Bishop Jugis closes Year of St. Joseph with Mass Dec. 8
CHARLOTTE — The past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought many hardships, but St. Joseph has been our model for how to endure them with faith, patience and perseverance, Bishop Peter Jugis preached at Mass Dec. 8.
Wednesday commemorated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, but it also marked the close of the Church’s Year of St. Joseph, the bishop noted. Mary’s spouse Joseph received an “honorable mention” in the day’s Gospel, he noted with a smile.
The Year of St. Joseph began for the Diocese of Charlotte in 2020 and the universal Church has celebrated it in 2021. The commemorations marked the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph being declared Patron of the Universal Church in Pope Pius IX’s decree “Quemadmodum Deus.”
The pews of St. Patrick Cathedral were mostly filled for the occasion, including with students from the diocese’s thriving St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly. The Mass was also livestreamed on the diocese’s YouTube channel, attracting more than 1,000 views as of Thursday morning.
It was the largest in-person worship service held in honor of the Year of St. Joseph since the commemorative year opened in March 2020. The pandemic has mostly precluded large public gatherings throughout 2020 and 2021.
The overlap of the Year of St. Joseph with the COVID-19 pandemic has not been a coincidence, Bishop Jugis noted. It has been a sign of God’s providence.
“St. Joseph is given to us as an intercessor for our needs and as a model for us to emulate” – especially in times of hardship, the bishop said. “God knows how to take care of us, His children, in giving us St. Joseph to imitate for these past two years.”
St. Joseph experienced hardship in fleeing his homeland, taking Mary and the infant Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape Herod’s persecution.
Despite all the difficulties, St. Joseph remained obedient to God, the bishop said – “having faith and trust in God’s providence and care” and “patience and perseverance in charity in the face of hardship.”
“Certainly we and the entire world have experienced great hardship the last two years of the coronavirus (pandemic) – the same two years we’ve been celebrating St. Joseph,” he said.
“It is God’s plan, teaching us through our imitation of St. Joseph also, like him, to remain obedient to God’s commandments and what He asks of us, (and) to have faith and trust in God’s providence and care for us during these years of hardship. And he teaches us patience and perseverance in charity in the face of hardship.”
During these challenging times, it is tempting to forget about being charitable towards others, Bishop Jugis noted.
We should keep looking to Mary and Joseph, he urged. “They shine as examples for us in our own difficulties, whatever they might be.”
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor. Photos by James Sarkis.