Daily Gospel Reflection for March 19, 2022: Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

There are two options for today’s Gospel reading in honor of our dear Saint Joseph. This seems oddly fitting—“oddly” in the sense of, “Is it odd… or is it God?”

It’s God.

Saint Joseph was a man confronted with monumental choices in his life. To divorce Mary quietly or to act like a father to a child who isn’t his son? To believe a dream that calls him to name and claim the child, or to place his trust in the solid, visible, touchable matter of this world and deny the Word spoken to him? To rage (when he found Him) at a boy who strayed not just for hours but for days, or to listen quietly, curious rather than furious, to the boy’s mysterious response at being found?

Saint Joseph quietly makes the nonsensical but faith-filled choice. He shows us how God has gifted us with free will, not so that we can get our choices right every single time, but so that we can grow in trust in the God whose plans are bigger and better for us than anything we could ever dream up on our own.

Ponder:

What is a choice in my life that I have before me today? If Saint Joseph were in my shoes, how would he choose?

Pray:

Saint Joseph, through your gentle, fatherly intercession, be with me today in my resting times as well as my anxious, searching times, so that I may always choose Christ as you did.