; 2 Cor 1:19). Imitate the example of St. Joseph, the man of faith, and respond to the Lord with faith and loving obedience.

Rescript:  †Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, July27, 2010

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