In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saint Joseph does not leave any of his duties as father and head of the Holy Family.
He does not leave any of these duties to Our Lord or to Our Lady.
Not because Jesus or Mary were incapable. They were more than capable.
Both Jesus and Mary are holier than Joseph.
But Joseph does not leave these duties to them because they are his and not theirs.
They are his as father, they are his as head, and not those of his wife, not those of his child, Jesus, his adopted son.
Saint Joseph had to provide for the Holy Family himself because he was its head.
That was his mission given to him by God.
That is the mission of every father in the family.
That is the mission of the spiritual father in the spiritual family, which is the Church.
Saint Joseph had to provide. It's to him that the angel says twice, You, Joseph, you get up. Take Mary, your wife. Take the child and flee into Egypt.
And then when they have to come back, the angel says to Joseph, You, Joseph, you get up. You take your wife again. You take your child again and return to the Holy Land.
You figure it out. You get them there. You provide for them. You protect them.
You take this upon yourself. You fulfill your responsibility.
Don't leave it to Mary. Don't leave it to Jesus. You do it.
And sure, Our Lord, Our Lady could have managed. Our Lady, Mediatrix of all graces, all-powerful by her intercession, Our Lord, the Son of God, could have done it.
But the Holy Family was a functional family.
And in a functional family, the father does not unload his duties on the wife and the children.
Saint Joseph did not do that.
And we know very well that a family does not function better when the father leaves his job to his wife and children.
That does not empower his wife and children.
That makes the family rather dysfunctional. It functions less.
Things are worse in that family.
And now, if we're talking about the family, we must talk about the spiritual family.
The spiritual family, which is the Church, has spiritual fathers, which are the priests.
It should be obvious, but sometimes it isn't obvious.
Sometimes we can be deceived.
The Church will not function better when priests, the spiritual heads, the spiritual fathers of this family, leave more and more of their responsibilities to women and laity.
That will not empower the Church. That will weaken the Church.
That will not make the Church function better.
It'll make it more dysfunctional when that happens.
And yet there is a lot of undue pressure, unholy pressure on priests to do exactly that, to not fulfill their ministry, but to leave it to others.
And it's called empowering others, but it isn't.
And there's a lot of pressure on our bishops.
Oh, not easy to be a bishop today. How much pressure on them.
How much pressure on our bishops to not fulfill their ministry, but to leave it to others.
And it's this undue pressure that spiritual fathers must resist.
Because when priests and bishops, when we priests and our bishops, if they were to fail to teach and to govern and to sanctify, to teach the truth of the gospel, if they were to fail to govern, to correct abuses, to make hard decisions themselves, to be the ones to lead on the narrow road that leads to heaven, if they were to fail to sanctify, especially by administering the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, if they were to fail to do that and to unload it on others, that wouldn't make the Church more functional, but less, much less functional.
And yet there is that undue pressure to do that, but it doesn't empower anybody.
Women are not empowered when they must do the job a man should do, but refuses to do or is afraid to do or is not allowed to do.
And children are not empowered when they have to do the job that their father should do, but refuses to do or is afraid to do or is not allowed to do.
And the Church is not empowered when others have to do the job that priests should do, but refuse to do or are not allowed to do.
St. Joseph didn't leave any of his duties, not to Mary, not to Jesus, not because they were incapable, they were quite capable, but he doesn't leave these duties to them because they are his.
And he is the head of a functional family.
So priests, we cannot unload our duties, any of our duties as priests, any of our responsibilities on women and the laity.
This is a burden that priests must bear themselves.
They cannot unload it on the shoulders of others.
Not because others are incapable, but because this burden is that of a priest.
The burden of governing, of teaching and sanctifying.
Now St. Joseph, last thought, we conclude with this.
St. Joseph became the man and the father that he was called to be by taking Mary into his home.
By not being afraid, but by taking Mary into his home.
By loving her, serving her, dedicating his whole life to her, consecrating his life to her.
So every man will become the father he's called to be and every priest will become the spiritual father he's called to be by doing the same.
Taking Mary into his home, not being afraid to serve her, to love her, and to consecrate his whole life to her.
And just as for Joseph, Mary was in a special way a mediatrix of the graces that he needed.
So for every man, for every priest, for every father, when he takes her into his home, Our Lady will be a mediatrix of the graces that he needs to be the father that he's called to be.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.