Mary and Joseph the Model of Families

BY KELVIN BANDA OP

Last month’s Synod of Bishops on the Family gave us a chance to evaluate the problems, challenges and triumphs faced by families.

Families face many challenges in trying to maintain the bond that must exist at their core.

The life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St Joseph can serve as a model for many families.

Firstly, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the standard of Christian virtue and discipleship through her total submission to the will of God, her meditative personality, her evangelisation and her intercession on behalf of others, her solidarity with those who suffer, and finally her prayerful patience in anticipation of the coming of the Lord.

Families do well to reflect on the role of Mary within the family realm. She is the uniting figure in the Holy Family; she brought unity between God, herself and Joseph through accepting and obeying the will of God—thereby becoming an agent in the story of salvation.

Our mothers need to be like her. They need a strong foundation of a faith that is founded on contemplation; on the word of God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Women need to listen to the voice of God and so become intercessory prayerful figures within families.

As Mary interceded for the needs of a newly married couple at Cana, women have much strength to present the needs of the family before God because of their love, discipleship and charity for the family.

Like St Joseph, men are also called to listen, to wait for God. They can do this by being men of prayer.

Pope Francis said in a homily on March 19, 2013, that a man needs to be a “protector by being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans and not simply to his own”.

The pope further noted that caring and protecting demand goodness and a certain tenderness: “In the Gospels, St Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man; yet, in his heart, we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak, but, rather, a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love.”

Men must not be afraid of goodness, of love, of tenderness to their families. Tenderness and love are not weakness but attributes by which to build up and unite the family.

By emulating Mary and her spouse, St Joseph, women and men can lead their families to God through their everyday moral life rooted in prayer, contemplation and the grace of God.