St Joseph and Herod 

St Joseph is not a cele­bri­ty in the ordi­na­ry sen­se of the word. It can be sum­med up in the sen­tence: he was the most holy Spou­se and the best father of man­kind. All other things that peop­le are in the habit of say­ing and wri­ting about gre­at men pale into insi­gni­fi­can­ce bes­i­de this merit. Let us read about the life of St Joseph, which is so impres­si­ve and worthy of imi­ta­ti­on, e.g. in “The Life of St Joseph” by C. Baij. 

The great­ness of this father pro­bab­ly shi­nes out best in his batt­le with Herod. Here Joseph beco­mes a hero and a mar­tyr. Joseph empha­si­ses to the tyrant his right of owners­hip over the Child, not with words, but with deeds, and sacri­fices his peace, his exis­tence, his home to save the Child. Not­hing pro­ves so much the serious­ness of the situa­ti­on as the fact that we are for­ced at every moment to pro­ve things that used to be a mat­ter of cour­se. In this time of expro­pria­ti­on, the ques­ti­on of pro­per­ty is being igno­red. Examp­le: par­ents have their child­ren taken away, some­whe­re, never to appe­ar again. The Angel said: „Take the Child and His Mother and flee to Egypt!“ Joseph, the man in char­ge, immedia­te­ly reco­gnis­ed the dan­ger. He instant­ly set out and fled to Egypt with Mother and Child. The­re are cases in which fle­eing means bra­very and remain­ing in dan­ger means mad­ness. This was the case with Joseph. He would rather live abroad, unem­ploy­ed but free, than  hand over his most Beloved One to the tyrant. 

„Only kind­red spi­rits and imi­ta­tors have the right to call them­sel­ves devo­tees. Whoever does not make   ... more