Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph, one of my absolute favorite saints.
Although not biologically Jesus’ father, St. Joseph nevertheless lived an authentic vocation of fatherhood as the head of the Holy Family, loving and protecting his wife and Son through danger, poverty, and the anxieties of daily life. Jesus was fully human – as well as fully divine – and He needed a human father to model what it meant to be a man, to work and serve and sacrifice in the ways that men are called to do. When God the Father entrusted His Son to St. Joseph, this was a call to embrace authentic fatherhood.
Though he never speaks a word in the Gospel, St. Joseph – like that other Joseph of Old Testament tradition – hears the messages of God in dreams and responds to them with trust and alacrity. He takes Mary into his home. He flees with his wife and Son to Egypt. Attentive to the word of God, he ultimately embraces and protects the Word Himself, contemplating in Christ – as a child and as a man – the Incarnate God.
In considering St. Joseph’s contemplative vision this week, I found myself thinking about the Seven Joys and Sorrows of St. Joseph, a popular devotion I came to know through Belmont Abbey. And what struck me most forcefully was the way these joys and sorrows embrace the same seven events. Often the cause of sorrow and the cause of joy are intimately tied, even when each arises in response to a different element within the experience. In the birth of Christ, for example, St. Joseph found unparalleled joy; in having no more than a manger to give Him, however, he encountered true sorrow. Likewise, hearing Simeon’s prophecy brought to light both the sorrow of Mary and Jesus’ suffering and the joyful glory of Christ’s mission. Throughout his life, St. Joseph held joy and sorrow together in his heart, embracing both and entrusting himself to God with trust and patience.
There are so many reasons to love St. Joseph: the strong, quiet, and humbly steadfast father who willingly supports us without even our recognition. As members of the Body of Christ, and as brothers and sisters in Him, we have not only a spiritual mother but also a spiritual father within the Holy Family – and St. Joseph has never stopped working for the good of his children.
But of all the reasons to love Papa Joseph, the one for which I’m most grateful today is his capacity to embrace both suffering and joy, to acknowledge and receive both with complete trust and generosity. St. Joseph teaches us to contemplate the way God speaks in our lives, the Word He speaks. St. Joseph’s sorrows don’t preclude his joys, nor joys his sorrows. Together they model a wisdom that the Season of Lent can help us to practice and appreciate, always leaving patient space for mystery.
Through the intercession of St. Joseph, may God continue to bless your Lenten journeys!
