PAULINE BROTHERHOOD

As we are celebrating the Solemnity of St Joseph and Pauline Brotherhood day it befitting for us to reflect on the spirituality of this great saint and patron of our Pauline family.

Whenever we talk about or reflect about St Joseph what come to our mind are his simplicity, humility, detachment and love for the holy family of Nazareth.

With the little knowledge about St Joseph that we have from the Bible, we can talk volumes about St Joseph as we see him a Saint who not only thought of serving Mary and Jesus, with acts of selfless love but also teaching Jesus the Word Incarnate, to work with wood till he embraced the wood of the Cross which became the altar of His Sacrifice.

**Devotion to St. Joseph became popular from the 12th century onward and in the 15th Century the feast of St. Joseph began to be celebrated on March 19 every year as Solemnity.

St. Joseph is invoked as patron for many causes. He is the patron of the Universal Church. He is the patron of the dying because Jesus and Mary were at his death-bed. He is also the patron of fathers, of carpenters, and of social justice.

Today’s Gospel text throws a little more light on St Joseph as a patron of social justice.  It says that Mary and Joseph were engaged, and legally considered husband and wife.

A misunderstanding of the pregnancy of Mary tortures the mind of St Joseph which could lead him to dissolve their union by divorce or death.

As a law-abiding Jew, Joseph was suppose to keep the Law of Moses intact and get the title of righteous or just man by exposing Mary to public disgrace but Joseph has gone against the law and disobeyed the law of Moses. Social Justice demands spirit of the law and not letter of the law.

Joseph was righteous or just because of his charitable, loving and selfless act to Mary by not going by the letter of the law. He loved Mary above himself and his behavior was called "just" in the Scriptures as a result of his selfless love.  He has no disordered attachments to the things or titles of this world.

This incident invites us to reflect on, two significant points. First, many of us are often caught in the dilemma of doing the right thing which might not always be the loving thing. 

If we follow only the letter of the law, we may be doing the right thing but not the most loving thing. 

However, if we focus every time on the most loving thing, like Joseph, it is definitely also the right thing. Though Joseph could have done the right thing of executing the law and put Mary to shame publicly, he decides to go beyond the letter of the law and do the loving thing, which in his case was also the right thing.

Today’s Gospel passage also throws light on God’s merciful love for humankind. It shows us who our God is.  Our God is God with us. Our God is one who always takes the initiative, who always invites, and who always wants all of us to draw closer to him and to each other in loving and sharing as brothers of one family.

This God does not come in power, might, and glory, but as a helpless child in humility and simplicity. As a child, God is vulnerable. He is fully human and in his humanity, is subject to all the limitations that humanity imposes on us. Yet, he will do even that, if only we respond to the unconditional love that he shows.**

These two significant points of charity and humility drawn from the noble quality of detachment,  form  the spirituality of St Joseph and the spirituality of brotherhood.

In the past we were frequently instructed that we were being crucified with Christ with the three nails of evangelical counsels. Today we must think of replacing obedience with humility; poverty with detachment and chastity with charity.

Therefore the spirituality of St Joseph and brotherhood calls forth a total disfiguration of ourselves with the three nails of humility, detachment and charity. This disfiguration will lead us to transfiguration and finally configuration with Christ.

Our founder wants that we all of us imitate St Joseph and become brothers to one another; be disfigured on the cross of our Religious Life with these three nails of humility, detachment and charity.

It calls forth an integrated spirituality of Brotherhood. Our brotherhood is not something that we are having but it is something  that we are being. We have to ascent to the Divine Mount of Brotherhood step by step. From universal brotherhood to human brotherhood; from human brotherhood to Christian brotherhood; from Christian brotherhood to Religious brotherhood and from Religious brotherhood to Pauline Brotherhood.

In other words we have to begin our brotherhood by respecting and loving the creation of God and then move on to ascend to this mount by breaking ourselves for the other keeping in mind that we become authentically human in the presence of the other. We have to consider the other who is sitting next to us is not a threat but a source of wealth as he is a brother a symbol of God’s love for us with whom we share our thoughts, feelings and emotions and grow towards human brotherhood.

In this process of accenting from human brotherhood  towards the mount of Christian brotherhood we encounter certain blocks. The inordinate desires “to be more” and to “have more”. are being crept into our Christian brotherhood of loving others as Jesus has loved us.  The fulfillment of one desire becomes the beginning of another leading us to total attachment wearing out our souls. As a consequence of this the other who is sitting next to me may become a hell for me and his presence becomes a source of discomfort for me.

Christian Brotherhood transcends the desire to have more and leads us to be brothers of Jesus Christ. To be the brothers of Jesus Christ we need to go through disfiguration of ourselves by living out our life in humility, charity and detachment and reach the final stage of Religious and Pauline brotherhood and experience the transfiguration of Christ in our life.
**Extract from Errol sj