In a hymn honouring the Holy Eucharist, St. Thomas Aquinas describes the inadequacy of human language to express full appreciation of the Blessed Sacrament. St. Bernard and other great devotees of Mary voiced the same idea regarding our Blessed Mother. The same is true about St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the father of Jesus.
The self-effacement of St. Joseph seems to have influenced the scant attention given him in the liturgy and pious practices of the Church, and has left him standing obscurely in the background. One of the reasons for such obscurity is the very little references to him in the gospels.
The theology of his vocation, veneration for his holiness and seeking the intercession of St. Joseph began to gain popularity only in medieval times—particularly in the 17th century. St. Teresa of Avila regarded St. Joseph as her patron and named the 12 convents which she established after him.
Since 1870 the Church has promoted special veneration of St. Joseph with Pope Pius IX declaring the saint as patron of the universal Church. The next pope, Leo XIII, in his encyclical about Joseph, Quamquam Pluries, in 1889 wrote: “There can be no doubt that, more than any other person, he (Joseph) approached that super-eminent dignity (Jesus)…”
On Calvary when Jesus entrusted Mary to the care of “the beloved disciple” for the rest of her earthly life, it was a sign of divine preference. And we marvelled at the holiness of the disciples. If so, what must have been the divine preference when Joseph was chosen to be Mary’s husband; to be one of the few persons entrusted with the secret of the Incarnation.
In 1989, marking the centenary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Quamquam Pluries, Pope St. John Paul II offered us a masterful explanation and reflection on the unique vocation of St. Joseph in God’s plan of salvation in his pastoral letter, Redemptoris Custos (Guardian of the Redeemer).
Unlike Leo XIII, St. John Paul didn’t call on Joseph to use his heavenly influence to remedy the evils of the times. Rather he held up Joseph as an example for all to follow. Who could ignore John Paul’s subtle pedagogy as he addressed some of the most vital issues of the 20th and 21st centuries: marriage, fatherhood, work and the interior life? There is little doubt that there is a crisis of fatherhood in our culture today, especially in the Western world.
While there are good and faithful fathers, many are physically and emotionally absent from their families. Likewise, some are either actively brutal or passively weak, in which case the mother often assumes responsibilities forfeited by the irresponsible father. St. Joseph offers married men an example of authentic fatherhood.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph comprise the Holy Family, the basic human unit of God’s strategy for the Incarnation and Redemption. They belong together in the history of salvation. The three are inseparable, and should always be seen and understood together. Their special identities in God’s plan are interrelated. What St. Joseph did for Jesus and Mary, he will do for us personally and for the universal Church.
