How Celebrating Mary and Joseph Helps Us During Lent

During Lent, there are two solemnities that we celebrate that draw our attention toward how we should act toward God and how we can grow in our trust in Him. We just recently celebrated these solemnities and having them during Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on how we can use these saints’ examples to bring us closer to Jesus in order to better love Him all the way to Calvary on Good Friday and to rise with Him on Easter Sunday. These solemnities, of course, are the Solemnity of St. Joseph, which was on March 19th, and the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which we celebrated last Tuesday.

Joseph and Mary, as the parents of Jesus, were tasked with raising Him up toward the faith of the Jewish people and preparing Him for His mission to save the people from their sins. In doing this, they also point us to Him by their unwavering trust in God’s plan and their love for Him. In the Gospel for the Solemnity of St. Joseph, we read about the dream that Joseph had after he had decided to divorce Mary quietly when She was found to be with child. The angel of the Lord said to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in Her” (Matthew 1:20). We are then told that Joseph awoke and did as he had been commanded. He didn’t know all of the details and he must have still been uncertain as to how he could possibly fit into this plan of God. But he trusted that God had His reasons and that He would give to Joseph all the graces necessary for what He was asking of Him. Mary’s story in the account of the Annunciation is similar. She trusted when the angel Gabriel appeared to Her and told Her that She would bear a Son and was to name Him Jesus, and that He would save His people from their sins. She, like Joseph, didn’t know every detail or exactly why She was chosen to be the Mother of the Son of God. But she had unshakeable faith and trust in God and so gave Her consent without hesitation: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

The ways that both Mary and Joseph immediately did what was asked of them with unwavering trust in God gives us the blueprint for how we are to act during the season of Lent and beyond. We too have to deal with trials and crosses in our lives where we probably don’t have the whole picture and don’t know exactly where God is leading us. But we have to be able to love God enough and trust Him to lead us to our Calvary so that we can experience the joy of the Resurrection with Him. Mary and Joseph teach us how to do this and honoring their feasts and praying for their intercession during Lent points us to reflection on how we can use what God is calling us to do or experience in our own lives in order to grow in our love for Him and accompany Him to Calvary. Let us get up without hesitation and follow Him wherever He may lead us, just as Mary and Joseph did.