Issuing Patris Corde, (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis has declared a special year to honor St. Joseph and to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Joseph as the patron of the Universal Church.
The foster father of Jesus and the husband of Mary, his was an extraordinary vocation — to protect, nurture, and love the Son of God and the Blessed Virgin during the hidden years of Nazareth.
He never speaks a single word in the Scriptures, yet Joseph’s role in the plan of universal salvation is essential and exemplary.
Heroic virtues
Many heroic virtues stand out in the life of this humble man, beginning with faith and obedience.
Joseph believes in the Lord with all his heart, obeying the voice of God in taking Mary as his wife, and leaving in the middle of the night for Egypt when Herod is seeking to destroy the Christ Child.
Because he put all of his trust in the Lord’s providence and mercy, Joseph was readily obedient when the Lord tasked him with a specific objective. This spiritual docility reflects a heart completely one with God.
Joseph exemplifies courage. Marrying a pregnant woman, undertaking the long and dangerous journeys to both Bethlehem and Egypt, disregarding the opinions and judgments of others, he is completely focused on fulfilling the will of the Lord.
Only what God wants ultimately matters; everything else is extremely secondary.
This courage shelters, protects, and blesses the Holy Family in both the perilous and ordinary moments of their divine mission.
Imagine the tender love Joseph constantly showed to both Jesus and Mary! Living with the only two sinless people in the world must have been overwhelming at times, yet Joseph’s love for the Son of God and His Immaculate Mother had to be a love like no other.
Entrusted to raise, form, teach, and protect Jesus shows both the quality and the depth of Joseph’s capacity for sacrificial, total, self-emptying love.
If there had been a better man to entrust His Son to, God would have picked him. Joseph had a father’s heart which gave all in the service of his wife and foster Son. We honor Joseph as a worker, a carpenter, one who built things, earning a living with his hands and by the sweat of his brow.
Teaching Jesus how to work, standing side by side with the Lord in the daily, humble tasks which filled their lives at Nazareth, Joseph teaches us the immeasurable value and dignity of work.
These long hours and days of labor with Jesus must have occasioned profound moments of reflection and prayer. For Joseph, no division existed between his work and his spiritual life. His tools and projects were the means of sanctifying the day and offering his efforts to God.
Joseph shines most radiantly as husband and father! Think of his tender, pure, and total love for the Virgin Mary.
Ponder the surgings of his fatherly heart when he cared for Jesus throughout his infancy and adolescence. Life was never about him but always focused on God and others.
Because of his profound humility, perhaps Joseph’s disappearance from the Scriptures after the infancy narratives is fitting in its own way and serves as a silent tribute to his refusal to ever draw attention to himself.
Joseph speaks to us
All of Joseph’s virtues speak powerfully to us today, challenging everyone, men and women alike, to imitate his faith, obedience, courage, love, work ethic, and dedication to marriage and family.
Especially for men, Joseph is both an example and an intercessor, inspiring us to be fathers to our spouses and families. For married men, their wives, children, work, and responsibilities provide ample opportunity to grow in holiness and exercise spiritual leadership.
For priests, Joseph challenges them to live out a spousal relationship with the Church and to be spiritual fathers to their people.
Imagine how different the Church and the world would be if every Catholic man imitated St. Joseph in his heroic virtues and truly lived out his vocation?
I applaud and thank the millions of men who already do so.
In speaking at men’s retreats, Men of Christ conferences, men’s groups in parishes, I have met thousands of men who sacrificially live out the Gospel and are seriously intent on pursuing holiness, not only for them but also their wives and families.
Men who perhaps were not fathered well or formed in the faith need mentors, other men who are willing to invite, lead, and evangelize them to a living relationship with Jesus Christ and open them to a deep friendship of prayer with Joseph as well.
As we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph this Friday, March 19, we pray to this humble, silent man who lived one of the greatest callings imaginable — husband to the Mother of God and foster father to the Word made flesh. This daily, constant contact with Divinity Himself and the Immaculate Conception is a wonder we can never fully grasp.
The good news is that the Lord has entrusted to us a holy task, special relationships, particular work, a spiritual vocation which, if we embrace it with the faith and obedience of Joseph and remain lovingly persevering in our efforts, we too enter into a living relationship with Christ, Mary, and Joseph.
We too can be in daily contact with the living God in the humble circumstances of our own hidden Nazareth.