When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. [19] Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. [20] But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost.
Matthew: 1: 18-20
Continuing on with our look at Christmas saints this Advent, go here for the post on Saint Matthew and here for the post on Saint Luke, we turn to Saint Joseph.
From his earliest mention in the Gospel of Saint Mathew we see Saint Joseph in the role of protector of Mary and Jesus.
When God decided to partake in our humanity, He could have had anyone for His foster father, and He chose a humble carpenter, a man who worked with his hands. Why?
The Bible gives us no indication that Saint Joseph was intelligent, brave or resourceful. He may have been all these things, but the Bible does not tell us. We know that he was of the House of David, but judging from all indications in the Bible he lived in humble circumstances. What made Joseph stand out to God other than the fact of his heritage?
Kindness I think, simple human kindness. This was graphically demonstrated at the very beginning when Saint Joseph first is mentioned in the Gospel of Saint Matthew 1:18 and 19:
Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
The phrase “unwilling to expose her to shame” puts rather delicately what Mary would have been facing. If Joseph had wished he could have dragged Mary to the center of the town and publicly accused her of adultery. If proper procedures had been followed, a trial would have been held before a doctor of the law. If Mary had been found guilty of adultery she and the child within her womb would have been put to death by stoning. If procedures were not followed, a mob would have gathered and, Joseph throwing the first stone, Mary and her child would have been put to death by a stoning “lynching”, not an uncommon occurrence in the time of Jesus. Joseph would have been completely within his rights pursuant to the Law to seek Mary’s blood for what he must have assumed was her betrayal of him.
However, Joseph loved Mary. His love did not die when he thought she had betrayed him with another man. Instead, his first instinct was to forgive her and to seek to protect her and her child. God chose Saint Joseph I think because in his willingness to forgive and to protect someone he thought had gravely wronged him, he was very much a man after God’s own heart. In this great act of forgiveness and love we see in miniature the preaching of Christ and how we must emulate God in His love and forgiveness for all of fallen Man.
I think of of Saint Joseph as the strong, silent type. The Gospels recall no speeches or quotes of Saint Joseph, but it does remember his actions: the refusal to expose Mary publicly when he initially assumed that she had betrayed him, his leading his family into Egypt on the warning of the Angel, the years of Christ’s growth to manhood when Saint Joseph labored to support his family. I assume that in a small village like Nazareth, a carpenter’s shop would have been a gathering place with men visiting and talking as Joseph went about his work, mending items they brought in and constructing items for them. Jesus was probably helping out from early childhood, and He listened as these men talked about their crops, taxes, funny things their wives, kids and relatives had done. From a human standpoint it is obvious how Jesus came up with material for His future parables.
Saint Joseph died before Christ began His public ministry, although we do not know when. Like many men he doubtless viewed his life as a mission and when that mission was accomplished he departed quietly, mourned only by those who knew him through what he had done.
The silence of Saint Joseph in the Gospels speaks eloquently of the preference of God for what we do rather than what we say.
