Mar-19: Feast of St Joseph

We celebrate two feast days for St. Joseph: March 19 for Joseph the Husband of Mother Mary, and May 1 for Joseph the Worker. March 19 has been the most commonly celebrated feast day for Joseph, and it wasn't until 1955 that Pope Pius XII established the Feast of "St. Joseph the Worker" to be celebrated on May (also known as May Day or International Workers' Day)

St Joseph is the epitome of a silent Gospel figure since not a single word uttered by him is recorded in Scripture. What must have been the thoughts of the holy man at the birth of the Savior far from home in a humble stable, the coming of the shepherds talking about angels foretelling of a Messiah; and of the Magi from the East bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh; and at the prophesies which occurred at the time of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, we can merely guess. 

From Scripture we can tell Joseph, the husband of Mother Mary and foster father of Jesus, was a working man - a carpenter. In Matthew 13:55, skeptical Nazarenes remark about Jesus preaching in the synagogue saying, "Is this not the carpenter's son?". The original word in the Gospel is tekton which means "craftsman" or "artisan," thereby suggesting that Joseph could well have been a builder of homes as well as a carpenter.

Furthermore from Luke 2:24, we can deduce that Joseph wasn't rich for when he took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and Mary to be purified he offered the smaller sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons, allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb.

Yet despite his humble work and means, Joseph came from a royal lineage. Though Luke and Matthew disagree about the details of Joseph's genealogy, they both trace his descent from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38). Indeed the angel who first tells Joseph about Jesus greets him as "Joseph, son of David," a royal title used also for Jesus. Because of this ancestry, St. Joseph is the linkage between the old covenant made with Abraham and Moses, and the new, perfect, and everlasting covenant which will be made through the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. 

We can tell he was a God-fearing devote man who faithfully followed the Laws of Moses and also listened to God's commands told by the angle. In Matthew 1:19-25, we learn that an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Without question or hesitation, St. Joseph did as the angel commanded. Here again, we see the important role of Joseph: He is to take Jesus as his own Son and to name him, thereby giving Him legal recognition and legal personhood. This shows he is an obedient man who is compassionate, caring and dutiful father.

In Matthew 2:13-23, we hear that when the angel came again to tell him that his family was in danger from King Herod's fury, he immediately left everything he owned, all his family and friends, and fled as a refugee to a hostile country of Egypt with his young wife and the baby. He waited in Egypt without question until the angel told him that King Herod had died and that it was safe to go back.

Luke 2:48, talks about the great anxiety in which Mary and Joseph searched for the 12 year old Jesus for three long days when they found him missing on their return journey after spending the passover at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus expresses awareness of his real mission when he tells both Mary and Joseph that "I must be about my Father's business", meaning God the Father, and unsurprisingly they fail to understand (Luke 2:41–51). They return to Nazareth and Jesus is obedient to them, growing in stature with God and man. This is also the last time Scripture mentions St Joseph.

In fact Joseph is not mentioned as being present at the Wedding at Cana marking the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, nor at the Passion and Death at Golgotha. If he had been present at the Crucifixion, he would under Jewish custom have been expected to take charge of Jesus' body, but this role is instead performed by a disciple, one Joseph of Arimathea. Likewise were Joseph still alive Jesus, just before he died on the cross, would have no reason to entrusted his mother to the care of John the favorite Apostle.

St. Teresa of Avila (d. 1582) in her Life wrote, "I took St. Joseph as my advocate and protector, and recommended myself very earnestly to him. He came to my help in the most visible manner. This loving father of my soul, this beloved protector, hastened to pull me out of the state in which my body was languishing, just as he snatched me away from greater dangers of another nature which were jeopardizing my honor and my eternal salvation! For my happiness to be complete, he has always answered my prayers beyond what I had asked and hoped for. I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant. I am astonished at the great favors which God has bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which He has freed me, both in body and in soul.

In 1870, Pope Pius IX declared St Joseph to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary.  Joseph is also patron saint of the Universal Church, families, fathers, expectant mothers (pregnant women), travellers, immigrants, house sellers and buyers, craftsmen, engineers, and working people in general.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII inserted the name of Joseph in the Canon of the Mass, immediately after that of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

On Dec. 8, 2020, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter, Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), on the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as patron of the universal Church.   Pope Francis explains that the aim of celebrating a 'Year of Saint Joseph', from 8 December 2020, to 8 December 2021, was “to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal,” describing St. Joseph as a “beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.”

The mysterious wooden staircase of Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The staircase built in the 1850s is well known for being surrounded by at least two mysteries: the identity of its builder (said to be St Joseph) and the physics of its structure. The mysterious carpenter locked himself in the chapel for three months with a saw, a square and a few other simple tools, and disappeared as soon as the work was finished, without ever having asked for any payment for his services. No one is able to fully understand how the staircase, which is around six meters high, takes two full turns over its axis until it reaches the choir loft was built without any nails or glue, and lacks any kind of central support. The construction itself is said to be impossible. There is, maybe, a third mystery, too: although the staircase is known to be made of spruce wood, no one has been able to determine either what subspecies of spruce it is, or even how the wood got to the chapel.

References:

1] “St Joseph - Saints and Angels.” Catholic Online, www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4. Accessed 19 Mar. 2022.
2] Saunders, Fr William. “St Joseph.” Catholic Education Research Center, Arlington Catholic Herald, www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/st-joseph.html. Accessed 19 Mar. 2022.
3] Esparza, Daniel. “The Day St Joseph Built a Staircase in New Mexico.” Aleteia, 23 July 2018, aleteia.org/2018/07/23/the-day-st-joseph-built-a-staircase-in-new-mexico.