Joseph shows us how to live as fathers and husbands

March 19, in the Church’s liturgical calendar, marks the Feast of St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary. This feast has been celebrated continuously on this date since the end of the tenth century.

In recent times, due to societal changes and lower attendance at daily Mass, feast days of the saints often pass us by with little or no acknowledgment. This is unfortunate because they represent opportunities for us to receive encouragement for living the faith from those who mastered the spiritual life.

While we cannot fully examine this greatest of saints in the short space allotted here, St. Joseph’s life of example is one of those to which we should pay close attention, never allowing it to pass by unnoticed.

Almost faceless among the many people in the Gospels, St. Joseph is nevertheless a giant in the spiritual realm.  From all of eternity God chose Joseph to take custody of what are arguably the two greatest treasures the world has ever known – Jesus and Mary.

He did not entrust them to King David, to Elijah or to Isaiah, but it was to this quiet man, described by Matthew as just, to whom God entrusts the care of His only Son.  For this reason if no other, Christians everywhere should reflect on Joseph’s life and what it reveals. 

While St. Joseph is not given credit for speaking a single word in any of the Gospels, he speaks from the silence of his life with an eloquence that should overwhelm us with a divine tsunami of revelation.  Joseph’s silence is not empty; it is a profound silence of words in the form of dreams and actions that indicate much contemplation. 

We can be assured that Joseph’s silence is fully occupied beyond himself, with the actions of God occurring through Mary. Joseph does not draw attention to himself; rather he simply does what is necessary. 

His strength is to be found in his obedience and willingness to act without hesitation in accordance with God’s will for him. This willingness is grounded in his deep and abiding trust in God; his silence, which can only be seen in the light of humility, a humility that springs from deep within.

Genuine humility arises from knowing and acknowledging ourselves in relation to God and others. For genuine humility to exist within a person, they must truly be a person of prayer and reflection that leads to this knowledge.

Joseph knew what was entrusted to him, he learned of it in a dream from an angel. He had the choice to say no, but instead chose to act in compliance with the message of the angel. This helps us to understand Joseph’s relationship with God and Mary as a relationship based upon prayer. 

Joseph’s task is the same that is asked of every father in every family– to protect its members and to shepherd their growth, thereby protecting the integrity of the family. He carries out his task with precise obedience to the directives he receives. He does not concern himself with pride nor does he curry favor for himself.

Neither does Joseph permit his knowledge of who Mary and Jesus are to fill him with a pride which would prevent him from achieving that which is entrusted to him. It is in relegating himself to being the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus that Joseph finds joy and honor. This requires a great humility from him and only his willingness to stand in the background makes this possible.

A father must be the defender of his wife and their family. In this sense he must also be the defender of the bond of marriage, not allowing anything to threaten to overcome it.  Today marriage is assailed on every front – adultery, same sex unions, pornography, job demands and children who seek to come between their parents in order to get what they want without regard to the rest of the family. 

Joseph shows us how to live the bond of the sacrament as a servant leader within the family by his very actions in protecting Jesus and Mary. This is evident in the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth when he does not consider the personal cost to him or his business but acts with immediacy when moving became necessary to protect the child and His mother.

In the search for the child Jesus when he remained in the Temple in Jerusalem, Joseph shows the need to protect the integrity of the family from anything that would separate it; and Jesus confirmed Joseph’s and Mary’s authority when “he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” 

God’s yardstick measures the mark of love that demands a self-sacrificing gift of self for the sole purpose of building up the object of our love, namely, the beloved to whom we give glory and honor. For Joseph the beloved is God, Mary and Jesus.  For us it should be God, our spouse and our children.

None of us is worthless in the eyes of God–each of us is called to participate in His life in the kingdom of heaven and has great value as such. We each have our own responsibilities, our own role at home, our own family, friends and work.  It is sufficient to live our lives in relative obscurity, accomplishing the ordinary functions of life with love and humility, obedient even for the sole purpose of pleasing God. St. Joseph stands to remind us of this reality

It is in living out the tasks given to us that we proclaim and give witness to the good news of the Gospel. We do so in imitation of the saints, particularly St. Joseph.  When you awaken on March 19, be sure to ask for St. Joseph’s intercessions; seek to fill your day with his silence in order to better hear God calling, and once you hear Him, go forth in obedience to respond to your calling.