By Jorge Cespedes

Based on the book “The Journey Toward Hope: Mathew.” Elena Bosseti

“Joseph: The dreams and the obedient listener. In Jesus’ family album one is often impressed by the importance of the figure of Joseph, the just man.” Page 33

                The figure of Joseph always impressed me very much. We really do not know much about this man, and at the same time we have a beautiful reflection of him in Jesus. Very frequent we forget the human nature of Jesus and it is easy to assume that Jesus is God. But to forget that Jesus is also truly man is not to recognize that, like any other child, he was able to learn, to play and have friends. We see many images of the Virgin Mary praying with Jesus. We may suppose that Mary taught the faith to Jesus, because, like any other human person, Jesus had to learn all these religious practices from someone. But the fact is that, in the Jewish environment the one who taught the faith to boys is their father. This situation is true even today. It is the father who takes the child to the synagogue and introduces him to the ravine in order to start the necessary formation for the vad mitzvah. So, for me it is not difficult to think of Joseph teaching the faith to Jesus and meditating on the Sacred Scriptures. I can see Joseph working and at the same time speaking to Jesus about social justice and the importance of being an honest person. Mathew is the evangelist who gives us the most information about Joseph. In this Gospel Joseph is mentioned only seven times. I am sure that Joseph was a very holy person, a very hard worker responsible and compassionate. It is not necessary for me to read any Josephs description it is enough to see in Jesus and the grandiosity of his human nature and acts to deduce who Joseph was.

“By night. I am struck by this phrase in particular. Joseph is a man who goes forward in the darkness of faith” Page 39

The Mathew’s narration about Joseph’s dream and how he took the child and Mary and flew to Egypt is always very useful in my prayer. I can imagine the difficultly of this situation. They lived in Nazareth. They worked there; Mary had his friend and relatives in Nazareth. Everything was very familiar for them in their town. But in this dream, Joseph, a man of faith, hear the message of God who wanted to protect them from the evil of Herod. It was not easy to make the decision. But Joseph, even when he did not understand, took his family and went to Egypt. I always think about his arrival to this new place, a new language, a new people. All the safety of the known place was in Nazareth. Here everything is new. He was a much known carpenter but in this new city nobody knows that. I can imagine Joseph on his first day looking for a job and Mary praying that her husband would be successful.  They need to eat, and they have a new born.  Joseph and Mary were very young and, perhaps, they were scared. This scene became very familiar to me. How many families flew from their lands of origin looking for social justice. And, as Joseph and Mary, they arrived to new lands afraid. We have to think that each inmigrant is a reflection of the Holy family, we have to see Jesus and Joseph and Mary in them.

Also, when I have struggles in my new country, when I suffer the loneliness I think about the Holy family. I am sure that they understand my situation, because they are familiar with this feeling. I know that in my struggles they are always with me.

“Jesus teaches, preaching and curing the sick. He is at the same time teacher and healer, doctor and compassionate shepherd.” Page 90

It seems to me that this is a description of who the priest must be today. Sometimes a priest centers his pastoral ministry in preaching and they can become moral teachers. But they forget that example is, perhaps, one of the best ways to teach others. It is easy is to preach to those who come to the church and want to hear our words. But it is difficult is to preach to those who reject us and who insult us. It is beautiful to stand in a nice church and preach the Gospel to a good looking people. It can be difficult to go to the poor, the needy and the sick. Jesus teaches but, at the same time, he heals. He is shepherd and also is Doctor. In some ways all Catholics are call to be doctors of soul and bodies. Very frequent we can preach with a gesture, with just a favor, with a smile or even with silent presence. I remember the words of Paul VI “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers and if he does listen to teachers it is because they are witnesses”.

“With the sixth: “But I say to you,” The discourse reaches its peak… Love also for one’s enemies.” Page 120

Love is the core of the Christian message. But as Jesus said, how easy is to love to those who are good to us. It is easy to be kind to those who are kind to us.  But Jesus invited us to take the challenge of Gospel and invites us to go beyond; he wants that we love our enemies. It is not an easy thing; it is very difficult because our normal human reaction is to reject those who do not think as we do, those who believe that there are ways different than those that we propose. Sometimes these enemies do not come from outside, very frequent we reject those who, inside our faith and our Church do not follow our path.  But the truth is that Jesus came to change many things, to fulfill the promise and to explain the real sense of the law. Everything s in the love, which does not mean, that we have to accept doctrinal or moral errors of others or that we have to accept that some people attack the Church. But this means that correction has to be done with love, because we have to love everybody. When we love others is easier to show them the way to salvation because love can remove any obstacle.

“The Sermon of the mountain has an inescapable significance for the experience of Christian Faith.”  Page 140

It was December 1999, the day before our plane was landed in the Ben Gourion International Airport in Tel Aviv, and our arrival to Israel was very difficult because some of the people in our group had some problems with the office of immigration. The following morning our day started in one place which marked my life for ever; The Mountain of the Sermon. From the first moment that I arrived there I felt an incredible peace and my mind thought of  the image of Jesus preaching to the multitude. The mountain today is beautiful. There is a Church and a Franciscan Monastery, but I preferred to imagine this mountain without any of these modern buildings. I prayed with the image of the mountain and there was only Jesus, the multitude and my self seated in a rock hearing this masterpiece of the Gospel. I opened the Bible and started reading these verses and I must admit that I interrupted the reading because I was crying. It was not only because that was a beautiful place but also because I was thinking about how far I was from living this message. At the same time I read the part where Jesus said “I will be with you until the end of time” and I felt confident that Jesus was with me and that I have his help and his company in this Christian adventure of my life.

“Courage my son, your sins are forgiven… Jesus calls sinners to the banquet table of divine Mercy.” Page 158

Only God can forgive sins… This is the signal that Jesus is God, the messiah, who came to redeem and give freedom to the people of Israel and, through the chosen people, to the entire world. It is clear that only God has the capacity to forgive sins. We humans are so egoistic and imperfect that we frequently are unable to forgive the small faults of others. We really like to be judges. In this way we can make the faults of others evident.  We also believe that we have the power to reject others because they are sinners. In his life Jesus showed us that God is the only one who can forgive sin because his mercy is infinite. His mercy is infinite because his love is eternal.  Jesus invited everybody to his table, the table of mercy.  Christ invites to his banquet especially those who are sinners and, because of his condition, are far from God. When the priest forgives sin it is not by his own merits but by the merits and mercy of God. We can ask ourselves if we are vehicles of the mercy of God to others but especially to those who are far of God.