Archbishop John Wong presided over the Mass for the Solemnity of St Joseph at Sacred Heart Cathedral Mar 18
By Agnes Chai
Mar 23 2021
KOTA KINABALU – This year the Solemnity of St Joseph takes a special significance as it occurs during the Year of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church.
Sacred Heart Cathedral opened her door to a 50 percent capacity crowd on the eve of the feast day Mar 18 to celebrate its liturgical observance, as well as to officially mark the Year of St Joseph.
The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop John Wong, and concelebrated by parish priest Fr Paul Lo, and assistant priests Fathers Sunny Chung, Russell Lawrine and Joshua Liew.
The Archbishop addressed the parishioners gathered “I hope that you know that from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021, Pope Francis has proclaimed a Year of St Joseph to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St Joseph as the Patron Saint of the Universal Church.”
He added, the Holy Father has written an Apostolic Letter “Patris Corde (The Father’s Heart)” for the occasion to call the faithful to “increase your love for this great saint, to encourage you to implore his intercession, and to imitate his virtues and zeal”.
He began his sermon on St Joseph by highlighting that Joseph is someone like ourselves, normal people with normal problems.
From the gospel account of Joseph’s betrothal to Mary to him giving his yes to God to be the foster father of Jesus, the Archbishop suggested for our imagination how Joseph would have suffered from anxieties, worries, sleepless nights and tensions, when he was confronted by the news of Mary’s pregnancy before her coming to live together with him.
For love of Mary and to spare her from being exposed to public disgrace, the Archbishop narrated Joseph’s initial reaction to the unexpected discovery “Joseph, being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally”.
However, Joseph made a reverse decision, said Archbishop, when the angel of the Lord told him to take Mary to his home, which revealed that “Joseph was in the mind of God in the history of Salvation, that God had prepared him, like Mary, for this great task – the Salvation of the whole human race”.
He singled out St Joseph’s virtues of “humility and silence” when he received the news from the angel that his son would be great and would save his people from their sins. With calm and peace, he resigned himself to accept and trust the perfect plan of God.
In contrast to our “normal reaction”, we might be raring to share the news of the achievement of our children who have been blessed by God with readily available means of social media, facebook, whatsapp, etc.
Though Joseph remained “silent”, his deeds spoke loud and clear as he put his trust and faith into action. The Archbishop urged the faithful to have “an unshakeable trust and faith in God”, even though many of us may find it easy to say “Of course, I trust in God”, and even easier to tell others in need of advice “You have to trust in God”.
He concluded by offering Joseph’s motto “To trust God in every event, every hardship, every happiness and sadness, every joy and sorrow” to rally the parishioners to model after St Joseph who puts his trust and faith into practice in his life.
He prayed that God will help us to increase our love for St Joseph, to implore his intercession, and to imitate his virtues and zeal.
