St. Joseph: Guardian of the Word Made Flesh

Br. Peter Trinko

A detail from Joseph with the Child and the Flowering Rod, by Alonso Miguel de Tovar (1678–1752).

​"Your father and I have been looking for you…And He went with them and was obedient to them.” (Luke 2: 48, 51) In these lines we find some of the most powerful testimony of the importance of St. Joseph’s role in the Gospel as the Guardian of the Word Made Flesh. 
 
While this great feast of St. Joseph is always an important day in the life of the Church, it takes on even more significance in this year as Pope Francis has designated this liturgical year the Year of St. Joseph[1], recognizing the 150th year since Pope Pius IX declared him the Patron of the Universal Church. ​

On March 19, 1961, St. Joseph was declared patron and protector of the Second Vatican Council

In the past 150 years, we have seen a steady increase of devotion to St. Joseph in the Church. Several orders have been founded under the patronage and name of St. Joseph, popes have written encyclicals on him, he was the patron of Vatican II, had his name added to the divine praises and even to the Eucharistic prayer. Fr. Donald Calloway points out in his book promoting the Consecration to St. Joseph that now is the time of St. Joseph. 
 
This increased attention to the foster-father of Christ is duly merited. In St. Joseph, we find a man of patience, fortitude, self-giving, faith, and perhaps most notably a man with unwavering trust in God and in His providence. [2] But we can also find in St. Joseph a special connection to Christ. In His hidden life, Christ was “subject” to and “grew in wisdom and strength” under the tutelage of Joseph.

---

Mary's words to Jesus show the complete reality of the Incarnation present in the mystery of the Family of Nazareth. 

We can truly say that St. Joseph, together with Mary, is the first guardian of the divine Mystery, that is, the Word Made flesh “hidden for ages in God” (Eph. 3:9). His acceptance of the angel’s annunciation of Virgin Mary’s conception of Jesus is a sharing in the Mother of God’s fiat in her own annunciation. Joseph, through his marriage to Mary, that is, through the family, has a relationship that places him as close as possible to Christ.[3] This marriage is not of flesh, but as St. Augustine says it is in the mind, is nevertheless real, and is the basis for his singular dignity and rights [e.g. his naming and authority] with regards to Christ. 

---

Joseph's human fatherhood was also "taken up" in the mystery of Christ's Incarnation. 

In Redemptoris Custoris, St. John Paul II beautifully highlights the unique connection of St. Joseph and Jesus:
 
 In this family, Joseph is the father: his fatherhood is not one that derives from begetting offspring; but neither is it an "apparent" or merely "substitute" fatherhood. Rather, it is one that fully shares in authentic human fatherhood and the mission of a father in the family. This is a consequence of the hypostatic union: humanity taken up into the unity of the Divine Person of the Word-Son, Jesus Christ. Together with human nature, all that is human, and especially the family - as the first dimension of man's existence in the world - is also taken up in Christ. Within this context, Joseph's human fatherhood was also "taken up" in the mystery of Christ's Incarnation.

The Holy Family with a Little Bird by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1650.

On the basis of this principle, the words which Mary spoke to the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple take on their full significance: "Your father and I...have been looking for you." This is no conventional phrase: Mary's words to Jesus show the complete reality of the Incarnation present in the mystery of the Family of Nazareth. From the beginning, Joseph accepted with the "obedience of faith" his human fatherhood over Jesus. And thus, following the light of the Holy Spirit who gives himself to human beings through faith, he certainly came to discover ever more fully the indescribable gift that was his human fatherhood. ​

This is a consequence of the hypostatic union: humanity taken up into the unity of the Divine Person of the Word-Son, Jesus Christ. Together with human nature, all that is human, and especially the family - as the first dimension of man's existence in the world - is also taken up in Christ. ​

Thus, it is through the mystery of the Incarnation that St. Joseph’s special role in the life of the Church is to be understood. 
 
In an era of increasing secularization, materialism, and attacks on the family, it is no wonder why Holy Mother Church and the saints continue to call for increased devotion to St. Joseph, Guardian of the Word made Flesh. The Patron of the Universal Church should also be the patron of our lives, in a particular way for men who are all called to be fathers, whether natural or spiritual. 
 
St. Faustina, the saint called to deliver the message of Divine Mercy to the world, shares in her diary: “St. Joseph urged me to have a constant devotion to him. He himself told me to recite three prayers [the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be] and the Memorare once every day. He looked at me with great kindness and gave me to know how much he is supporting this work [of mercy].[4]

There are many ways we can increase our devotion to St. Joseph: we can ask for his intercession when praying the rosary, when travelling, or when beginning any work. We can read more about his life or pray the Thirty Day prayer to St. Joseph. Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC has written a book on a Consecration to St. Joseph that can be found here. The Diocese of Charlotte has put together a wonderful website[5] with many different prayers and means to increase our devotion to St. Joseph.
 

Most importantly, we can ask him to help us draw closer to Jesus Christ, share in the confidence that St. Teresa of Avila has when she says: “….I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted; and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favors which God hath given me through this blessed Saint; the dangers from which he hath delivered me, both of body and of soul.[6]
 
Happy Feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary! St. Joseph, pray for us!

[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-12/pope-francis-proclaims-year-of-st-joseph.html

[2] Cf. Taking Mary into his home, the birth of Christ, the flight to Egypt. 

[3] St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos [Guardian of the Redeemer] , 5. (see here)

[4] St. Faustina, Diary, 1203. 

[5] https://yearofstjoseph.org

[6] St. Teresa of Avila, Autobiography, Ch. 6. ​​