In his apostolic exhortation “Guardian of the Redeemer” the
Holy Father JPII says of St Joseph, “I wish to offer for your consideration,
dear brothers and sisters, some reflections concerning him into whose custody
God entrusted his most precious treasures. I gladly fulfil this pastoral duty
so that all may grow in devotion to the patron of the Universal Church
and in love for the Saviour whom he served in such an exemplary way.”
I think the most beautiful words in the above quote are
“into whose custody God entrusted His most precious of treasures” For indeed God must have honoured and
prepared St Joseph from all eternity for the task of being “Guardian of the
Redeemer:”
The most interesting aspect of the Joseph story is his
silence. Not a word is uttered by him in
any of the Gospels. However, whilst
silence dominates his person from the description of the Gospel writers, his
life and guardianship roles are illuminated by vigilance, compassion, love, and
action. Indeed all the characteristics
of God the Eternal Father.
The present slow and insidious disintegration of the family
and society is made more grotesquely disfigured by the decline, disdain, loss
of respect and attack on God the Father and fatherhood in general. In this atmosphere of confusion and suffering
we need a strong focus. We need a strong
human male to silently but courageously show the way out of the quagmire of
decline and death. That man is St
Joseph, husband, father and saint.
Whenever God wishes to do something new with humanity, He
usually prefigures the event in a most astonishing way. Jesus was prefigured by Isaac, Moses, David,
et. al. Mary was prefigured by Esther,
Hannah, and the mother of the reigning king, so too St Joseph was prefigured by
his own namesake Joseph, son of Jacob (Gn. 39-50) in the Old Testament.
Joseph the favourite son of Jacob was betrayed by his own
and finally ascended to the highest position in the land of Egypt .
His guardianship of the granaries ensured the wellbeing of the people of the
land and especially the wellbeing of his own family most especially those who
had forsaken him.
“Go to Joseph and do what he tells you” (Gen 42:55) says the
Pharaoh to the Egyptians. Joseph is in
charge of the grain for the bread. Joseph is in control of life sustaining
elements. New Testament Joseph is also
placed in charge but not of earthly grain but the most sublime living bread,
the “bread that comes down from heaven” (Jn 6:32-40) “the bread of life” (Jn
6:35).
The ancient patriarch
Joseph was saved and then hidden from his kinsmen to fulfil a future need. God disguised him for the purpose of saving
His people who were covenanted to Himself.
The Joseph of Nazareth was also a screen but this time he hid the
reality of the Virgin birth and the Virgin mother and her child. In this role as husband of Mary, her
miraculous pregnancy and the birth of the child. Jesus remained hidden from the adversary and
society until the appointed time.
Perhaps today as we struggle under the weight of personal
and societal sin, it is again the “opportune time” to call again on St Joseph to help us
regain the meaning of family, fatherhood and service in love. Indeed the role of St Joseph was to serve the
Redeemer as “father” and the Redeemer’s mother as “spouse” and together
completely fulfil the will and plan of God.
Meditating on the infancy narratives it’s very clear that St Joseph held the authority over the household in Nazareth. It was Joseph who officially name the child Jesus (Mt 1:24) It was Joseph who was asked by the angel to “arise and take the child and His mother and flee to
“Our prayers and the very person of Joseph have renewed
significance for the church in our day in the light of the third
millennium. This just man, who bore
within himself the entire heritage of the Old Covenant, was also brought into
the beginning of the new and eternal covenant in Jesus Christ. May he show us the paths of his saving
covenant as we stand at the threshold of the next millennium, in which there
must be a continuation and further redevelopment of the “fullness of time” that
belongs to the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word. May St Joseph obtain for the Church and for
the world as well as for each of us the blessing of the Father, the Son and
Holy Spirit” (Guardian of the Redeemer p36.).
Further, as we enter into this new 21st
millennium, may we meditate not only the fatherhood of God, the Sonship of
Jesus Christ, and the Virginal Motherhood of Mary of Nazareth, but also on the
earthly fatherhood of St Joseph. Both
the Eternal Father and earthly father of Jesus Fathered him well, and loved the
child they individually and completely fathered (Jesus) and both of these
fathers love the siblings of Jesus, humanity.
In fact so much so that the Universal church has appointed St Joseph as Guardian of
the Household of God. Guardian and protector of the “Bride” of Christ the
church. The Protection of his son’s
bride has been given to Joseph just as surely as the care and protection of the
young child was given to him, until the fullness of time.