First reading Acts 13:26-33
God has fulfilled his promise by raising Jesus from the dead
Paul stood up in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, held up a hand for silence and began to speak:
‘My brothers, sons of Abraham’s race, and all you who fear God, this message of salvation is meant for you. What the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did, though they did not realise it, was in fact to fulfil the prophecies read on every sabbath. Though they found nothing to justify his death, they condemned him and asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree and buried him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem: and it is these same companions of his who are now his witnesses before our people.
‘We have come here to tell you the Good News. It was to our ancestors that God made the promise but it is to us, their children, that he has fulfilled it, by raising Jesus from the dead. As scripture says in the second psalm: You are my son: today I have become your father.’
Responsorial Psalm 2:6-11
I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.
I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord;
through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.
Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever,
that your truth is firmly established as the heavens.
I have found David my servant
and with my holy oil anointed him.
My hand shall always be with him
and my arm shall make him strong.
My truth and my love shall be with him;
by my name his might shall be exalted.
He will say to me: ‘You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.’
Gospel John 14:1-6
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God still, and trust in me.
There are many rooms in my Father’s house;
if there were not, I should have told you.
I am going now to prepare a place for you,
and after I have gone and prepared you a place,
I shall return to take you with me;
so that where I am
you may be too.
You know the way to the place where I am going.’
Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said:
‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
No one can come to the Father except through me.’
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To see and love God today
St Paul, in today’s first reading, reminds us, “Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love…” “St Joseph was a man of simple but deep faith in God who embodied the words of St Paul. Though no great works of his are recorded, his life itself became a witness. In the simplicity of his vocation as a carpenter in a small village, he carried out every task and responsibility with a heart full of love, turning his daily work into an offering of love to God.
In the Gospel, we see the people of Nazareth rejecting Jesus because they could not see beyond what was familiar to them. To them, He was merely the carpenter’s son. Like the people of Nazareth, we often overlook God’s active presence in the ordinary and small aspects of our lives. As we celebrate the feast of St Joseph today, let us ask for the grace to carry out our daily responsibilities with love and to have the eyes of faith needed to recognise God’s presence in the quiet, everyday moments of our lives.
Reflective question:
Have I become so familiar with God that I no longer trust that He is present and working in and through me?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year A” by Sr Maria Jose FMVD
