Talk 2 : St. Joseph the Worker
Order of Malta Lourdes Pilgrimage
1 May 2022
Some of you are aware that my last parish was Hatfield. The Salisburys were always very gracious: he as Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, where I was chaplain; she as a parishioner. It troubled me that many of the international students had never even heard of Hatfield House and had certainly never visited the place. I determined to rectify that, but felt some students might have been discouraged by the entry fee. So, I asked Lady Salisbury was there any chance of a discount? ‘Absolutely not,’ she replied. ‘You must all come for free, and I will show you round myself.’ She kept her word.
The Salisburys were not always so tolerant of Catholics. A century earlier they were distinctly unimpressed when a member of the family, Algernon Cecil, became a papist. To compound the crime, the new convert grew a beard. Hugh Cecil challenged his cousin:
‘Algernon, why have you grown that absurd beard.’
Algernon defended himself: ‘Our Lord had a beard.’
Hugh was having none of it: ‘But Our Lord was not a gentleman.’
We have to face facts.
Yet, I make no apologies for this emphasis on the figure of St. Joseph. Today, 1 May, is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, established by Pope Pius XII. We are at the Shrine of Our Lady. She wants honour and reverence to be given to her most chaste spouse, whom God chose to raise the Christ Child just as certainly as He did Our Lady. The Church has always venerated Joseph. We need him today perhaps more than ever before. We need to reflect: How well do I know St. Joseph? To what extent does he feature in my spiritual life? Then perhaps I need to take action.
Just because Joseph might have slipped from our consciousness, does not mean that he was not loved and revered by the saints and fathers of the Church. Once we pay attention, we may be surprised by the dignity he has been accorded. Going back to Jerome and Augustine, there was a widespread consensus that, after only Our Lady, Joseph is preeminent and the most powerful of all the saints. Way back in the fourth century the Eastern Church Father Gregory Nazianzus said of him: ‘The Almighty has concentrated in St. Joseph, as in a sun of unrivalled lustre, the combined light and splendour of all the other saints.’ Thomas Aquinas wrote in similar vein:
There are many saints to whom God has given the power to assist us in the necessities of life, but the power given to St. Joseph is unlimited: It extends to all our needs, and all those who invoke him with confidence will be heard.
Anthony will look after your lost set of keys. Joseph will look after everything.
St. Teresa of Avila also had confidence in Joseph and wished others to share her trust:
I wish I could persuade everyone to be devoted to the glorious St. Joseph, for I have experience of the great blessings which he can obtain from God. I do not remember that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant.
Joseph comes with the highest of recommendations.
Until I became a Catholic, I don’t think I had ever heard anyone talk of the significance of that Scriptural verse: ‘Ite ad Ioseph!’ ‘Go to Joseph; do whatever he tells you.’ The quote is taken from the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, spoken by Pharaoh. But early Christians knew, of course, that God is the God of all history, the author of the whole Bible. What is said in the Old Testament prefigures what will happen in the New. What seemed a terrible disaster, Joseph’s betrayal by his brothers, his sale into slavery in Egypt, in God’s Providence turns out to be for the salvation of his people. It allows Israel, in the midst of famine, to be fed with grain from Egypt. The Church Fathers saw this as prefiguring the mission of St. Joseph, who brought Jesus, the Bread of Life, out of exile in Egypt to nurture our spiritual hunger. Joseph has an essential role to play in salvation history. ‘Go to Joseph; do whatever he tells you.’
Down the centuries Joseph has been venerated and revered, but it is really in the last 150 years that he has come into his own, starting with Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church in 1870. I wonder whether we are aware that Joseph appeared at the final apparition at Fatima in 1917, holding the Christ Child, giving the world his blessing? Today’s feast of St. Joseph the Worker was established in 1955. St. John XXIII inserted Joseph’s name in the canon of the Mass in 1962. In 2013 Pope Francis consecrated the Vatican City State to Joseph. In 2020 he declared the Year of St. Joseph. It was, of course, rather overshadowed by the pandemic, but his Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde, ‘With a Father’s Heart’, is one of the most beautiful of his pontificate, well worth reading and returning to.
Part of this increasing emphasis on St. Joseph is, of course, his role as patron of workers, whether they be craftsmen, City folk or anyone involved in any form of labour. It is a reminder that, taught by St. Joseph, Our Lord Himself engaged in years of manual labour before beginning His public ministry.
There was, of course, context to Pius XII’s action in 1955. May Day had acquired a certain connotation, appropriated by those hostile to the Gospel. ‘We place the vast campaign of the Church against world communism under the standard of St. Joseph, her mighty protector,’ wrote the Pope. The Church has spoken consistently against ideologies which would place in opposition various socio-economic groups, proclaiming rather basic human rights and the common good.
‘The devil hates an honest and diligent worker.’ The Church promotes both the rights of workers, and industrial and economic harmony. Our Lord and St. Joseph demonstrate that work is to be seen as a share in God’s own creative activity, a means of our own sanctification. ‘Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you heirs.’ Pope Francis asks us to call upon St. Joseph, the working father, to ensure that no one is deprived of this dignity of engaging in productive work.
A recent author makes a telling comment we do well to bear in mind:
Neither Jesus nor St. Joseph were workaholics. Workaholics are of no benefit to themselves, the family, or society. God does not delight in a workaholic.’
Joseph worked hard to support his family. But he also had time for the Mother and Child and to fulfil his religious duties. In whatever state of life we find ourselves, we are never simply economic units, we are to nurture and develop the whole person, to ensure adequate attention is given to our family and to our spiritual life.
It is easy to understand the increased focus on St. Joseph with respect to the world of work. But there is another area in which St. Joseph is of even greater importance in the modern world and in our Christian lives. And that is in his capacity as our spiritual father. Sr. Lucia of Fatima said: ‘The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family.’ St. John Paul II made the same connection between the wellbeing of civilisation and the state of the family. It is here above all that God gives St. Joseph a mission in the Church and the world today. His spiritual paternity is needed to protect marriage and the family today, just as he protected Our Lady and Our Lord 2,000 years ago.
As Catholics, we are accustomed to thinking of Our Lady as our spiritual mother. How often do we think of St. Joseph as our spiritual father? If we wish to deepen our understanding of St. Joseph in this capacity, we can do no better than turn to the recent work by Fr. Donald Calloway called Consecration to St. Joseph. Fr. Calloway says this: we are not members of ‘a single-parent spiritual family’. If, through baptism, Jesus is spiritually our brother, then Mary and Joseph must be our spiritual parents. It is something Pius XII drew attention to:
If Joseph was so engaged, heart and soul, in protecting and providing for that little family in Nazareth, don’t you think that now in heaven he is the same loving father and guardian of the whole Church, of all its members, as he was of its Head on earth?
Of course, we see that with Our Lady. Jesus gave her to us from the Cross, she was his biological mother. But what about St. Joseph? Isn’t that a little more complex? A strand of Catholic tradition has been very careful to call him the foster father of Our Lord, desiring to protect both the virginity of Our Lady and the divinity of Our Lord. That is perfectly comprehensible and laudable. Yet we can complicate matters unnecessarily. Do we really think that Jesus in His infancy went around calling St. Joseph ‘foster father’? Of course, He didn’t. He called him ‘father’ or ‘dad’. Back in the fourth century Augustine set out the position clearly. Joseph is not the biological father of Our Lord, and yet Joseph most certainly exercised a paternal role in respect to Our Lord with regard to the protection, affection and masculine example he offered Him.
In many ways, this makes St. Joseph even more important today when the role of father is needed more than ever. St. Joseph shows us that this paternal function can be effectively exercised by someone who is not the biological father. Stepfathers, adoptive fathers, priests, teachers, Knights of the Order are also all called to witness to the world in this capacity after the example of St. Joseph, with the help of his prayers.
In coming amongst us, Jesus took to Himself everything appropriate to His humanity, including a human mother and a human father. In His humanity, Jesus had the same physical, psychological and emotional needs as any other child, needs best fulfilled by a mother and a father. Luke tells us that He lived under their authority at Nazareth. In doing so, He flourished and grew in His humanity. A boy especially needs a male role model. Jesus learned His carpenter’s trade from Joseph; but He would have learned much more as well.
With Mary, Joseph would, at one level, have taught Jesus to pray. He would have taken Him to the synagogue on the Sabbath. We know that St. Joseph took the family on the extended pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the major feasts. It seems a little unfair on the mothers, but the studies tell us that it is the practice of the father which is one of the most significant factors in determining whether or not the child will continue to practise the faith. Certainly, it is one of the things I thank God for – the fact that we have so many young fathers in our parish bringing their children to Mass.
How is the fatherhood of St Joseph exercised? Not surprisingly, Pope Benedict, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, has a significant amount to say about his patron saint – specifically on his spiritual paternity:
There is but one fatherhood, that of God the Father, the one Creator of the world, of all that is seen and unseen. Yet man, created in the image of God, has been granted a share in the one paternity of God (Eph. 3:15). St. Joseph is a striking case of this, since he is a father, without fatherhood according to the flesh. He is not the biological father of Jesus, whose Father is God alone, and yet he lives his fatherhood fully and completely. To be a father means above all to be at the service of life and growth. St. Joseph, in this sense, gave proof of great devotion.
Pope Francis fleshed out further what Joseph’s spiritual paternity looks like. St. Joseph is the ‘beloved father’, who places himself entirely at God’s disposal in the plan of salvation. He handed over all his own personal plans for life lovingly and unreservedly, that God’s will might be fulfilled. This is what makes Joseph so beloved to believers down the centuries.
St. Joseph is ‘a tender and loving father’. The modern world offers this dichotomy of masculine images. Either one is boorish, selfish and unwilling to commit in any form, or one is drained of all masculinity, unwilling to step up to the obligations of a father and husband. Pope Francis says: ‘In Joseph, Jesus saw the tender love of God.’ When we think who Jesus truly is, that is an extraordinary thing to say, and yet it is true. ‘In Joseph, Jesus saw the tender love of God.’ We desperately need the example of St. Joseph, who shows us what it is to be a tender, loving father, gentle but firm. True paternity is not afraid to acknowledge its fears and weaknesses, but, in the company of God, not to be defined or overwhelmed by them.
St. Joseph is ‘an obedient father’. He is that just man, but of course he had his fears and lack of comprehension when he discovered that Mary was pregnant, and that the Child was not his. St. Joseph is a typical man. He says nothing. He does not share his concerns with others. But he is open and obedient to God – time and again. He does as God asks. He is not afraid to take Mary as his wife; he escorts her when heavily pregnant to Bethlehem. He takes Mother and Child out of danger to Egypt, and brings them home to Nazareth when that danger has subsided. Too many men today either want to be free of all commitment to others, or are paralysed by indecision. We need the prayers and the example of St. Joseph, acting promptly in obedience to God’s will.
‘An accepting father.’ Joseph is not passively resigned. He certainly decides and acts when necessary, but he is prepared to accept the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He accepts God’s call not to fear, but to trust. Often our personal and family lives are confronted by situations which can seem overwhelming. We are called to display the simple fidelity in the goodness of God which St. Joseph exemplifies. And to do this we need to be people of prayer, those who are comfortable spending time in contact with God each day.
‘A creatively courageous father.’ Trusting God does not mean foregoing any initiative on our part. God wants us to work in partnership with Him. He wants to make use of our ideas, our skills, our capacity. Pope Francis has this beautiful image. It would have been desperately disappointing to have arrived in Bethlehem to discover that the only place for the birth was a stable. And yet Joseph used his carpenter’s skills to make that stable the best possible home for the moment for the Mother and Child. Joseph would have needed to be resourceful in providing a livelihood for the Holy Family in Egypt. Like Joseph, may we seek solutions, rather than lament and magnify problems. Like Joseph, we are called to love the Child and the Mother in the person of the Church and the poor.
‘A father in the shadows.’ Part of the reason why St. Joseph might have featured less in our lives is the fact that he is ‘in the shadows’. Not one single word of his is recorded in the Scriptures. Yet this too is part of his greatness and his lesson. Joseph forces nothing of himself, of his expectations and needs on Mary and Jesus.
Pope Francis speaks of the paternity this reveals:
Our world today needs fathers. It has no use for tyrants who would dominate others as a means of compensating for their own needs ... Every child is the bearer of a unique mystery that can only be brought to light with the help of a father who respects that child’s freedom … In exercise of our fatherhood, we should always keep in mind that it has nothing to do with possession, but is rather a ‘sign’ pointing to a greater fatherhood. In a way we are all like Joseph: a shadow of the heavenly Father.
Of course, none of us wish to be tyrants. But it can be so easy to find ourselves attempting to impose our expectations on our children – biological, adopted or spiritual. True paternity is providing the space to allow the authentic growth of the other.
Fr. Calloway offers an interesting insight which may affect the way we view St. Joseph. There is nothing in the New Testament to give an indication of his age. We are free to form our own opinion. Traditionally, we have tended to think of St. Joseph as being much older than Our Lady – probably because he was no longer living when Our Lord began His public ministry, certainly when He was crucified and entrusted His Mother to the care of St. John. But in a world where mortality rates were high and life expectancy low, there is no particular reason to think this was the case. St. Joseph might well have died in his 40s or 50s of natural causes or an industrial injury. We need to ask: can we really imagine an old man making the long journey by foot over arduous terrain from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to Egypt, and then from Egypt back to Nazareth. As well as those annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. St. Joseph was young enough to set up home and earn a living for himself and his family. He was a worker, not a pensioner.
Fr. Calloway concedes that St. Joseph might have been a few years older than Our Lady, but not of a different generation. This is important because it influences the image we have of him. Fr. Calloway presents St. Joseph as virile, chaste and disciplined, not past the age of caring and loving intensely. In restraining his desires, he showed a greater love for Mother and Child, and offers a more powerful example to us today. St. Joseph is a model and patron for everyone, but particularly for younger men.
Finally, in Lourdes, it is good that we finish with the reflection that ‘St. Joseph is the most Marian of all the saints.’ No human being has ever loved Our Lady more than St. Joseph, showed her greater reverence and tenderness. He took Mary into his heart and his home. Joseph is the model of true chivalry. He is par excellence ‘the Knight of Our Lady’. Devotion to St. Joseph will only ever bring us closer to Jesus and Mary.
Let us conclude with the prayer from Pope Francis’s Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde:
‘Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted His only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen
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