A Man after God's Own Heart

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The Holy Family with a Bird by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to find David, the great man destined by God for the world's most glorious throne was not known even to his family (cf. 1 Sm 16). He was not thought of while his older brothers were being brought before the prophet. Yet God, who does not judge as man does, secretly warned Samuel not to regard their great stature or hardy countenance. And so rejecting those who had been put forward in the world, he bid to approach the one who had been sent to watch the sheep, and pouring the oil of royalty upon his head, he left his parents astonished to have so little known the son chosen by God for such an extraordinary advantage.

A similar design of divine providence allows us to apply what was said of David to Joseph, the son of David. The time had come when God sought a man after his own heart in order to place in his hands what was dearest to him: the person of his Only Begotten Son, the integrity of his holy Mother, the salvation of man kind, the treasure of heaven and earth. He overlooks Jerusalem and the other famous towns and rests his gaze upon Nazareth, and from this unknown hamlet chooses an unknown man, a poor craftsman, Joseph, and entrusts to him a work that would not bring shame to the highest order of angels, so that we might understand that the man after God's own heart must be sought in the heart and is made worthy by his hidden virtues. ... Joseph merited the greatest honors because he was never touched by honor. The Church has nothing more illustrious, because it has nothing more hidden. May the Almighty God ensure that we shall always revere Joseph's hidden virtue.