Everyone knows who St. Joseph is – but there is always a shroud of mystery that surrounds him. He appears briefly in Scripture to fulfill his very special calling by God to be the foster-father of Jesus – God's own true and real Son. Joseph took his job very seriously – and as any foster-father can tell you, he loved Jesus as though he was his very own. Both God and Joseph were Jesus' fathers – each in their own unique ways!
Can you even imagine what it must have been like for an almost insignificant descendant of King David to become the foster-father of the long awaited Messiah? A simple man named Joseph of the House of David received messages from angels sent by God to help him fulfill his tasks – as father to Jesus who would be the Christ; husband of Mary, the mother of the child (yet remaining always chaste, pure and selflessly charitable). He was a hardworking carpenter who always provided for his new family; and a teacher of Jesus, not only in the family carpentry business, but also in the matters of his Jewish religious faith! Joseph, along with Mary was the first teacher of the child Jesus in matters of faith and prayer! What a joy it must have been to teach Jesus how to pray!
Little is known about Joseph after the finding of Jesus in the temple at age twelve; but a strong legend has to do with the beauty and joy and peace associated with his death: and this because both Jesus and Mary were present with him at the moment of his transition. This is a particularly important image for French Canadian Catholics. There is a very beautiful stained glass window at St. John's Church in Brunswick depicting this scene. I would recommend stopping in sometime to see it, if you haven't already done so.
St. Joseph began to be honored in his own right in the 5th century in the Eastern Church; but devotion quickly spread to the west. It increased gradually but steadily. Many great saints of the Church were known to have great devotion to St. Joseph including Vincent Ferrer, Bridget of Sweeden, Bernardine of Siena, Theresa of Avila, Francis de Sales and Ignatius of Loyola. Pope Pius IX, at the end of the first Vatican Council declared him patron of the Universal Church. He is also patron of a happy death.
The most impressive monument to St. Joseph is the basilica dedicated to him in Montreal, Canada: St. Joseph Oratory: inspired and built, single-handedly, by the efforts of Blessed Brother Andre Bessette. In 1962 Blessed Pope John XXIII added St. Joseph's name to the list of saints in the Roman Canon adjacent to that of his beloved spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary!
St. Joseph was ever listening for God's will to the spoken to him – and when he heard it – he always did it, without hesitation and without question! May we imitate St. Joseph in his way of life, and may we be assisted by him in our death so that we can join him in our Father's house – where even now he is busy constructing and building and preparing rooms for each and every one of us – and all of our brothers and sisters in the human family who choose to spend eternity with him – and his beloved son – Jesus Christ!
St. Joseph, pure and chaste; St. Joseph, humble and mild, pray for us!
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