foster father of Love

Today is a very special day.  It is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband to the Mother of God, foster-father to the Son of God.  Truly a man that fits the description attributed to his famous ancestor, David:  
“The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and has appointed him commander of his people” 1 Samuel 13:14

“Then he removed him and raised up David as their king; of him he testified, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish.’ From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus” Acts 13:22-23
My favorite scripture that speaks volumes about St. Joseph in so few words, because he is quiet and humble and needs not a great amount of attention in order to be known as the holiest man ever to live (aside from Jesus of course), is the story of the flight to Egypt.  

“behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt” Matthew 2:13-14

Though the Angel appeared to the Blessed Mother to bring the news of Jesus and receive her Fiat, the Angel appeared to the husband of Mary to warn them of the danger they were already in.  After all, he was the man chosen by God to protect the purity of the Blessed Mother as long as he lived on this earth, and keep safe the Incarnate Son of God, until He was old enough to go forth apart from the protective arms of His holy parents.

 The Angel went where the Lord sent him, and that was to the head of the family. He had so humbled himself before God, that he knew the message of the Angel was the word of God.  And Mary, knowing that her husband was a man after God’s own heart who completely submitted himself to the will of the Father, knew that the command to get up and go to Egypt was a command, not out of Joseph’s mind, but straight from Heaven.  There was no discussion, no argument, no hesitation.  God spoke, and Joseph “rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt”.  


I tried to imagine a little bit of what life might have looked like when Jesus was growing up. How Joseph must have breathed deeply of the little breaths of God that warmed his face when he bent close enough to the infant Jesus as He slept peacefully in his arms.

How Joseph and Mary must have delighted in hearing the new phrases He was picking up as He grew, and laughed at the silly little toddler things He did, just like we are doing with Sophia now. What their nightly ritual of putting little Jesus to bed could have been. They must have prayed together to their Heavenly Father before they tucked Him in all snug and cozy like Lianna and Ed do with Sophia. They must have ached with joy for the fact that Jesus, out of all the humans He could have chosen, wanted them to be the ones to sing Him lullabies and rock Him, give Him His bedtime kisses, and comfort Him when He took a tumble as He was first learning to walk apart from their guiding hands. What immeasurable graces and moments of pure happiness and joy, the purest the earth has ever contained, must have existed in the home of the Holy Family.  



The laughter must have sounded like music from Jesus' Heavenly Kingdom, the harmony that existed between the Blessed Mother and her most holy and chaste spouse, whom we celebrated today, must have transformed the hearts of any soul that ever had the gift of witnessing it first hand. To watch Joseph patiently work with and teach Jesus his trade as a carpenter must have been so miraculous to behold in all of its' ordinariness. The Son of God never once held Himself above His holy earthly father. He obeyed His parents. Both of them. He "was obedient to them...And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man" Luke 2:51-52.  

Jesus first learned how to live from Joseph and Mary. He learned how to walk, talk, play, sing, pray, and love in His humanity from His first human relationships. God gave Him the best teachers possible. And that is why we celebrate St. Joseph, because no matter how imperfect one of our dads might be at times, we always have our Heavenly Father first and foremost; and we also have the one that God chose for His own human father, St. Joseph. God made sure we were covered on the dad front: the Heavenly Father, St. Joseph, and our own particular daddys. Must be important or something...


Let us pray for all husbands and fathers to know such humility and abandonment to God’s will and have the grace to lead their families spiritually and in all matters, toward Heaven.  That all men will imitate St. Joseph’s obedience and desire to serve those God places in their care.

Let us pray that all women will wait for a man like St. Joseph to come and help lead them toward Heaven if their vocation be marriage; and those who are married already would inspire and encourage their men did to be the kind of man St. Joseph is, by striving to be the kind of woman the Blessed Mother is. A woman whose entire self is given to the Lord to do with whatever He wills. For there is our truest happiness in this life and the next, and it breathes happiness into the home and families that live in this way. 
Let us pray that we will all have the gift of passing from this earth as St. Joseph did, surrounded by He Who is Love, and she who bore Love into the world.  And I am hoping for he who protected and safe-guarded Love and she who bore Love to be there as well when I am called Home.

Happy Solemnity!  Thank God for St. Joseph, Jesus' earthly father, teacher, and guide, who has now become one for all that belong to Jesus.