St. Joseph

We celebrate two feast days for St.Joseph: March 19 for Joseph the Husband of 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 1.

This is also May Day (International Workers' Day) and believed to reflect Joseph's status as the patron saint of workers.

Joseph the carpenter, despite his humble work and means, came from the royal lineage of King David. He has two different genealogies in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Mathew follows the major royal line from Solomon, while Luke traces his line back to Nathan, another son of David and Bathsheba. Consequently, all the names between David and Joseph are different. The two genealogies yet reconcile the requirement of the scriptures that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem, because Joseph and Mary had to travel there to be counted in a census. Jesus is referred to as Nazarene (a much lesser-known village of Nazareth in Galilee) because Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to Nazareth and settles there after returning from Egypt. Both Matthew and Luke tell us that Joseph was from the family of David as the angel who first tells Joseph about Jesus greets him as "Son of David", a royal title used also for Jesus.

Marriage of St. Joseph is considered to be of equal importance as that of the virginity of Mother Mary. St. John Paul II in his reflections on the Sermon on the Mount in the Theology of the Body (TOB), “[Christ] assigns the dignity of every woman as a task to every man.” And “he assigns also the dignity of every man to every woman” (TOB 100:6). Upholding this dignity “is assigned as ethos to every man, male and female: it is assigned to his ‘heart,’ to his conscience, to his looks, and to his behavior” (TOB 100:7). St. Joseph is assigned the “task” of Mary’s dignity. This task requires two virtues: purity to see and modesty to protect.

Scripture scholarship and the Doctors of the Church reinforce our faith that St. Joseph’s purity of heart allowed him to behold a great mystery in the body of Mary. In the purity of his heart, St. Joseph beheld in his virginal bride the awesome mystery of God’s presence. The body of Mary caused the sacred astonishment of St. Joseph as he beheld the great mystery of divine, spousal love in the language of Mary’s virginal pregnancy.

Suspicion Theory: Joseph suspects Mary of adultery and plans to divorce her but the angel intervenes. Joseph is righteous because he follows the Law and refuses any immorality. St. Justin Martyr, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Augustine held that one.

Perplexity Theory: Mary’s pregnant so the only option is divorce. But even though he can’t explain it, Joseph also can’t believe Mary was unfaithful. She must be innocent and shouldn’t be killed but, at the same time he can’t understand it. He’s perplexed. So, he decides not to expose her. Joseph remains righteous here because he lives by the Law but still gives Mary the benefit of the doubt and spares her life. St. Jerome went by that theory.

Reverence Theory. This is the one thought to be least plausible. Here Joseph understands the miraculous nature of Mary’s pregnancy from the start and feels unworthy to be with her. The quiet divorce safeguards her secret. But the angel reveals that he’s a central part of God’s plan, as well. So, he gets married. Joseph remains righteous because of his great reverence for God, his humility, and his obedience in the face of difficulties. St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Thomas Aquinas held this view. St. Thomas Aquinas reiterates this insight in his Summa Theologica, “Joseph wanted to give the Virgin her liberty, not because he suspected her of adultery, but out of respect for her sanctity he feared to live together with her.” (Supplementum III, q. 62, art. 3).

The Scripture says Mary “was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.” It doesn’t just say she was just found with child…and that’s all. It says she was “found with child” and that child came from “the Holy Spirit.” St. Joseph recognized the virtue necessary to protect such a profound mystery. Like St. Peter and the centurion who both said, “I am not worthy,” St. Joseph did not consider himself virtuous enough to veil this mystery by his presence; rather he thought he could do so better by his absence.

In God’s gentle Providence, He sent an angel to St. Joseph to reassure him that he should protect her mystery by remaining her husband, by taking her mystery with him under his roof. Scripture affirms that St Joseph obeyed the angel. We can even read the exactitude of his obedience by the exact correspondence in scripture. The angel said, “Take Mary your wife into your home” (Mt 1:20) and Scripture affirms, “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.” (Mt 1:24)

One of the Church Fathers claimed the success of Joseph’s obedience in indicating that it is precisely the marriage that he maintained with Mary that protected her from the devil.

He was faithful to Mary, caring for her while they waited for her baby to be born. When the angel came again to tell him about King Herod’s plan to kill baby Jesus, he immediately left everything, and fled to Egypt. He waited in Egypt until the angel told him it was safe to go back. He was faithful to Jesus, protecting him and helping Mary to raise Jesus with love in the obscure town of Nazareth. When Jesus stayed in the Temple, we are told Joseph (along with Mary) searched with great anxiety for three days for him (Luke 2:48). We also know that Joseph treated Jesus as his own son for over and over the people of Nazareth say of Jesus, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" (Luke 4:22).

Being the silent man and no direct interpretations from the Gospel, we can take him as a simple, ordinary man striving for faithfulness to God’s call. However, he did this in an extraordinary way. Being righteous, pure and chaste, he was in tune with the Holy Spirit, and aware of the divinity of Jesus. Pope Saint John Paul II’s Guardian of the Redeemer portrays the sanctity of St Joseph as, “The model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies…he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need to do great things, it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues…”