19 March 1989
Alexandria, Egypt

Your Excellency and my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Let me begin by expressing my joy and happiness in being with all of you this evening. For almost a week now I have been visiting different centers in this country, where the Daughters of Charity and the Vincentian Fathers are working. I have been greatly impressed by what I have seen of their work in this country which had the privilege of offering hospitality to the Saint whom the Church is honoring today. For us Christians the most glorious page in the history of Egypt must be that in which it is recorded that it hosted for some time the Word of God, His Virgin Mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph. We can say with some degree of certainty that St. Joseph would not have come willingly to Egypt. Most refugees, and St. Joseph was a refugee, leave their own countries unwillingly. But when St. Joseph did come to Egypt, he found it to be a secure place where he could shelter the two great treasures entrusted to his care, the Virgin Mary and her Child, Jesus.

We honor him because of who he was and what he did, not because of anything he said. Search the New Testament and you will not find record of any word spoken by St. Joseph. When St. Matthew tells us that St. Joseph was a "just man," he is telling us that, not only was he honest and paid his bills, but that he was thoroughly good.

St. Joseph was a man whose role in life seemed to be that of one who was used by others. Open the Gospel of St. Matthew, and the first thing that meets your eye is the genealogy of Joseph. You have not gone very far in the Gospel when you realize that the genealogy of Joseph is there, not for his own sake but merely that St. Matthew may prove that Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham. As you read on through those first two chapters, you seem to be constantly running across the same thing. No sooner does St. Matthew tell you something that St. Joseph did, than he hastens to add that in so acting, he was merely fulfilling something which had been foretold centuries before, that Divine Providence was merely using this man to accomplish a greater purpose.

Allowing himself to be used, that is one of the many traits which we admire in the character of St. Joseph. It should be one of the characteristics of our lives that we be prepared to allow ourselves to be used in unspectacular ways.

In allowing himself to be used by God, St. Joseph was reflecting an attitude which he must have admired in Mary of Nazareth. She had allowed herself to be used by God also when she replied to the angel, "Be it done unto me according to thy word." (Lk 1:38).

This evening we are honoring St. Joseph. We have also gathered to honor Mary who was conceived without sin, a title with which Daughters of Charity and Vincentian priests and brothers like to greet her. No doubt Mary, the Mother of Jesus, could tell us many stories of how she protected billions of people from all sorts of dangers down through the centuries. She could tell us stories about how she has protected each one of us, not only from danger such as accidents on the road or in the air, but the more serious danger of falling into sin. In Mary's eyes, as in the eyes of her Son, the greatest tragedy that can happen is not an air crash, not failures in examinations, not even death. The greatest tragedy that can happen is that we reject what her Son and His Church want us to do, for when we reject the voice of her Son and of His Church, and the voice of our consciences, we are committing sin. It is sin alone that can keep us distant from God, from Jesus Christ and from Mary herself. If it is serious sin, it could, if we do not repent, separate us from God for all eternity, and that would be a story with a tragic ending.

I have no doubt that you have confidence in the intercession of our Lady. Honor her also by imitating her. Our world today has a deep need of people who will reflect in the darkness, and in the violence of this world, the light and the love of Our Blessed Lady. Our world has need of people who believe and who manifest by their lives that their bodies are the temples of the Spirit of God, Who, by His power, brought forth from the womb of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.

My dear people, beloved by Jesus Christ and beloved by Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother also, may you experience in your lives the intercession of Our Lady at all times and in all places. Let me now address a short prayer to her who is the Mediatrix of all graces: