In 1955 Pope Pius XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Workman and decreed that the new Mass in the
saint's honor be said on May 1st. It is not by chance that this day was chosen. May 1st is May Day, a
Communist legal holiday in honor of the radical workers. In contrast, the Holy Father sets aside May 1st to
give honor to St. Joseph and to restore dignity to labour. The Church wants people to have private property
and to work out a decent livelihood through their labours. She knows that through this private property a
person will have more initiative and be more diligent. Labour will be more dignified as it was for St.
Joseph.
St. Joseph worked from morning early till late at night in his carpenter shop repairing dinner couches and
building shelves for the people of Nazareth. When he was summoned to Bethlehem for the census, even though
he lost working days, he closed his shop and set out on the journey. When the angel in a vision instructed
him to hide away in Egypt, he hearkened to the voice from Heaven even though he lost many more working days
the next five years. During that time it was extremely hard for him to make a living for himself, his wife,
and the Divine Child. But Joseph did not complain, because this trip and this sojourn were the will of God.
The labourer today, imitating his model, will not complain about losing work on Sundays and holydays, for
in leaving his work behind on those days he is doing the will of God.
The amateur, reading the Scriptures in the vernacular for the first time,
will blithely remark, "Little is said in the Bible about St. Joseph."
Others, more mature, realize that the most profound truths are so often
couched in pithy sentences. St. Matthew remarked casually that Joseph was a
just man. To be just, a person must observe all the commandments that
relate to God as well as those that relate to man. The just man does right
in the sight of God once and always. To say that Joseph was a just man is
enough, both because the sacred writer weighs his words and because the
phrase is so profound. In The Preparation of the Incarnation, Henry J.
Coleridge, S.J., writes:
It may most truly be said that the Sacred
Scripture is marvelous in the things which it tells us, and in the manner
in which they are told . . . it is marvelous in the way in which, as to
certain things, it seems to combine speech and silence at the same time, by
saying in the fewest words, and in a manner which almost escapes attention,
things which are found to have very deep and very full meanings, and to
convey the most important truths.
Right reason assists a student in
formulating a true picture of the foster father's holiness. Holiness rubs
off on another just as does sinfulness. The Child Jesus could not sin, and
His Mother was a living saint. The holiness of the Divine Child and of His
Mother affected Joseph like a contagion. Further, God who chose a sinless
virgin to nurture the Child would contemplate only a holy father to protect
the two. God had the power to do that and would do no less.
His Power of Intercession
In the Litany of All Saints, Christians
invoke the help of God and of the saints more or less in the order of their
influence. After God is invoked in His triune form, the Christian calls
upon the Blessed Mother; then upon the named angels and all the angels.
After that he calls upon St. John the Baptist and St. Joseph. There was a
debate whether to put St. Joseph ahead of St. John with some in favor of
that position and others preferring the position after the Patriarchs. A
compromise was reached in which St. Joseph is placed between St. John and
the Patriarchs without any thought that the precursor takes precedence. At
the Vatican Council a few bishops drew up a petition that St. Joseph comes
next in rank to the Blessed Mother. Two hundred and fifty-six bishops and
38 cardinals signed the petition, but since the Council was brought to an
untimely end, the petition remains in the archives.
A saint's power of
intercession is in direct proportion to his holiness. St. Joseph's
superlative degree of holiness spells only a universal power of
intercession. Other saints have a limited power. Blessed Martin de Porres
is good at driving out rats. St. John Nepomucene may be invoked by husbands
against loquacious consorts. And any wife whose husband gambles away the
family funds may pray to St. Camillus, the first to lose his shirt in a
poker game. But for all-around help you call upon St. Joseph. St. Bernard
says, "Power is given to some of the saints to help in particular
necessities; but to St. Joseph power is given to help in all necessities .
. ." St. Teresa of Avila explains that He who always did the will of St.
Joseph on earth continues doing that will in heaven. In The Life of Mother
Teresa of Jesus the great mystic writes of her particular devotion to
Joseph.
The Knowledge of St. Joseph
It is clear to the
Christians that the Blessed Mother had great knowledge (Luke 2, 19), that
she was the library of the Apostles. It is not quite so clear that St.
Joseph knew something too. It would be ridiculous to imagine that the
Blessed Mother who gave the Apostles the information they needed about the
Divine Son would keep her holy husband in unholy ignorance. It would be
equally ridiculous to imagine that the Child Jesus who stood in the Temple
to interpret the Scriptures for the learned doctors kept this knowledge
away from His own father. Then, without any charity at all, we must say
Joseph learned a few things by himself. In addition, God who gave Adam the
knowledge needed to start the human race saw to it that holy Joseph had the
proper knowledge to rear the Child Jesus. Writes Henri Rondet, S.J.:
No doubt it would be a mistake here to put Joseph on the same level with
Mary; but it would also be a mistake to put him aside as knowing nothing,
as quite ignorant of mysteries, past, present and future, and of God's
purposes with regard to Jesus.
St. Francis de Sales says that St.
Joseph surpassed Solomon in wisdom, and adds, "What must have been his
wisdom, since the Eternal Father chose him to have responsibility for the
training of His Divine Son?"
The Popes on St. Joseph
In
the divine economy our knowledge of Christ develops first, then our
knowledge of the Blessed Mother, and finally our knowledge of St. Joseph.
First the Church develops a devotion to Our Lord; then to the Blessed
Mother; and finally to St. Joseph. After the doctrines about Christ had
been defined at Chalcedon and Ephesus, the doctrines of the Blessed Mother,
the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, were defined by Pope Pius IX
and Pope Pius XII. Now it appears we are at the beginning of a period (it
covers centuries) when doctrines about St. Joseph will be defined. But as
devotions to Christ and the Blessed Mother developed before doctrines came
out, so have the devotions to St. Joseph developed. In 1870 Pope Pius IX
solemnly proclaimed St. Joseph the protector of the Universal Church. Leo
XIII ended his encyclical on the Rosary, Quanquam pluries, with a thought
on the surpassing holiness of St. Joseph.
"No other saint . . . so nearly
approaches that place of dignity which in the Mother of God is far above
all created natures." Pius X, whose baptismal name was Joseph, authorized
a Litany of St. Joseph for public usage in 1909. Benedict XV in 1919 issued
a proper preface for the Feast of St. Joseph. In 1937 Pius XI proclaimed
St. Joseph the patron against atheistic communism. Finally, in 1955, Pius
XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Workman.
The Assumption
of St. Joseph
While the Assumption of the Blessed Mother was
defined only in 1950, it was a popular belief all through the centuries
back to the beginning. Now there is no definition about the Assumption of
St. Joseph, nor is there a popular belief as strong as there was for the
Blessed Mother. Nevertheless men of note have held this tenet. Francis
Suarez maintained St. Joseph was taken up into heaven bodily. St.
Bernardino of Siena, Gerson, and St. Vincent Ferrer held the same. St.
Francis de Sales points out the fact that nobody claims the tomb of St.
Joseph and that there are no relics of this saint. Then he continues in Les
Vrais Entretiens Spirituels:
Surely, when Our Lord went down into
Limbo, St. Joseph addressed Him in this wise: "Be pleased to remember,
Lord, that when you came down from Heaven to earth I received you into my
house and family, that I took you into my arms from the moment you were
born. Now you are going back to Heaven, take me with you (body and soul). I
received you into my family, receive me into yours; I took you in my arms;
take me into yours; I looked after you and fed you and guided you during
your life on earth; stretch forth your hand and lead me into life
everlasting."
Note
The quotations, unless otherwise
indicated, are taken from Saint Joseph by Henri Rondet, S.J., translated by
Donald Attwater (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1956).
This article was published in May 1957 by Joseph W Wagner Inc,
New York, NY in 'The Homiletic and Pastoral Review' pp 733-735.
© Homiletic and Pastoral Review 1957
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