 the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. So Team Grace, for the past several weeks during this portion of ordinary time, we've been talking about that powerful reality of mercy. We spoke about the nature of mercy, the delicate balance between justice and mercy, and last week we spoke about the process of mercy. And perhaps after all that teaching, it might be good for us to have an example, a witness to mercy. And of course we can turn to our Lord, who is mercy itself, as the perfect example of mercy. But in addition to our Lord, sometimes we need something else. We need to see the teachings and the ministry and the life of our Lord take flesh. We need to see it tangible in some other human being, some other life. And look at all the holy ones we have. There are many saints we can draw to as examples as models of mercy. Whether it's in the early church, with St. Agnes, who forgave those who took her life. We have that beautiful stained glass of St. Agnes here at our church. Or perhaps it's in more contemporary times. St. Maria Goretti, who was brutally stabbed in order to preserve her virtue. And as she was dying, prayed for the young man who stabbed her, who would eventually take her life. Prayed with her last breath that he would repent and be with her in heaven. So many examples, so many holy ones we can point to. But for our homily today, maybe it's good that we go to the very dawn of our salvation. To the very beginning, to the holy family. To see their Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Let's look at Joseph as a witness to mercy. Now I select Joseph because it's at the very beginning, it's the holy family. But I also in full transparency choose Joseph because this year has been declared a year of St. Joseph by our Holy Father Pope Francis. Holy Father has asked that every parish do something in order to honor and highlight the faith and the witness of St. Joseph. Now truth be told, I had to look at our schedule because here at Our Lady of Grace, we do a lot. I thought, what can we do? So I started looking around for different resources. And I found this great book on the preparation and the consecration to St. Joseph. And I know the author, Father Calloway. He and I were in college together. I looked at the book, making sure he didn't get weird on us, right? I looked at the book and thought, this is a faithful priest, this is good teaching. I can recommend this book, right? Father is a Marian Father, so I contacted his order and said, look, can you cut us a deal? I knew. And they were very generous and gave us a great financial deal so we could get copies here for our parish and get them out free after the masses next weekend. I'm gonna ask that we as a parish make that consecration. We'll be given out next weekend on Monday, February 22nd. We start the consecration, the preparation. 33 days, it concludes on March 19th. We have a special mass on March 19th at 7 p.m. You can come in person by live stream or you can even actually do it on your own devotionally for the consecration. However you choose to do it on the feast day, the mass is one option. But it's so important that we do this so that we can make our part, contribute our part to this year of St. Joseph. It's our obedience to the Holy Father, who's asked us of us. And I think we can do that. And I think it's gonna be very important that we walk with St. Joseph in order to understand who this person was and how our faith can be strengthened by his witness. Now sometimes people will say, well, wait a minute, Father, come on. We just finished the consecration to Mary and now you're asking me to make the consecration to St. Joseph. How can I make the consecration to Joseph if I've already made it to Mary? Good news. Mary and Joseph, they get along. There's no competition here, right? All of the consecrations in the church are subordinate to our Lady. There's consecrations to St. Joseph, consecrations to our guardian angel. Church has many consecrations. So if we're doing the consecration to Joseph, we only enhance and deepen our consecration to Jesus that we already have through Mary. So there's no competition. You can make the consecration to Joseph. It does not in any way conflict with the consecration to our Lady. Again, I think it only deepens it. So for those reasons we selected, I've selected St. Joseph today as our witness of mercy. And let's look at Joseph. How was he a model, a witness to mercy? What can we learn from him? Well, first we have to remind ourselves biblically that mercy is not simply the forgiveness of a fault, of an offense. Mercy biblically is much richer and much broader. Mercy is compassion, kindness, patience, gentleness, understanding. It's putting our heart in the heart of another and trying to understand their suffering, their hardship, their difficulty, even if it's self-inflicted on their part. We seek to suffer with them and again show that compassion, that understanding. So with this understanding of mercy, we can look at Joseph. I wanna point out four things of Joseph that we can emulate. First, Joseph was a man of prayer. And we know he was a man of prayer because everything that was asked of him, Joseph did. Imagine, and looking at the scriptures, how much God asked of Joseph and how much he had to surrender in order to obey. Go here, go there, take her as your wife, name this child, come back here, be careful of this ruler, go there, go to Egypt. Egypt was the ancient foe of Israel. Joseph could have said go to Egypt. That would be like asking an American to go to Vietnam or to Iraq. That's our foe. They have a different language, different food. I have no network of support there. How am I supposed to go there? Joseph said none of that. Go, and he went. You see, that's obedience. Here in the West right now, obedience is a bad word. You can get away with dropping the F bomb now in public, but you can't get away with talking about obedience in public. Say obedience if people cringe. Tell the average American to obey and they will purposely do the exact opposite. Look at how much the devil has worked. He has turned such a powerful virtue into something completely despicable. But virtue, the virtue of obedience, that's powerful. To submit to proper authority that is justly exercised. To submit our will to God in obedience. That's the path to holiness. Joseph was able to obey because he was a person of prayer. When we say that mercy is putting our heart in the heart of another, Joseph took it to the next level. He put his heart in the very heart of God. Which is exactly what happens in prayer. And because his heart was in the heart of God, when God asked him to do something, he was ready to obey, quick to obey. Because slow obedience is still disobedience. God asked and Joseph did it. Always putting God's will before his own. So that's our first mark. Joseph was a man of prayer, a man of obedience. How could we learn from him? Do you realize dear friends that we cannot be a people of mercy if our heart is only stuck in itself? Have we allowed our heart to be united to God's? Do we try to pray? Do we ask God for the grace in order to follow the path of love? Do we seek to obey? Dying to ourselves and to obey quickly, whatever God might ask of us. That's something we can emulate in St. Joseph. That's our first point. Second point, Joseph was a man of the angels. Do you notice that anywhere in the scripture when Joseph is mentioned, the angels are with him. The angels love Joseph. The angels see the very face of God and the angels are particularly attracted to the grace of God that is within us because that makes us look like God. And so the angels seek our company when we have more grace. And so the fact that the angels wanted to be with Joseph shows us his righteousness. As the scriptures tell us, he was a just man. Now we sometimes call Joseph a carpenter. That's appropriate. But we also know that Greek word in the New Testament can also be translated as general contractor. And just imagine if Joseph is a just man, that means every time he had dealings with someone, he was just. He never tried to cheat anyone. Sometimes when I go to the mechanic or when I have to deal with the general contractor, I don't have those expertise. I rely on this person. I rely on their integrity. And there have been times in which I have been taken advantage of or even our parish has been taken advantage of because someone has chosen not to be merciful and just. How do you take advantage of a church? And on every occasion, I have sought to fulfill justice, both for myself and especially for our parish and then to seek to be merciful. What was going through their minds and hearts? Where must they be to take advantage of their neighbor who is vulnerable in knowledge and to take advantage of a church to put my heart in their heart to try to understand? That's what Joseph did. Not simply in his work, but also in the home. Joseph was a just man. He must have been a superb husband and father. We look at his son, right? He was attentive to his duties and he sought to do them virtuously and excellently. And he was righteous because of it and the angels desired to be with him. Joseph, we could say was a man of the angels. He was a man of righteousness. That's our second point. And what can we learn from that? In the duties that God has given to us, the responsibilities and obligations that we have, do we seek to put our heart into another? In our trade or our profession, when we have greater knowledge than the other person, do we seek to be merciful and just? Or do we take advantage of those who do not know? Do we seek financial gain, taking advantage of our neighbor or other institutions in society? Joseph never did that. Joseph was honest. A man of integrity. Joseph was a man of righteousness, a man of the angels. That's our second point. Now these first two understandably are more spiritual. We can talk about prayer and we can talk about virtue and righteousness. Let's look at two practical examples from the life of Joseph where we can see he is the model and the witness of mercy. We are told in the scriptures that when Joseph learned that Mary would have conceived and was with child, he sought to divorce her quietly. How merciful. Because according to the law of Moses, Joseph could have played the victim. He could have wallowed in self pity. He could have gone to the elders of the village and exposed our lady who by the law of Moses would have been dragged out of the town by her hair and stoned. He could have done that and would have been within his rights. But Joseph loved our lady and he was going to divorce her quietly. Sometimes we forget to play that out. What was going on in the heart of Joseph? Joseph had not yet been told by the angel that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit. When Joseph first learned about our lady that she was pregnant, you can imagine he was thinking. I guess she doesn't love me. She must love someone else. Joseph was in love with our lady, wanted to welcome her into his home and make her a part of his family and tribe. And he must have thought she has chosen someone else. She loves someone else. They were not yet married. They had no obligation to one another. And Joseph was going to fulfill justice by divorcing our lady quietly and giving her the freedom to pursue the person that he thought that she had chosen. To pursue someone else. That's sacrificial mercy. To so profoundly die to oneself. To not receive what one wants. To die to any sense of entitlement. To allow wounds to be healed rather than strike out in vengeance. That was Joseph. He was going to divorce our lady quietly because he loved her and because he was a merciful person. Dear friends in our lives, are we willing to give such mercy so generously? Are we willing to bestow freedom upon those who have hurt us or that we have perceived have hurt us? Are we willing to die to our desire for vengeance and bestow true mercy that the other can have the freedom to pursue the path that they have chosen? That is a total death to self. That is the ultimate act of love. And Joseph was willing to give it. Now imagine when the angel appeared to Joseph and said, Joseph, Joseph, the child is by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was probably like, yes, I knew it. I knew it. I know she only had eyes for me, right? The joy that Joseph must have felt. That's our third mark. The fourth mark is when the angel appeared and told Joseph, Joseph, you are to name the child Jesus. We had to put that within context. The eighth day of a Jewish boy's life on the day of his circumcision was the day that his father named him. And it was a declaration by the man that that was his son, a member of his family, a member of his tribe. The powerful declaration. And so when God said to Joseph, you will name the child Jesus. God was saying to Joseph, you will raise this boy as your own. And you will welcome him into your home in your tribe. And he is your son. And Joseph said, yes, I suspect very joyfully. But we sometimes miss the other part of that. They were betrothed. No one else saw the angel. And so Joseph and Mary, they go to their betrothment. Our lady is pregnant. Then they get married and Joseph names Jesus. And everyone in Nazareth probably thought that the two had had a mistake or an accident during the betrothment. A momentary experience of intimacy. And Joseph was allowing to let that go. Joseph didn't want to walk around and say, hey, let me explain. The Holy Spirit said this, you know. Joseph didn't need to explain that. He allowed the perception of shame, the perception of guilt, the perception of sin. And he didn't care. He wasn't hurry to quick to run to social media or to make sure everyone knew. He loved our lady and he was willing to do what God asked. And he wasn't gonna throw our lady under the bus. And so he allowed even the perception of sin in order to be merciful, to do what God had asked. In our lives, are we so quick to clarify and distinguish and explain? My goodness, we even have talk shows over such garbage, huh? So this is when I try to turn on TV every once in a while just to see what's going on in culture. I turn it off within 15 minutes. Jersey shores and blah, blah, blah. What garbage is this? People watch this fighting and arguing and bickering. The indulgence in self entitlement and self pity, bitterness and egoism and narcissism. We can't indulge that and then be a person of mercy. If our heart stays only in itself and never reaches out to our neighbor to God, we cannot be a people of mercy. We are called to be that people of mercy, however. To die to all those things. To be like Joseph, who didn't feel the need to explain. Let people think what they want. Let people rumor and chat as they must. Joseph knew who he was before God and he knew who he was before our lady and that was enough. That was merciful and just. You see dear friends, in these four ways we can learn a lot from Joseph. We can draw from his example that he was a person of prayer and obedience. Let's ask for that virtue of obedience. Let's also draw from him to seek to be a person of righteousness, a person of the angels. I saw some time ago an expression that said the angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. Think we can learn a lot from that. And let's learn from Joseph who was gonna divorce our lady quietly even when he thought that he had offended her, offended him. And let's draw also from Joseph's example who named a child Jesus and was willing to do whatever God asked and not feel the need to explain even taking upon himself the perception of shame. You see we can draw a lot from Joseph and there's more that for 33 days we will be able to walk through as a parish family. I wanna encourage you to seek to be a person of mercy. Our world is hurting, bruised and broken under the weight of guilt and sin and shame. We are Christians. We have freely chosen to follow the path of love which means we have chosen the path of mercy. We must be different. We cannot hold a grudge. We cannot seek vengeance. We must die to ourselves. Look to the model of St. Joseph and seek every day as best we can to be a people, to be a missionary of mercy.