Good Shepherd Catholic Parish

12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 20, 2021 (Season B)

          Peace be with you on this, our celebration of the 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  And today also, just happens to also be Father’s Day.  Now for those of you who remember one of Good Shepherd’s pastors from not too long ago, there’s no doubt in my mind if he were standing up here right now, he’d tell us all this is just another one of those Hallmark holidays invented to make us buy stuff.  And unless you live in a cave with no TV, computer, or mail delivery, you must certainly understand his opinion.  Regardless however, all of us who are alive should probably take some time today to reflect on the miracle of life and say, “thank you” and “happy Father’s Day.”

          You know there’s a little story I’ve told before but today especially, it deserves repeating.  Hopefully, anyone who has sat here in Mass through the years is at least somewhat familiar with the Biblical word Abba.  So, scholars tell us it is a more familiar Aramaic form for the Hebrew word Father and beyond that I personally, had never given it much thought until a business trip to Israel over 30 years ago.  I was at a Mediterranean coastal beach near Tel Aviv and noticed a little girl running full speed through the shallows when she suddenly tripped and went facefirst into the sand and water.  So, she comes up out of the shallow water on her hands and knees, sputtering and spitting, looks around, sees her father on the beach, and then runs to him with her arms open wide, crying, “Abba, Abba, Abba.”  My friends, since that day, some 30 years ago, on a beach in Israel, the word Abba has never really meant the same to me.  Jesus lived at a time when the Jewish people wouldn’t even say the sacred Hebrew name of God out loud.  Today we pronounce that ancient holy name Yahweh but, after that simple event I witnessed in modern day Israel, I’ve realized Jesus tells us we can literally call God, Daddy.  Now I think, there’s something we can meditate on for a while.

          So, the Catholic Church cautions homilists on secular holidays like this to stay focused on the readings for the Mass and don’t go astray so to speak.  Regardless, there is someone I believe deserves mentioning today in particular however, who may not initially appear to be relevant to today’s readings.  Some of you may not even know it, but Pope Francis named 2021 the “Year of St. Joseph” and certainly, I think Father’s Day may be a good time to talk about him for a couple of minutes.  The “silent saint” who utters not one single word in Scripture and yet was chosen by God to be the protector and provider for God’s incarnate Son on earth.  We’re told by St Matthew; Joseph was a righteous man but even as a righteous Jewish man he does not do exactly what the Mosaic Law called for.  Joseph does not put a pregnant Mary aside.  Acting on faith, he brings Mary into his home.  He parents and protects Emmanuel, “God with us” and quietly, contributes to what Jesus Christ, both God and man, will become.  Even impacting in a way, how Jesus would conduct his earthly ministry. 

          People often say, “We don’t know anything about Joseph.”  Well, we do know what matters.  The Bible tells us he was righteous.  We certainly know he was faithful.  His actions proved that.  Joseph was courageous as he packed up what little he could and went into the unknown foreign land of Egypt.  He was generous as the needs of Mary and the Child Jesus came before all else, even his own familiar life and livelihood.  Joseph was wise because he clearly understood God’s ways were not his ways.  Perhaps most important to realize is this, Joseph was kind.  His kindness may outweigh all his other good qualities, even his righteousness.  We all understand, righteousness can sometimes produce judgementalism and become a stumbling block but kindness, which contains an element of mercy, can move that block aside.  Joseph’s kindness was a demonstration of his strength.  His upbringing, in unyielding righteousness would have told him to cast Mary aside but his kindness taught him mercy at times, must outweigh the law.  This is something Jesus himself often taught, perhaps most vividly in the story of the woman caught in adultery.

          So, we really do know a lot about Joseph after all.  His righteous life developed faith.  Faith gave him courage.  Courage permitted generosity.  Generosity let him grow in wisdom.  And ultimately, wisdom taught Joseph kindness.  Maybe a good little prayer to say now and then would be, “Saint Joseph, teach me kindness.”

          Well sisters and brothers, believe it or not, thanks to good old Saint Augustine and an ancient prayer to Saint Joseph, dating back to the 11^th Century AD, it came to me, this Gospel reading today is tied to Jesus’s earthly stepfather.  Now however, I have to go back even further than that trip to Israel in the late 80’s to make the connection.  In 1968 I was a 20-year-old Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam and on one occasion I admitted to a Catholic Chaplain one of my fears was burning in a crash.  So, he hands me a Saint Joseph Holy Card with a prayer on the back and tells me the prayer dates to the First Crusades.  He says if I say the prayer daily with faith, I will not die a violent death and will be protected from flames.  Really?  Now honestly, this was not a very religious time in my life, but as old Ike Eisenhauer once said, “There are no atheists in the foxhole.”  So, I prayed.  Here are the closing words to that prayer; “I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms.  I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.  Press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.  St Joseph, patron of departing souls – pray for me.”

          Now St Augustine compares today’s Gospel of a boat on a stormy sea to a Christian’s life.  He says all of God’s children embark with Christ on a life full of dangerous storms, especially attacks from evil spirits and temptations of the flesh.  He always emphasizes that we should never fear, because Christ is ever with us and will never leave us to face our perils alone.  With the specific imagery of today’s Gospel reading however, St Augustine likens the sleeping Jesus in the back of the boat to our own reliance on self-centered egos and then, because of distractions by the cares and pleasures of the world, we have allowed the power of God within us to go to sleep.  It’s only when we reawaken Christ within us through faith that the power of the storm is calmed.

          Consequently, when I read St Augustine’s interpretation of today’s Gospel and thought of the sleeping Jesus in the boat and then thought of the sleeping Jesus in the Prayer to Saint Joseph, I realized through faith, the storms will be calmed, and he will never leave us to face our perils alone.