Gulf Pine Catholic

6 Gulf Pine Catholic • March 15, 2024 Following my last column, I had an email from her. I hadn’t heard from her in over ten years. She and her husband moved away from the Bay to the Caro- linas There she resumed her work as a Mail Lady. Now, many years later after the death of her husband, she moved back to the Pass Christian area and at- tends church at Holy Trinity Parish. She wanted to update me on what has hap- pened with her family. Missy is a New Orleans diehard. She is a complete “Yat “and proud of it. She is grounded in all the Yatisms of New Orleans and lives them. Her conversations ebbed and flowed with all the banter and chatter of a Yat steeped in her surrounding culture. She was proud of it and shared it with all its nuances. Now, she had returned much closer to her roots as if from a foreign country. She was a Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist at the parish and a frequent visitor to the office to engage in some Vatish conversations. One of her specialties was her red velvet cakes, especially around birthdays and holiday times. She is still grounded in her faith and church that continues to nourish her. Her son serves in the Navy and will retire in four years. “He is married with two kids of his own and rais- ing one from his wife. Please keep him in your prayers to come back to the church, his wife has an upper hand on not being Catholic. It breaks my heart but I give it to God, where all things are possible,” she asks. She ends her email by saying: “Anyway I’m glad to know how to reach out to you, I think of the old times often and smile. I also think of how you helped me when I was moving, I will never forget that. Hope all is well, you look really good as a farmer! You take care and I will keep in touch if that’s’ ok...” Some years ago, my niece did some research on her mother’s family background and roots. She discovered some first cousins of her mother that lived in the New Jersey area and no one had known about or ever met. Through a series of exchanges, contacts were established and a visit between cousins took place in New Jersey back in 2020. Since then, communication continued. Last week, another visit happened. This time, two cousins visited with their cousins in Ireland for the first time. A gap of over a century was bridged as the visitors visited places that began to reconnect them with their own roots. A foreign desti- nation became a home away from home, a place that connect- ed families with history and places with memories to savour. Both Missy’s email and the visit of the “cousins” brought to mind a sadder chapter in the roots connection. One of my mother’s brothers had to emigrate to England in the 1940’s. He was to spend his working life working in a car manufactur- ing plant in England. He did not have the privilege of a high school education as the country was still feeling the effects of British oppression for centuries. Yet, he married there and raised a family. He made sure that his children were given the opportunity to be fully edu- cated. One of his sons became a university lecturer and the other the headmaster of a prestigious high school. One of the sons saw his father as ignorant, uncultured and lacking in finesse because he didn’t have a high school educa- tion. His father was a poor but simple Irishman who lacked intelligence and sophistication because of lack of high school education. What he failed to realize was, while he himself en- joyed the privilege and opportunity of a full education, his father, while not having that privilege because of centuries of oppression and colonization, did not have such opportunities and yet was willing to sacrifice so his children could have such. Maybe, someday, education will give way to a wisdom that only history and a common sense when the latter will succeed. My brother-in-law often asks why I never got used to drinking coffee instead of tea. Maybe, back when I was a baby, and family cows didn’t produce enough milk, my mother had to substitute tea in my baby bottle rather than milk. Maybe, it has more to do with my rootedness; how and where my life has been anchored over the years. Maybe, like my cousin, we sometimes feel disconnected and unrooted because of our biases and misunderstandings of history. Maybe, because of reconnecting cousins of last week’s visitors, we feel more rooted and complete once the connection is complete and, maybe like Missy, when you are a “Yat “you might as well be a Yat for life because that is who you are. Father Michael Tracey is retired and lives in Ireland. He can be contacted by email at mtracey1@bellsouth.net . His website is www.michaeltracey.net The Yat is back! Across the Pond Father Tracey On March 19, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Joseph, when we honor the role he played as the husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew, for instance, we read of the dilemma Joseph faced upon dis- covering Mary’s pregnancy. He was, “unwilling to put her to shame” and “resolved to send her away quietly.” Then Matthew writes, “But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’” This scene speaks volumes about Joseph because we first see that he is a merciful man in the way he reacts to Mary’s pregnancy. He doesn’t want to see her shamed. And his reaction to the divine revelation given to him by the angel shows his willingness to follow the hard road to do God’s will. So, we can see why God chose Joseph to care for Mary and for the child Jesus in His infancy and formative years. Joseph could be depended upon to do what was right re- gardless of his own self-interest. At the birth of our Lord, we see Joseph caring for Mary and Jesus under trying cir- cumstances. And it was only in Joseph’s heeding the warn- ings of the angel of the Lord that the Holy Family was able to avoid the wrath of Herod and flee into Egypt. Later, Joseph shares in Mary’s anxiety as they search for Jesus and eventually are relieved and astonished to find Him teaching in the temple at a mere 12 years old. We see in these actions that he was a loyal protector of Mary and Jesus. After Luke’s account of the finding of Jesus in the temple, we read that Jesus went with Mary and Joseph to Nazareth and “was obedient to them” and “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.” That’s the last we hear of Joseph until Jesus is an adult and referred to as “the carpenter’s son” and also simply as “the carpenter,” which draws us to conclude that He had learned the trade of carpentry from His father. From these scant yet beautiful nuggets of family life, we can glean important aspects about Joseph. First, we see that Jesus was obedient to him, demonstrating that Joseph was chosen by God for his decency to act as a guide to Jesus as He was growing up. And Joseph’s guidance pro- duced good fruit because Jesus grew in wisdom. So much of what Jesus learned from Joseph would have come from the work they did together as carpenters. And in this trade, we can imagine what was perhaps the greatest wisdom Joseph was able to pass down to Jesus: his toughness and humble work ethic, two qualities that were essential for Christ to carry out His mission. It seems fitting that Joseph’s feast day should occur during Lent in the time leading up to Christ’s Passion be- cause the toughness and humble submission to the will of God that Joseph taught Jesus carried Him through all He accomplished for us. So, let’s honor Joseph and carry his memory in our hearts as we approach our commemoration of these climactic events in salvation history, remembering all he did for Jesus and all he can do for us as an intercessor and a model of humility before God. Fr. Ed Dougherty, M.M., serves on The Christo- phers’Board of Directors. For a free copy of the Chris- topher News Note, GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP, write: The Christophers, 5 Hanover Square, New York, NY 10004; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org . St. Joseph’s strength and humility Light One Candle Fr. Dougherty Pray for all those who are suffering from the results of hurricanes, earthquakes, and war, especially for Ukraine and Israel. Pray for peace on earth!