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| Carthusian Monastery at Melan, France |
MASTERS OF THE HIDDEN LIFE
***
Although the gospels do not tell us a great deal about Joseph, the husband of Mary, what they do say communicates a world of wisdom when we reflect on it prayerfully.
The most illuminating judgment about Joseph is that he was a just man.
Joseph her husband, since he was a just man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. (Matthew 1:19)
What does “just” mean?
In Hebrew, the term is “yashar” or “straight.” It also means “upright, righteous, just.”
In Greek, the corresponding term is “dikaios,” which translates, “righteous.”
https://misfitministries.org/word-just-hebrew-and-greek/
—“What Does The Word ‘Just’ Mean In Hebrew And Greek?” misfitministries.org, February 17, 2020
Joseph belongs to the company of other great figures who are described by Scripture as just—among them, Noah, whose family is delivered from the annihilation of the flood; Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of the Forerunner; Simeon, who at the Temple prophesied that the infant Jesus was the Messiah; and Cornelius, the centurion whose household received the gift of the Holy Spirit followed by baptism through Peter.
Our understanding of the term “just” assures us that Joseph was a holy and virtuous man pleasing before God. He lived in obedience to God’s revelation through Moses, and more besides. He listened heedfully to the Word of God in order to fulfill God’s will. Exemplary as a Jew, he is a model for all Christians.
Joseph does not say a word in any of the gospels. He was not a mute, obviously, but if Joseph had suffered some sort of speech impairment, it would have been a detail significant enough for the evangelists to at least remark on it. They did not, which underscores his silence.
Silence in a just man is a sign of his hidden life of prayer, because in an especially efficacious manner silence cultivates prayer. In silence, our hearts speak to God and we hear God’s voice. As a rule, noise is inimical to this kind of deep, intimate prayer.
“When we pray, we speak to God,” said Saint Cyprian. “When we silence ourselves in order to listen, God speaks to us.”
In the words of Benedict XVI about Joseph, “His is a silence permeated by contemplation of the mystery of God, in an attitude of total availability to His divine wishes. In other words, the silence of St Joseph was not the sign of an inner void, but on the contrary, of the fullness of faith he carried in his heart, and which guided each and every one of his thoughts and actions.”
Quotes from this article:
https://holycrosscongregation.org/news/st-joseph-the-relevance-of-silence-in-a-noisy-world/
—Br. John Badu Affum, C.S.C., “St. Joseph: The Relevance of Silence in a Noisy World,” Congregation of Holy Cross, March 19, 2019
Extrapolating from the gospel accounts, we conclude that Joseph was granted the gift of unerring discernment.
God speaks through dreams. We cite the examples of Jacob, when the Lord counseled him to leave the Negev desert and settle in Egypt; Solomon, when God promised him singular wisdom; Daniel, when it was revealed to him at night the contents and meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; and Paul, when he dreamed of a Macedonian, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
However, Scripture warns against depending on dreams for guidance and direction, for example:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners who are among you; do not listen to those who among you dream dreams, for they prophesy lies to you in my name; I did not send them—oracle of the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:8-9)
If there arises in your midst a prophet or a dreamer who promises you a sign or wonder, saying, “Let us go after other gods,” whom you have not known, “and let us serve them,” and the sign or wonder foretold to you comes to pass, do not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the Lord, your God, is testing you to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul. (Deuteronomy 13:2-4)
Therefore, dreams are matter for discernment, that is, the process of arriving at a judgment about whether an apparently supernatural event comes from God, from good angels or from evil, or from the activity of the imagination, whether the person is asleep or awake.
The gospels report that Joseph obeyed his dreams in four instances: when he was told that the child in Mary’s womb had been conceived by the Holy Spirit; when he was warned by an angel to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt because Herod sought to kill Jesus; when after Herod had passed away, an angel assured him that it was safe to return to Israel from Egypt; and when he was warned not to return to Judea where Archelaus was the ruler, so that Joseph settled the family at Nazareth.
Joseph is that rare example of unerring discernment. We propose that his gift naturally flowed from his outstanding life of obedience to God and his constancy in listening to the Lord in silent prayer.
No doubt Joseph was able to recognize God’s voice in his dreams because he had developed the habit of prayerfully listening to the Lord and had learned how to distinguish God’s voice from its counterfeits.
“The Holy Spirit gives certain people a charism for discernment, a sort of divine instinct which intuitively perceives whether or not thoughts and attractions have a divine origin or not. The fullness of this gift presupposes exceptional holiness, profound humility and submission to the Church’s magisterium.... No matter how great this gift may be, it does not confer infallibility. It is always possible to err in using it.
“This gift in its fullness is rare, just as exceptional sanctity is rare.”
—A Carthusian, The Call of Silent Love, translated by an Anglican solitary (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1995), page 159
The last we hear about Joseph in Scripture is during Jesus’ public ministry, when the crowd exclaims with skepticism, “Is he not the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55)
Besides Scripture, another important source of our knowledge about Joseph is Church teachings, two of which I would like to highlight in particular.
First, Joseph is singled out for his power of intercession before God.
Saint Teresa of Avila in Chapter 6 of Autobiography testifies, for example:
“I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted; and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favors which God has given me through this blessed saint, the dangers from which he has delivered me, both of body and of soul.”
The power of Saint Joseph’s intercession is affirmed by numerous popes and saints.
A second teaching worthy of note—while Scripture does not report Joseph’s decease, it is a familiar and pious belief that he passed away uniquely blessed and happy in the company of Mary and Jesus, so that the Church honors him as the patron saint of a happy death (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1014).
Papa Francesco in Patris Corde (2020) declares:
“Each of us can discover in Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence—an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”
In so many ways, Joseph is the quintessence of the hidden life.
***
Saint Bruno the Carthusian (c. 1030-1101)
The monk withdraws from the world to live a life of prayer and asceticism according to some type of enclosure. Therefore, monasticism necessarily includes the hidden life. A Thomas Merton, Dalai Lama, or Thich Nhat Hanh who actively engages the world and fortuitously becomes a celebrity of sorts would be the exception to the rule.
Monasticism is of long tradition in the East and West, originating three millennia or more ago during Karl Jaspers’ Axial Age.
In Christianity monastic inspiration goes at least as far back as the beginning of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha are prototypes of monastic life.
The progenitor of monasticism in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches is customarily attributed to Saint Anthony of the Desert for the eremitic life and to Saint Pachomius the Great for the cenobitic life.
John the Baptist, whose way of life has been observed by scholars to coincide with that of the Essenes, is together with the Blessed Virgin Mary one of the two principal patron saints of the Carthusians, a Roman Catholic monastic order.
Saint Bruno is the founder of the storied Carthusian Order in the Roman Catholic Church.
Thumbnail sketch of the Carthusian Order
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Carthusians
—The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Carthusian: religious order,” Britannica.com, August 14, 2008
Detailed, readable account of the Carthusian Order
—“Carthusians,” Encyclopedia.com, May 8, 2018
Article about the Carthusians, thoroughgoing but somewhat dry
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03388a.htm
—Douglas Raymund Webster, “The Carthusian Order,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908)
Blog post about the Carthusians, miscellany of engaging facts
https://mikespassingthoughts.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/interesting-facts-about-the-carthusian-order/
—Mike Michelsen, “Interesting facts about St. Bruno, the Carthusians, and the Carthusian Order,”Mikes passing thoughts Blog, November 2, 2013
Among the notable details about Saint Bruno’s life and the foundation of the Carthusian Order, I mention the following.
Saint Bruno was a man of outstanding intellectual gifts, integrity, virtue, charisma, and spiritual attainment.
He was born into a leading family of Cologne, Hartenfaust. As a youth, he completed his ecclesiastical education at the cathedral school of Reims and upon returning to Cologne was ordained a priest. Shortly afterward the bishop of Reims asked him to return there to teach and then to administer the school for about twenty years, where he distinguished himself.
Saint Bruno had just commenced his commission as chancellor of the church of Reims when the saintly bishop passed away only to be replaced by Manasses de Gournai, a cleric known for his impiety and violence. It took five years for the Reims clergy to remove Manasses from the bishopric, after which they sought to install Saint Bruno as his replacement.
The ordeal under Manasses is likely the turning point in the life of Saint Bruno that propelled him to renounce the turmoil of world in order to pursue the promise of tranquility held out by monastic withdrawal and seclusion.
In Saint Bruno we come across an active life well-lived in preparation for a contemplative life in deep prayerful union with God.
It is testimony to Saint Bruno’s charisma that he attracted six original disciples—Landwin, Stephen of Bourges, Stephen of Die, Hugh, Andrew, and Guerinto—to follow him in his desire to leave the world. The first four had been ordained priests, the last two were lay. No doubt Saint Bruno was a gifted leader of souls.
Saint Hugh of Châteauneuf, the bishop of Grenoble, reported that he had dreamed of them under the sign of seven stars. Saint Hugh was instrumental in helping them establish their first foundation in the mountains of Chartreuse.
The motto of the Carthusian Order dates from around the year 1600, “stat crux dum volvitur orbis” or “the cross stands as the world revolves.” The motto appears on a scroll underneath a cross ringed by seven stars and mounted on a globe, an older seal that originates in 1233-36, which was the term of a Carthusian prior.
Curiously, the Carthusian seal today resembles that of Opus Dei, a cross inscribed in a circle, representing the pursuit of holiness in the world. The Opus Dei seal has no motto.
After six years, Saint Bruno was called out of the cloister to assist the pope, Urban II, in the reform of the Church. It is a signal grace that Saint Bruno in the midst of his active life lived in contemplative union with God.
At Calabria from where the pope could readily obtain his assistance, Saint Bruno established a second foundation, where he dwelled for ten years. He passed away two years after Urban II’s decease.
Saint Bruno’s vision of the Carthusian life is sublime indeed. He singularly witnesses to the inexpressible joys of contemplative life.
At Calabria he writes to Raoul le Verd, provost of Reims:
“I am living in the wilderness of Calabria far removed from habitation. There are some brethren with me, some of whom are very well educated and they are keeping assiduous watch for their Lord, so as to open to him at once when he knocks. I could never even begin to tell you how charming and pleasant it is. The temperatures are mild, the air is healthful; a broad plain, delightful to behold, stretches between the mountains along their entire length, bursting with fragrant meadows and flowery fields. One could hardly describe the impression made by the gently rolling hills on all sides, with their cool and shady glens tucked away, and such an abundance of refreshing springs, brooks and streams. Besides all this, there are verdant gardens and all sorts of fruit-bearing trees.
“Yet why dwell on such things as these? The man of true insight has other delights, far more useful and attractive, because divine. It is true, though that our rather feeble nature is renewed and finds new life in such perspectives, wearied by its spiritual pursuits and austere mode of life. It is like a bow, which soon wears out and runs the risk of becoming useless, if it is kept continually taut.
“In any case, what benefits and divine exaltation the silence and solitude of the desert hold in store for those who love it, only those who have experienced it can know.
“For here men of strong will can enter into themselves and remain there as much as they like, diligently cultivating the seeds of virtue and eating the fruits of paradise with joy.
“Here they can acquire the eye that wounds the Bridegroom with love, by the limpidity of its gaze, and whose purity allows them to see God himself.
“Here they can observe a busy leisure and rest in quiet activity.
“Here also God crowns his athletes for their stern struggle with the hoped-for reward: a peace unknown to the world and joy in the Holy Spirit.
“Such a way of life is exemplified by Rachel, who was preferred by Jacob for her beauty, even though she bore fewer children than Leah, with her less penetrating eyes. Contemplation, to be sure has fewer offspring than does action, and yet Joseph and Benjamin were the favourites of their father. This life is the best part chosen by Mary, never to be taken away from her.”
https://chartreux.org/en/texts/bruno-raoul-le-verd.php
—“Letter of saint Bruno to his friend Raoul-le-Verd,” The Carthusian Order
Butler’s Lives of the Saints reports that Saint Bruno’s body was found to be incorrupt when it was exhumed in 1513, 412 years after his decease. From Saint Stephen’s it was disinterred and transferred to La Torre.
See:
—Butler’s Lives of the Saints, new full edition, revised by Peter Doyle, Volume 10 (1996), page 37
The spectacle of “incorruption” was originally considered miraculous in the Roman Catholic Church. Today it no longer automatically invokes this regard, for at least two reasons. First, the meaning of “incorruption” cannot be specified precisely because the phenomenon is not manifested in a consistent way.
“…incorrupt does not necessarily mean intact. There have been many saints that have been considered as incorrupt just for being flexible, or for having a body part that did not decay. Saint Anthony of Padua’s tongue is on display to this day.”
Second, “incorrupt also does not mean that the corpse of a saint has not been treated—many who are considered incorrupt have been preserved, but they are still considered incorrupt because they weren’t preserved but still in good shape when they were first exhumed. Saint Paula Frassinetti is one such example—her body has been treated with carbolic acid.”
https://web.frazerconsultants.com/2016/07/catholicism-sainthood-and-incorruptibility/
—Sam Ward, “Catholicism, sainthood, and incorruptibility,” Frazer Consultants Blog, July 29, 2016
Presently, when a candidate undergoes the process of canonization, “incorruption” is considered a “favorable sign” for the advancement of the cause but is not controlling or decisive. Many outstanding saints exist whose remains are not incorrupt.
Enclosure has not precluded the Carthusian Order from being blessed with its own share of martyrs, among them:
English Carthusian martyrs
https://nobility.org/2014/05/carthusian-martyrs/
—“May 4 – They believed in the religious exemption, but only at first,” Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII, May 1, 2014
1944 martyrs of Certosa di Farneta at Lucca, Italy
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/silent-summer-of-44-1745
Photo courtesy of Krzysztof Golik
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melan_carthusian_monastery_17.jpg
Gonzalinho
The day’s Gospel reading (Mt 1:18-25) recounted how Joseph, being a righteous man, wanted to quietly break off his relationship with Mary when he found out she was pregnant, but was told in a dream that the child was conceived through the Holy Spirit and he should marry Mary.
ReplyDeleteThe Gospels recount Mary saying yes to God, the pope noted, but with Joseph, the story simply says that “he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.”
While many dreams are just the dreamer’s subconscious speaking, the pope said, other dreams can be “a privileged place to seek after truth because there we cannot defend ourselves against the truth. They come, and God speaks through dreams.”
“Joseph was a man of dreams, but not a dreamer,” he told the small congregation at the Mass. “He wasn’t abstract” and did not have “his head in the clouds.”
Pope Francis told people at the Mass to ask St. Joseph to help them obtain “the grace to know how to dream by always seeking God’s will in dreams and also the grace to accompany others in silence without chatter.”
Noting how the Gospels do not record anything St. Joseph ever said, Pope Francis said Joseph helped Jesus grow and develop. “He looked for a place for the child to be born. He cared for him, helped him grow and taught him a skill ... in silence.”
https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-chronicles/ask-grace-dream-and-be-silent-st-joseph-pope-suggests
—Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, “Ask for grace to dream and to be silent like St. Joseph, pope suggests,” National Catholic Reporter (December 18, 2018)
Gonzalinho
Pope Francis focused his catechesis at the Wednesday General Audience on the dreams of St Joseph, showing how the example of Jesus’ foster father can help us to discern the voice of God.
ReplyDeleteThe Holy Father noted that in the Bible, “dreams were considered a means by which God revealed Himself.”
Dreams, he said, symbolize “the spiritual life of each of us, that inner space that each of us is called to cultivate and guard, where God manifests Himself and often speaks to us.”
However, the Pope also warned of other voices within us, the voices of our own fears, experiences, hopes, as well as the voice of “the Evil one, who wants to deceive and confuse.” Therefore, he said, it is necessary to cultivate discernment, which allows us to recognize the voice of God among many others.
God shows us the right thing to do
Pope Francis reflected on each of the four dreams of Joseph recounted in the Gospels, beginning with the appearance of the angel in his sleep, who helped Joseph resolve the conflict that arose when he learned of Mary’s pregnancy.
Joseph immediately heeded the angel’s words and took Mary as his wife.
God gives us courage
In the second dream, Joseph is warned that the life of the child Jesus is in danger; and once again, Joseph promptly obeys God’s voice, fleeing with Jesus and Mary into Egypt.
Pope Francis said that when we experience dangers that threaten ourselves or our loved ones, “praying means listening to the voice that can give us the same courage as Joseph.”
Prayer brings light to darkness
While in exile, Joseph waited patiently for a sign from God that it was safe to return to his homeland. In the third dream, he learned that those who sought the life of Jesus had died, while the fourth directed him to settle in Nazareth, for fear of Archelaus, the successor of Herod.
…The Pope concluded his catechesis once more with a prayer to St Joseph:
St Joseph, man who dreams,
teach us to recover the spiritual life
as the inner place where God manifests Himself and saves us.
Remove from us the thought that praying is useless;
help each one of us to correspond to what the Lord shows us.
May our reasoning be illuminated by the light of the Spirit,
our hearts encouraged by His strength
and our fears saved by His mercy. Amen.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-01/st-joseph-a-man-who-dreams.html
—Christopher Wells, “Pope at Audience: St Joseph ‘a dreamer able to discern God’s voice,’” Vatican News (January 26, 2022)
Gonzalinho
Hidden life is a good thing, and for many it is a gift. Some who are called to public life suffer greatly—Mother Teresa of Calcutta is an example.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho