First Friday of Lent 2021 in the Year of St. Joseph
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Col 1:15). Each Friday, Fridays of Lent in particular, we are called to join ourselves to the Passion of Jesus…to deep prayer, to self-sacrifice and repentance. It is with this triple-play that grace leads us home, in a new direction…a new path toward life and away from death. The irony of the passion and the cross is that, what seems like loss and death, sorrow and pain, is truly the opposite. The passion is the path, the cross is the vehicle, the loss of self is the gain of Christ, and death is not death, it is life itself. Homeruns are awe inspiring, but a triple play, that is breathtaking to behold, is it not.
Jesus, true God and true man was in the garden of Gethsemane. He was cut off from all he had felt and known of his heavenly father. It is called the Agony in the Garden, right? Agony is that gulf of abandonment between the beloved and the lover…between the son and the father. Jesus wanted to do His father’s will, but if it could pass, he would be ok with that…but despite abandonment, despite feeling otherwise, Jesus says,” not my will, but your will be done.” Just like his Mother Mary, Just like his father Joseph.
Now ponder this. If Jesus is the image of the invisible God, who is the image of the Invisible God the Father for Jesus? Exactly: JOSEPH! Who raised this Messiah? Who taught him to pray? Who told him of God and his heritage and lineage from David the King? Who stood by him in synagogue? Who may have told him about a number of messages he had from angels in his dreams? Who may have told him about why people talk about Joseph and Mary sometimes? Who may have told him about the Angel who spoke to his mother…or the visitor who came from afar…or the astonished shepherds come to take a look at the new born savior. Well, I am sure that the one to whom God the Father entrusted His only begotten Son, was with him in the garden and in his heart as he agonized to bring his mysterious and oft’ confusing mission to fulfillment. Joseph was with Jesus in the Garden, was with him at the pillar, was with him on the way on the cross and in the tomb.
Now ponder this. If we are “born-again” in Christ…if we are baptized in him, and have a new identity, i.e. We are Christ, or as St. Paul says, “I no longer live, it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)…then when someone is lost, we are to be the way for them We are Christ for them. When one is confused, we are to be the light in their darkness. We are Christ for them. And so on…
May Lent lead us to the grace that changes us from mere namesakes, to images of Christ to one another.
St. Joseph pray for us.