Michael Meola Reflection on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph March 20, 2023
Saint Joseph: The Old Man and The C Model of Husbands, Fathers and Workers
The “C” (Christ) won and the Old Man was drowned in Baptism into Jesus’ Death and was born again to New Life in His Resurrection. St. Joseph is known as The Good Old Man, as revealed in the Diary of St. Faustina, which has the Imprimatur, the “Stamp of Approval” of The Church, which means that it is guaranteed, by The Authority Given to The Church by Jesus Our Lord from God The Father and The Holy Spirit and Guided by All Three as ONE, to be free from the slightest speck or shadow of doubt of error in what we are to believe as Christians.
We live in a world where people deny and even reject the Divine Vision and Image of manhood that we were all Created in and for: the spirit of work and industry, the use of one’s hands and manual labor, putting the good of others before one’s own interests, desires and pleasure and the value of the aged. Many men today see the notion of sacrifice, self-denial, discipline, self-restraint and self-control as not only foreign and strange but even anathema (accursed). Many people do not see age as a good thing and do their best to delay or hide the signs of aging. Some dismiss the young and don’t see the need to put much hope in them and on the other hand exploit them for their own agenda.
In St. Joseph, GOD GIVES us the greatest example of what it means to be a man: Christian fatherhood, husbandry and workmanship, which all men in the world are called to imitate. St. Joseph is known as a carpenter to most people, but the Greek word is tekton. This means someone who works with all hard materials, for instance stone. This is why he is the patron saint of artisans. He put his best into his work all his life. When Mary, betrothed to St. Joseph but before they lived together, was found with child through the Holy Spirit, he decided to divorce her quietly because he was unwilling to expose her to shame. “Such was his intention when behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said…”it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her” (Matthew 1:20). St. Joseph believed the Archangel Gabriel’s word and took his wife Mary into his home. He then made his first work GOD’S WORK: the care of Jesus and Mary.
The Sacred Silence of St. Joseph: In Scripture, there is found no quotation attributed to St. Joseph. In 1 Peter 4:11, Scripture tells us to “speak as one speaking The Word of GOD.” St. Anthony of Padua said, “Actions speak louder than words. Therefore let your actions speak and your words teach.” A Christian is called to be first and foremost a man of action, not merely of the words we are called to speak or the prayers we are called to pray. St. Joseph spoke The Word of GOD through his actions and is an example to imitate; his life of humble devotion and service to Mary Our Lady, his wife, and Our Lord Jesus, his son through marriage, as protector and provider spoke volumes, just like when he delivered them from the murderous hands of King Herod and the slaughter of the Holy Innocents: the young baby boys two years old and under. There is, in truth, One Word attributed to St. Joseph in Scripture: when he named the child Jesus (Matthew 1:25), the Name the Archangel Gabriel gave him to bestow on His Sacred Humanity at His Circumcision upon the Eighth Day when Jewish fathers would name their sons. His whole life was a sermon on how a man, a male human creature, is to live the Christian Faith in following Jesus.
Let’s think about silence for a minute. Silence can have different meanings based on the cause of it. In the Scriptures, there are two different men of silence: St. Joseph and Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth. Although Zechariah is a man of the temple, offering incense in prayer to The Almighty, when one of HIS angels appears to him, he is surprised and disturbed and doubts. He talked back to the angel and did not believe his message that he and his wife would conceive a child in their advanced age and was silenced as a punishment. St. Joseph, on the other hand, saw and heard the angel of THE LORD in a dream telling him to take his virgin wife into his home according to GOD’S WILL and he believed and obeyed, doing exactly what he was told. I think if we’re honest, at least me, we identify and relate more to Zechariah than St. Joseph. I don’t know about you but I can often have a difficult time believing and obeying what GOD IS TELLING me at times, or even know when HE IS SPEAKING and what. I know that in my life I have been guilty of opening my mouth at the wrong time rather than silently seeking THE LORD and discern HIS WILL.
In the first reading, we hear THE LORD ANNOUNCE to King David through HIS prophet that HE WOULD RAISE up an heir to his throne, whose Reign would last Forever. In Psalm 2, verse 9, Jesus, The Person Who Is The Word of God, Speaking through The Holy Spirit Spoke through King David, “I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” Only GOD’S REIGN IS Forever, yet HE TELLS King David that HE WILL RAISE Up an Eternal Heir. When GOD SPOKE to the Prophets, those men could only understand a certain amount of what GOD TOLD them to Speak. In The Holy Scriptures, It Says, GOD IS READY to DO MORE for us than we can even dare to ask, or dream or imagine.” Who could have known that God Would Send His Only Son to Become man to Reign on David’s throne Himself! St. Joseph was given the incomprehensible privilege and honor of participating in The Divine Fatherhood of Only Son of God!
In the first of two Gospel readings that are offered to choose from for today’s Mass, we are told that “Joseph is “a righteous man”. In today’s reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, which is placed in a position of primacy among all of the letters, the first written documents of Christianity, we are told that, “It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world but through the righteousness that comes from faith.” This means that St. Joseph was truly a man of great faith like Abraham but his inheritance is even greater than Abraham’s because he was made worthy to become the father of The Only Son of God, Who Became Man in the womb of his virgin wife! St. Joseph is also a great wonder of GOD, considering that in the Holy Scriptures, it is said, “there are none righteous before THE LORD.” And “Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before HIM.” (Romans 3:10, 19) That means that he was greatly Gifted by GOD to have a special place with HIM. I can imagine the fear and awe that St. Joseph must have had just as when Elizabeth was visited by Mary saying, “How is it given to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” I can imagine that he silently spoke in his mind, “Who am I that The Mother of my Lord should be my wife?” I’m sure that he didn’t feel worthy of or right to take a woman so completely and totally dedicated and consecrated to THE LORD as his wife. I feel the same way about the fact that Mary, Our Lady is Given to us to be our own Mother! Especially since we all fall so short of her holiness!
In closing, we have in St. Joseph, as The Church Teaches us, a powerful intercessor in THE LORD, whose prayers are most effective for us. In The Holy Scriptures, in the Letter to the Hebrews, that, “we are surrounded by… a great Cloud of Witnesses”, like the Glory Cloud that Filled the Tent of Meeting when the Israelites were in the desert and then The Cloud that Came down and surrounded Peter, James and John on the mountain of Jesus’ Transfiguration: those great figures and heroes of the Faith in the Old and New Testaments who went before us in Friendship with GOD, completely unmerited and undeserved by them but by The GRACE of GOD Learned to Walk with HIM and were BROUGHT into HIS HEAVENLY GLORY. When I think of St. Joseph, I imagine a great saw dust cloud in his workshop hard at work building and crafting to provide for Jesus and Mary. We can be sure that just as he did for Them two thousand years ago, he is watching over us and The Church, The Body of Christ today helping us to be pleasing to GOD and to bring us to Eternal life in Heaven. St. Joseph, pray for us!