Image Credit: Cedar House
If anyone ever doubts the sanctity of St. Joseph, one need only point out that he is the only man in the history of the universe who was entrusted with care of the God-Man—the Son of the Eternal Father, the Savior of the World, and the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity—and the woman who bore this Savior, the Glorious Ever-Virgin Mary. St. Joseph, while not the Word-made-flesh nor the Immaculate Conception, is nevertheless the man who was asked to do what no man was ever asked to do, nor what any man will ever be asked to do again: to serve in complete charity the two greatest people who walked the face of the earth.
With a task this unprecedented and magnanimous, it might be tempting to think that St. Joseph exercised influence comparable only to a king during his time in this world. But that is not the picture the Gospels paint for us. St. Joseph is not recorded saying a single word in the entire canon of Scripture. And the only word that we can assuredly infer that he said was the word Jesus, for the angel of the Lord said to Joseph in a dream: “She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). Immediately when Joseph awoke, he “did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him” (Mt. 1:24). This docility to the will of God was on further display when Herod was looking to murder the newly-born Messiah. An angel from on high told Joseph to take his family to Egypt, and without hesitation, Joseph fled to that foreign place, taking both his beloved son and his newly-wed with him.
What humility, what docility, what a focus on implementing God’s will is at the core of St. Joseph! He is silent because he is listening to God, he is humble because he knows that God knows infinitely more than he, he is a man of action because he knows that the Lord does not want us to waste the best gift he has given us, and he loves his family because he knows that God loved us first and continues to love us each and every day. This man is a model for how men should live their lives. St. Joseph poured his heart of fiery love unto the Holy Family through his daily commitment to Jesus Christ. St. Joseph may be a man of silence, but he knew that if he was to utter one word, it was to be the most important one: Jesus. And that fact shows more than any why St. Joseph is such a great saint: he is unconditionally committed to Jesus.
And while his greatness on earth was hidden, his greatness in Heaven has been proclaimed through the Church. The titles given to St. Joseph are indeed provocative, with “Protector of the Holy Church” being the most provocative among them. But these titles point to a necessary truth, not a pious exaggeration. Christ said to St. Peter that the Gates of Hell will never prevail against the Church, and that is because St. Joseph is standing at the Gate to Heaven. If Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin were entrusted to the protection of St. Joseph here on earth, then no better person could be entrusted care of the Church through his Heavenly intercession!
St. Joseph’s intercession is powerful indeed due to the source from which it draws, and we must take advantage of these graces. St. Teresa of Avila made a bold claim about this advocate for us in Heaven:
“I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to the glorious St Joseph, for I have great experience of the blessings which he can obtain from God. I do not remember that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant. I am astonished at the great favors which God has bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which he has delivered me, both in body and in soul.
To other saints, the Lord seems to have given grace to help us in some of our necessities. But my experience is that St Joseph helps us in them all; also that the Lord wishes to teach us that, as he was himself subject on earth to St. Joseph, so in heaven he now does all that Joseph asks. This has also been the experience of other persons whom I have advised to commend themselves to the saint…
I only request, for the love of God, whoever will not believe me will test the truth of what I say, for he will see by experience how great a blessing it is to recommend oneself to this glorious patriarch and to be devout to him…”
Go to Joseph! He died to himself daily for the good of his earthly family, and he is in Heaven waiting to pour out his love for us, his spiritual family. As we look to this great man, we look to him expressing the deepest desires of our hearts, asking him to help us to be like him. We do not look to St. Joseph as an end in and of himself. Rather, we look to him for help and guidance to imitate the person whom he gave his life, knowing that he gave his life to the one known word he uttered: Jesus. May we pray for the grace to be like St. Joseph in order that we may be like the One he was chosen to protect and love. Amen!