By Sister Doreen, SSJD
This feast day is celebrated March 19th and so we have a few days to do some pondering. We see Joseph in action: when Jesus, the baby was born; when the shepherds and the magi came, when Herod sent soldiers to murder baby Jesus; when the family had to flee the country; when they made the long journey home; when they needed a roof over their heads and sandals for their feet and food on their table, Joseph was the man to get it done!
There is a beautiful song written by Father Williamson called “Joseph’s Song” and as I pondered it, I could see Joseph lifting the sleeping Jesus into his arms, thinking the baby was so frail, so light … and I can see him bowing his head to kiss the baby Jesus. I see Joseph offering his paternal love – and I see this paternal kiss fulfilling an ancient prophecy and at the same time see the passionate purpose he offered to the service of God. Here is a man who listens and who obeys, a man of real values and behaviour, of self-discipline and reliability.
“Joseph’s Song,” was written for Christmas night. Jesus is born. Shepherds and angels have come and gone. Child and mother are asleep. Only Joseph remains awake. The song begins as he reflects on the night’s events and offers a prayer of awed praise – it is a meditation on Joseph’s paternal heart, the only heart in history to have loved Jesus as a Savior and as a son.
“How could it be this baby in my arms sleeping now, so peacefully.
The Son of God, the angel said, how could it be?
Lord, I know He’s not my own, not of my flesh, not of my bone,
still God let this baby be the son of my love.
God show me where I fit into this plan of yours.
How can a man be father to the Son of God?
Lord, for all my life I’ve been a simple carpenter.
How can I raise a King? How can I raise a King?
He looks so small, his face and hands so fair and when He cries,
the sun just seems to disappear, and when He laughs,
it shines again, how could it be?
God, show me where I fit into this plan of yours.
How can a man be father to the Son of God?
Lord, for all my life I’ve been a simple carpenter.
How can I raise a King? How can I raise a King?
How could it be this baby in my arms sleeping now, so peacefully.
The Son of God, the angel said, how could it be? How could it be?“
Joseph consistently honored God by his character, of what we see of him and of his responses to the message from God. Throughout these roles, Joseph, a model of authentic guidance, one of values and behavior, self-discipline and consistency, of relationships through connectedness, with a heart of compassion, and passionate purpose. We do not hear much of Joseph in the Bible, but what we do see is that a role can be small and still critical. In fact, Joseph might be the most significant insignificant man in the New Testament! What little we have of Joseph’s biography in scripture beyond the outline of his genealogy as a descendant of David is almost entirely a series of encounters with angels. There are four in total, four messages of God told to Joseph by an angel, which means Joseph receives the highest number of recorded messages from angels of any man or woman in the Scriptures.
To us, the movements of Joseph’s heart are hidden. We perceive his faithfulness in his actions only. Barbara Brown Taylor in her book “Gospel Medicine” comments on Joseph and his part in the birthing of Jesus. She says: “He is the one in the story who is most like us, presented day by day by day with circumstances beyond our control, with lives we would never have chosen for ourselves, tempted to divorce ourselves from it all when an angel whispers in our ears: ‘do not fear. God is here’. It may not be the life you had planned, but God may be born here too, if you will permit it. That ‘if’ is a real shocker – that God’s ‘yes’ depends on our own, that God’s birth requires human partners – a Mary, a Joseph, a you, and a me – willing to believe the impossible, willing to claim the scandal, to adopt it and give it our names, accepting the whole sticky mess and rocking it in our arms. Our lives, our losses, our Lord. And not just each of us alone but the whole people of God, surveying a world that seems to have run amuck and proclaiming over and over again to anyone who will hear that God is still with us, that God is still being born in the mess and through it, within and among those who will still believe what angels tell them in their dreams.”
St Joseph is also known as St. Joseph the Worker. We know that Joseph was a carpenter and passed on his skills to Jesus. “Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labor,” wrote Pope Francis in his apostolic letter Patris Corde. “Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and familial communion.”
In a hymn called The Aye Carol written by John Bell there is a line that best illustrates those qualities of Joseph that make him a model for all of us. “Who is the man who looks on at the door, welcoming strangers, some rich and but most poor, scanning the world as if somehow unsure? Joseph, the father of Jesus.” In a very real way, this silent saint, who was given the noble task of caring and watching over Mary and Jesus, now cares for and watches over all of us, and models for us all, unconditional and compassionate love, passionate commitment to God and to everyone we meet, and models for all of us the dignity of human work.
I share a hymn poem about St Joseph written by our Sister Rosemary Anne some years ago:
God most high, let praise and glory echo from our hearts today,
For the saint whose wondrous story lights the dark and cheers our way.
Lion-tribe of Judah bore him, Joseph, son of David’s line,
Saw by faith and kept before him call and truth and given sign.
Till a Child looked up confiding, called him ‘father’, took his hand,
Learned from him and by his guiding came to know and understand.
Came to know a craftsman’s pleasure, grateful, humble, unafraid.
Human skill in human measure found within the world he made.
Came to know beyond all knowing, parenthood, divine and strong,
Whence all love from pure Love flowing breaks in beauty, truth, and song.
Yes! Yes! “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you” Isaiah 60:1.