Joseph – the Just Man

‘Joseph was a just man who always did what was right’  Matthew 1:19

What a predicament Joseph was in when he discovered Mary was pregnant. Joseph did not know who the father of the child was. He only knew that the child was not his. We can imagine how devastated he was when he discovered that the love of his life was pregnant before they came to live together. What was he to do? In the culture of the time he had no choice but to divorce Mary. It must have been heart-breaking for him, but he was not going to make a fuss.

Even before he received the Angel’s message that Mary was pregnant through the Holy Spirit, he had decided to act in a caring way. He was going to act quietly and thus save her negativity and disgrace. He was a caring, honourable man, a just man, a man of God.

St Joseph, help us always to discern what is good and right, to love tenderly and act justly so that we, like you, may always walk humbly with our God.

Joseph – the Man who Listened

‘If you listen to me, you will know what is right and fair’  Proverbs 2:9

Joseph was a man who listened. Often constant noise prevents us from listening and hearing our friends, family, and God. Joseph knew how to be silent to allow God’s Word to come through to him. No spoken word is recorded of him.

In our world today, we are surrounded by noise and distraction. Our spiritual senses become numbed by the intrusive noises of television, vehicles, mobile phones, tablet computers, and various other paraphernalia of modern technology. Is it any wonder we do not hear our friends, family, and God?

St Joseph, show us how to be silent and to listen to God in the stillness of our hearts.

Joseph – the Man of Trust

‘An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph’  Matthew 1:20

It is sometimes said that St Joseph slept his way through the New Testament. All the major decisions he took were the result of listening to his dreams. This implies a profound trust in the message contained in that voice deep within the subconscious – the voice sent by God.

God spoke to Joseph in his dreams and Joseph trusted in the plans God laid before him to take Mary as his wife.

Like St Joseph, who trusted God’s judgment of what was right for him and his family, may we, too, trust God our Father, who loves us so much, to know what is right for us as individuals. Although we may question God’s plan for us, may we, like St Joseph, have the strength and the courage to place our trust in the Lord.

St Joseph, in our times of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear help us to trust in God to show us the right way.

Joseph – the Missionary

‘Joseph got up and took the child and his mother and left that night for Egypt’  Matthew 2:14

The Gospel tells us that Joseph took Mary and the child to a foreign country. Even now, before any word was preached or any person baptised, the Word of God was alive, present, and active amongst the people of Egypt. The task of the apostle – and the missionary – is to point out where the Good News of Jesus Christ is already present, alive, and active to those yet to be evangelised.

Pope St John Paul II challenges us: ‘Mission is the joyful proclamation of a gift meant for all, and to be offered to all with the greatest respect for the freedom of each one: the gift of the revelation of the God who is love’ – Novo Millennio Inuente (2001), no. 56

The missionary of today is the bearer of the same Good News. Every Christian is called to share in the mission of the Church, at home and in far-off lands. Let us ask St Joseph to help us to know how we can bring the experience of God’s love into people’s lives, especially those who are most disadvantaged.

St Joseph, help us to be examples and witnesses of the Good News of God’s love for us wherever we may go. 

Joseph – the Caring, Loving Father

‘Where did that man (Jesus) get all this wisdom?’  Matthew 13:54

So many of Jesus’ parables and sayings relate to God as ‘my Father in Heaven…’. The relationship was so close that he even addressed God as ‘Abba,’ literally, ‘Daddy’! Jesus modelled the image of his heavenly Father – God – on the experience of his earthly father, Joseph.

Joseph, along with Mary, would have played a decisive role in the formation of the youthful Jesus. The above question, posed by his contemporaries, ‘Where did (Jesus) get all this wisdom?’ is a measure of the quality of Jesus’ upbringing, and not a statement about his divine nature. At home in Nazareth, ‘Jesus increased in wisdom, in years and in divine and human favour’ (Luke 2:52).

Because of Joseph’s model of fatherhood, Jesus’ own understanding and therefore teaching of God’s fatherhood has brought us to understand God not as remote, uncaring, judgmental, and angry, but as intimate, loving, caring, and forgiving.

St Joseph, help us to experience God as a caring, loving Father.

Joseph – the Worker

‘Isn’t he the carpenter’s son?’  Matthew 13:55

The popular image of Joseph in his carpenter’s workshop surrounded by the tools of his trade is perhaps a rather romantic one. As a craftsman (in Greek: teknon) he would likely have worked with several materials, including wood, metal, and stone. During Jesus’ early life, the nearby town of Sepphoris was being rebuilt by Herod Antipas as a regional capital, and it is likely that both he and Joseph would have regularly travelled there for work purposes.

At other times, when craft-work was not available, they would have sought work elsewhere, including farming. Working as sharecroppers would have provided much of the agricultural raw material for so many of Jesus’ parables. He and Joseph would have been familiar with what we now call the ‘gig economy’.

St Joseph saw his work as bringing order and beauty out of chaos and making the world a better place. To him, work was more than just a means to an end, but an end in itself, giving service to others and dignity to the worker.

St Joseph, help us to be committed to our work and help those who cannot find work.

Joseph – the Family Man

Mary said, ‘See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you’  Luke 2:48

Joseph was a descendant of the royal family of David. Yet he lived in relative obscurity and was a ‘nobody’ in the world’s eyes. He faced challenging family problems: Mary’s unexpected pregnancy, which meant he would not be the biological father of his son; the long, dangerous trek to Bethlehem to be registered for taxation purposes; the threat to the life of the child, forcing him to flee as a refugee to a foreign land; making ends meet from work which was often only seasonal; returning to Jerusalem after a day’s journey, without the safety of a convoy, to search for his missing child.

What was he to have made of the forewarning that the boy Jesus was marked out for glory and suffering (see Luke 2:34-35)?

Let us ask St Joseph to protect our families as he did his own. May he help all couples to live out the love which they promised each other. As patron of families, may he guide us through the many challenges that threaten to break the bonds of family unity, and help us discover God’s closeness in and through the sorrows and joys of family life.

St Joseph, protect our families and help us experience God’s closeness throughout the many challenges of marriage and family life.

Joseph – the Man of Loving Service

‘To love and to serve’ (motto of the Mill Hill Missionaries)

The Jewish ideal was to be someone who was ‘righteous’; someone who actively obeyed God’s word, who did God’s will. Joseph acted instantly when he knew God’s will. His was a life of loving service -serving family, serving his neighbours, serving those for whom he worked, serving God.

In 1866, Herbert Vaughan chose the words ‘To love and to serve’ as his motto for the St Joseph’s Missionary Society of Mill Hill. He saw in St Joseph’s life of love and service a model for missionary life.

Later on, he would write: ‘Of old it was said to the needy and suffering people in the kingdom of Egypt, “Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you” (Genesis 41:55). The same is now said to all needy and suffering people, “Go to Joseph”. What was truly said of the first Joseph in the Old Testament as to his goodness and love is verified much more perfectly in the second Joseph – St Joseph.’

Much of Joseph’s life and work was obscure, hidden away, unrecognised, and unrewarded at least in worldly terms.

He has left us no body of writing, no words of wisdom. May his life and work be an example to us, helping us to trust in the providence of God and to imitate the obedience of Jesus, who came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father.

St Joseph, may your life of love and service inspire us to be faithful, unselfish and devoted to doing God’s will.

Joseph – the Patron of a Happy Death

‘At death life is changed, not ended’ (cf. the Roman Missal: Preface for Christian Death)

Even though the Gospels mention nothing about his death, the traditional image we have is of St Joseph dying in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Being in the presence not only of his loved ones, but also the One who is God’s Word made flesh, is what made his death ‘happy.’

Perhaps one reason the Gospels make no mention of his death is to point out death’s meaning for a Christian.

Just as Joseph is physically present during Jesus’ birth and childhood, so, too, does Joseph remain spiritually present throughout the Gospel. We can perhaps feel this presence whenever Jesus talks about fatherhood in whatever context, whether it is in the father welcoming back the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), or in Jesus allowing little children to be noisy and active in front him (see Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16 and Luke 18:15-17).

Just as in his earthly, physical death, Joseph does not so much ‘disappear from’, but rather ‘disappears into’ the life of the Gospel, so too, do our loved ones never disappear from us at their death, but disappear into the narrative of our lives.

St Joseph, may your happy death, in the company of Mary and Jesus, remind us that at our death our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, are indeed not ended, but changed.