Jesus and Mary found a safe refuge in Joseph’s modesty

Joseph is a model of modesty. His modesty was made of silence, natural reserve and meditation. He preserved the privacy of his adopted son, Jesus, and respected his wife Mary's unique vocation in the mystery of her virginal conception and divine motherhood. Joseph's modesty enveloped and protected the Holy Family.

This modesty of Joseph was neither shame—an expression of self-loathing—nor prudery. Joseph’s modesty was the guarantee of the mystery blooming in him, that of his own election. It was the transformation of the senses, the antidote to vanity, the source of his chastity, and the silence of his prayer.

However, there is something about the Holy Family that we can never truly fathom and define. There is a secret side that forces us to humbly step back. Where both the freedom of God who has called and the freedom of those who have answered reside—Jesus’ Amen and Mary’s fiat. Both Jesus and Mary found a safe refuge in Joseph's modesty.

Joseph not only practiced modesty, but he teaches it to us. At his school, we learn that the secret of our soul will never be accessible to others, that the movement towards the center of our being meets a living presence that we shelter, that of God. His inner and Trinitarian presence justifies our life and is the starting point of our prayer.

Bishop Dominique Rey (Fréjus-Toulon, France)

Homily of March 16, 2013 (excerpt)