Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Go, tell my servant David, ‘When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.

God sent His Beloved Son into the world to build a house for Himself. This house can be found in the Church and its scriptures and traditions. It can also be found within our hearts. Each of us has a temple within our souls that we either adorn with every virtue or disgrace with every sin. We, like St. Joseph, are given the choice to either divorce ourselves from God’s Will and thereby cut ourselves off from the house of Jesus or we can do as God asks us and take Jesus into our hearts and prepare a place for him there. If we do this and do not turn away from God’s Will, then we shall make God’s throne firm within our souls and His Kingdom will endure within us as we proclaim the Good News to all who enter our lives.

Are we building a house to God within ourselves or are we filling it with worldly things? How can we adorn our hearts with good thoughts, words, and works? What can we do to make our souls good and faithful temples to God?

O Lord, help us to build your house within us.

Amen.