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St. Joseph - The Universal Call to Contemplation
I am still reading The Mystery of Joseph by Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe OP which I wrote about previously in St. Joseph - Guardian of Christ's Presence. On page 99, it talks about St. Joseph's Christian prudence and how it "goes much deeper and much further" than human prudence. Continuing onto page 100 it says that:
"We are made for the beatific vision; we need to tell ourselves this often, for hope is just that. Every time that we pray the "Our Father" we should immediately understand that we are made to see God face to face. This is the greatness of Christian grace. We are made to live the life of the Trinity, the very life of God - to live it being dependent upon God, of course, but to live it as God lives it. This is what is so extraordinary, and this is what gives the contemplative life its sense. To choose the contemplative life is to understand that we are made for the beatific vision and hence to want to take the quickest route there."
It actually comes back around to the same topic on page 124. While talking about how St. Joseph is the patriarch of religious life it says: "We are made for the beatific vision; we need to tell ourselves this often, for hope is just that. Every time that we pray the "Our Father" we should immediately understand that we are made to see God face to face. This is the greatness of Christian grace. We are made to live the life of the Trinity, the very life of God - to live it being dependent upon God, of course, but to live it as God lives it. This is what is so extraordinary, and this is what gives the contemplative life its sense. To choose the contemplative life is to understand that we are made for the beatific vision and hence to want to take the quickest route there."
"The Monastic life, in its most classic and simplest features, is rooted in the life of Joseph, in the silent and hidden life of a worker who worships God and love Him - a faithful worker, meek and poor."
St. Joseph - The worker for God
Pray for Us!
Because my sister is in a cloistered [contemplative] convent this was really meaningful to me. It made me think how her decision, while not making sense to the world, does make sense if you really think about the universal call to "know, love, and serve God in this life and thus be happy with Him in the next" [my quick paraphrase of the Baltimore Catechism]. Our life here needs to center on God if we want to be with Him in the next life. Basically, what this is getting at is that everyone is called to the contemplative life in some sense; it isn't reserved for just those who enter the convent. Everybody needs to be "a worker who worships God and loves Him". This is the narrow road that Our Lord speaks of, and, guess what, it isn't easy. (Hence the helpfulness of praying to St. Joseph to help us along it.)
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