509. First Sunday of St Joseph

Meditations no. 440 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The seven Sundays of St Joseph, a manifestation of devotion to the Holy Patriarch.

Today we begin the seven Sundays of St Joseph, a traditional devotion with which many Christians prepare themselves for the celebration of the liturgical solemnity of the Patron of the Church. We have recourse to his intercession, and we learn from his example since, as the Church sings on his feastday, the Lord has put his faithful servant in charge of his household.

The figure of St Joseph is deserving of special veneration, for no one - after his Spouse, the Blessed Virgin - dealt with the Son of God on earth as intimately as he did. His life has an additional particular charm for us, since he passed unnoticed, with a life of constant work. St Joseph, our Father reminded us, was a saint who remained obscure until the Middle Ages, when Teresa of Avila promoted devotion to him; he was hardly mentioned in the preceding centuries. He was hidden from view during his lifetime, and he also wished to remain hidden from the gaze of the faithful of the whole Christian world for a long time.

Devotion to St Joseph has crystallized, among many other ways, in the celebration of the seven Sundays which precede his feastday on the 19th of March. During these weeks we are invited to consider the life of the Holy Patriarch: an ordinary life, made up of little events and of admirable interventions of God, of joys and sorrows, of the thousand and one incidents - always the same - which make up the living out of one’s professional work in a little village. Because Joseph was… a craftsman from Galilee, just one man among many. What had life to offer to someone from a forgotten village like Nazareth? Nothing but work: work every day, with the same constant effort. And at the end of the day, a poor little house in which to rest and regain energy for the next day.

But the name Joseph, in Hebrew, means God will add. God adds unsuspected dimensions to the holy lives of those who do his will. He adds the one important dimension which gives meaning to everything, the divine dimension. To the humble and holy life of Joseph he added - if I may put it this way - the lives of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus, our Lord. God does not allow himself to be outdone in generosity. Joseph could make his own the words of Mary, his wife: ‘He has looked graciously upon the lowliness of his handmaid… because he who is mighty, he whose name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders.’

During these weeks, we will make an effort to prepare ourselves well for the feast of St Joseph. What is important is to deal with the Holy Patriarch and, in this way, to draw a little closer to Christ.

God entrusted the care of his Son on earth to Joseph.

God had foreseen that his Son was to be born of the Virgin Mary, in the bosom of a family, and that there he would develop humanly and grow in wisdom, in age and in grace, until the moment of his manifestation to the world. The life of God on earth was the same as that of the rest of mankind: he was born helpless, in need of protection, like all babies; he needed likewise the strong arm of a father; to sum up, he needed a mother and a father who would dedicate their lives to him. Let us fix our gaze on St Joseph in order to understand better the mission of the Holy Patriarch with respect to Jesus Christ. Joseph is, as it were, hidden; Sacred Scripture hardly mentions him. The Holy Patriarch has a divine mission: he is a completely dedicated soul, a soul given over completely to the things of Jesus Christ. And is this not the way, my son, my daughter, that God has pointed out for you and me? Like Joseph, we too are dedicated souls, souls who are given over to the exclusive service of God, who wish to identify themselves with Jesus Christ in everything. Our only aim is this: to resemble Christ, to identify ourselves with Him. Mihi enim vivere Christus est (Phil 1: 21), for me, life means Christ. And St Joseph could say that. We should all be able to say it. Take a look at how you behave, at how you live your ordinary and hidden life.

St Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. When the angel reveals to him the mystery of the virginal conception of Jesus, he accepts his mission completely and remains faithful until the moment of death. Chosen by God to be the head of the Holy Family, he exercised, full of affection, the mission of a father with the Son of God.

There is something I do not quite like in that title of ‘foster-father’ which is sometimes given to Joseph, our Father commented, because it might make us think of the relationship between Joseph and Jesus as something cold and external. Certainly our faith tells us that he was not His father according to the flesh, but this is not the only kind of fatherhood.

Joseph, we read in a sermon of St Augustine, not only claims the name of father, but he has a greater claim to it than any other. And then he adds: How was he father? All the more effectively, the more chaste the paternity. Some thought that he was the father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as other fathers who beget sons carnally and do not receive them only as the fruit of a spiritual love. This is why St Luke says: ‘People thought he was the father of Jesus.’ Why does he say only that they ‘thought’? Because this thought and human judgment refer to what is usual among men. And our Lord was not born of the seed of Joseph. Yet of the piety and charity of Joseph a son was born to him, of the Virgin Mary, and this was the Son of God (St Augustine, Sermo 51, 20).

Joseph loved Jesus as a father loves his son and showed his love by giving him the best he had. Joseph, caring for the child as he had been commanded, made Jesus a craftsman, transmitting his own professional skill to him. So the neighbours of Nazareth will call Jesus both faber and fabri filius (Mark 6: 3; Matt 13: 55): the craftsman and the son of the craftsman. Jesus worked in Joseph’s workshop and by Joseph’s side. What must Joseph have been, how grace must have worked through him, that he should be able to fulfil this task of the human upbringing of the Son of God!

For Jesus must have resembled Joseph: in his way of working, in the features of his character, in his way of speaking. Jesus’ realism, his eye for detail, the way he sat at table and broke bread, his preference for using everyday situations to give doctrine - all this reflects his childhood and the influence of Joseph.

Ite ad loseph. St Joseph is patron of the Church and of the Work.

The patronage of Joseph extends to the Church itself, which is the Mystical Body of Christ. Thus Pope John XXIII acknowledged when he included his name in the Roman Canon, so that all Christians - at the moment when Christ is about to become present on the altar - could venerate the memory of the one who enjoyed his physical presence on earth in such a direct way; so that, when the priest is preparing to celebrate the Sacrifice of Calvary in an unbloody way, he can invoke the one who made of his life an offering to God through Jesus Christ.

When that other Joseph, the son of Jacob, mentioned in Sacred Scripture, was in charge of the house of the Pharaoh, famine reigned all over the world, but everywhere in Egypt there was bread to be had… When food grew scarce, there was ever a cry made to Pharaoh for bread, and still he would answer, Betake yourselves to Joseph, do what he bids you. The church applies these words to the father of Jesus, because St Joseph watches over the Spouse of Christ, in need - like the Child Jesus - of protection and continuous care. This is the meaning of the patronage of St Joseph over the whole Church and over each Christian.

The whole Church recognizes St Joseph as a patron and guardian. For centuries many different features of his life have caught the attention of believers. He was a man ever faithful to the mission God gave him. That is why, for many years now, I have liked to address him affectionately as our father and lord.

St Joseph really is a father and lord. He protects those who revere him and accompanies them on their journey through this life - just as he protected and accompanied Jesus when he was growing up.

Our Father wanted the words Ite ad Ioseph engraved on the medal which is fastened to the tabernacle key in the Centres of the Work, in order to teach us to go to the Holy Patriarch in all of our needs. St Joseph, the head of the household of Nazareth, the Patron of the Church and of the Work, enjoys a place of honour in our family. For this reason, every day we recall that patronage: fecit te Deus quasi Patrem Regis, et dominum universae domus eius: ora pro nobis.

Father, with unselfish love St Joseph cared for your Son born of the Virgin Mary, the Church prays, and we pray with her. May we also serve you… with pure hearts. Today, the first of the seven Sundays dedicated to St Joseph, we go once again to the efficacious intercession of the Holy Patriarch, following the advice of our Father: Never neglect devotion to him - Ite ad Ioseph: Go to Joseph - as Christian tradition puts it in the words of the old testament (Gen41: 55).

A master of interior life, a worker deeply involved in his job, God’s servant in continual contact with Jesus: that is Joseph. Ite ad Ioseph. With St Joseph, the Christian learns what it means to belong to God and fully to assume one’s place among men, sanctifying the world. Get to know Joseph and you will find Jesus. Talk to Joseph and you will find Mary, who always sheds peace about her in that attractive workshop in Nazareth.