Pope Proclaims Year of St. Joseph – Welcomed, After Decades of Emasculating Men
According to Catholic News Service:
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Marking the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph being declared patron of the universal church, Pope Francis proclaimed a yearlong celebration dedicated to the foster father of Jesus.
In a Dec. 8 apostolic letter, “Patris Corde” (“With a father’s heart”), the pope said Christians can discover in St. Joseph, who often goes unnoticed, “an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble.”
“St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all,” he said.
As Mary’s husband and guardian of the son of God, St. Joseph turned “his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of himself, his heart and all his abilities, a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home.”
Despite being troubled at first by Mary’s pregnancy, he added, St. Joseph was obedient to God’s will “regardless of the hardship involved.” (Continue reading HERE)
AMEN!! I could not be more in favor of this!! We need GREAT DADS!
A few years ago, I started to post (around Father’s Day) photos of amazing dads I knew, and titled all of these photos with: GREAT DADS MATTER.
I know all of these men, and I watch, with amazement, how genuinely great they are.
It’s not easy, in today’s climate. One of my pet peeves is the term, “toxic masculinity.” The problem with this is that it vilifies men who are virtuously masculine; men who embrace their role as providers and protectors in their homes; men who love those things usually (but not exclusively) loved by most men, such as hunting, fishing, work with tools, etc.
While I reject the term “toxic masculinity,” I believe there is such a thing as “false masculinity.” This would be the man who abuses his role as leader of the family. He is more like an evil overlord who emotionally (and, at times, physically) abuses wife and children. The “man” who practices “false masculinity” sits atop a proverbial throne, demanding all in his abode serve him, or he will surely wield his wrath. In this sense, this “false masculinity” is truly “toxic.”
But, this never seems to be the motive of those who throw around the term, “toxic masculinity.” In most cases, it is meant to emasculate men, pushing them aside while women seize control. Decades of this kind of propaganda has left men to be blithely discarded as spineless doofuses, like Homer Simpson, who should be, at best, patted on the head and pushed to the margins of the home. This has all been the tactic of a very intense “toxic feminism” that has seized control in the past number of decades.
So, what is “true masculinity”?
I love the image of the Holy Family I chose for this article. It says so much. Joseph is out in front, as the head of the home, but he is seen as a “servant leader.” Mary is “enthroned” atop of the donkey, as she is “with child.” Somebody once put it this way: “Men are more like the CEOs of the family, while women are more akin to royalty; they are the queens of the home.”
God’s glorious creation began with things such as dirt, then vegetation, then animals, etc. … it just kept getting better and better. God then created His great love interest … His adopted children … human beings. Yet man was created only second to last. Woman is the crescendo … the last and greatest of all of God’s creation!!
More than a beautiful sunset or starry night or any cascading waterfalls or picturesque mountain range … God has created nothing more beautiful, more loving, more tender-hearted, more nurturing. That is why women are perfectly positioned to be wife and mother. And, because women are the pinnacle of all God’s creations, they too, like the Blessed Mother, should be esteemed as sacred. They have been given the special role of being the tabernacle of God’s next love interest. That is why many women veil at Mass. We veil sacred things. Woman is sacred.
Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand put it so well …
“The leading lights of our age often claim to champion the rights of women, and in certain respects the claim is legitimate. At the same time, however, our age has clearly not sought to protect and foster the sacred dignity of women. On the contrary, society would have us remove our wedding garment, divest ourselves of Christ, and put on the “old man” and make ample provision for the flesh. Men are practically encouraged to treat women as mere objects of pleasure, and women are encouraged to seek this degrading form of attention and accept it as normal and compatible with their dignity. Men and women, but especially women, have become desensitized to using contraceptives, choosing abortion, and embracing sterilization. In short, our society no longer respects or values the gift of fertility; society no longer honors the unique privilege of being a woman. Consequently, it no longer cultivates the responsibility that necessarily accompanies this gift, this privilege. This collective failure on the part of society has wreaked havoc, and it is far from certain that we shall recover and escape dissolution and destruction.”
This is why I tell men, especially those who may be struggling with the vice of impurity, “See women as sacred, because they are.”
I am so grateful for this “Year of St. Joseph.” Let’s see it as a time for discarding a “false masculinity,” as we embrace, and even celebrate, the “true masculinity” of St. Joseph.
