Saint Joseph
On Friday, March 19th, the Church will celebrate the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus Christ and spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Normally this feast day passes by in relative obscurity, yet because this year marks the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis declared 2021 a “year of St. Joseph.” To honor him and bring about graces from heaven upon us; I encourage you to join me in saying the following novena to St. Joseph beginning on March 10 and ending on March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, and to attend Mass on that day at 7am if you can. There are a few different novenas to choose from but I like this one the best.
I have attached below a pastor’s column that I wrote on St. Joseph a little over a year ago. Enjoy.
Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings!
Since the New Year, I’ve been doing a consecration to St. Joseph through a book called: Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC. The book is 300 pages long so I can’t condense it down to a single pastor’s column, yet it does contain a number of gems, one of which I would like to share with you now. It has to do with St. Joseph’s doubt as to what he should have done when he discovered that his wife, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was with child. You’ll remember that an angel visits him in a dream and tells him to take Mary into his home and not to abandon her and the child. Here’s the scripture passage from Matthew 1:18-24.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed [wed] to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife [into his home].
I’ve given homilies on St. Joseph’s motivation for “dismissing or divorcing Mary”, so you might recall some of these points; yet Fr. Calloway lays them out in Consecration to St. Joseph with much more detail and citations. I share some of those with you here:
“From the first centuries of the Church’s history, there have been three theories posited about St. Joseph’s plan of action when he discovered that his wife was pregnant. All three of the theories have been held by various saints and scholars, and all three theories originate in the early Church.” The three theories are:
The Suspicion Theory. St. Joseph suspects Mary of adultery, and as a result, he decides to obtain a divorce. According to Jewish law, if a just man wants to divorce his wife because she has been unfaithful, he is required to stone her. St. Joseph, being a just man, does not want to stone Mary, so he seeks to divorce her quietly. This theory was promoted in the apocryphal literature and held by several Fathers of the Church [and it is the most prominent theory promoted by Protestant Christians].
The Stupefaction Theory. St. Joseph is perplexed and stupefied by Mary’s pregnancy, but he does not doubt Mary’s innocence. He is dumbfounded and doesn’t know what to do. Confused, he decides to divorce Mary. Some Fathers of the Church adhere to this theory and greatly promote it. It becomes the most common theory and is known as “Joseph’s doubt”.
The Reverence Theory. St. Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant, but he does not doubt her purity and innocence. Instead, he doubts his worthiness and ability to take care of Mary and the child. A just man, he knows that Mary belongs to God and he considers himself unworthy of living with Mary [and the Messiah]. He decides to separate himself from her quietly out of justice to God and reverence for Mary. He is willing to leave the picture so as not to reveal her mystery. Some Fathers of the Church, as well as many medieval saints, theologians, and mystics promote this theory.
According to [St.] Jerome and Origen, Joseph had no suspicion of adultery because he knew the modesty and chastity of Mary. Moreover, he had read in Scripture that the virgin would conceive and that a ‘shoot shall sprout from the stock of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.’ He knew also that Mary was descended from the line of David. Thus it was easier for him to believe that Isaiah’s prophecy had been accomplished in her than to think that she could have let herself descend into debauchery. This is why, considering himself unworthy to live with a person of such great sanctity, he wanted to send her away secretly – like when Peter says to Jesus, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.’
St. Thomas Aquinas
In short, St. Joseph decided to quietly send the Blessed Virgin Mary away (back to her parents) not because he thought she cheated on him, or because he was ignorant of God’s plan; but because he did know how Mary got pregnant (God), who was in her womb (The Messiah), and he didn’t want to mess up God’s divine plan through his lack. Moreover, because nobody would have suspected Mary of adultery, Joseph was willing to forfeit his good reputation by having the villagers believe that he fathered the baby and abandoned both mother and child! All of this is exactly the opposite of what many people believe about St. Joseph’s motivation for concluding that he should quietly send the Blessed Virgin Mary away.
Over the past month of reading Consecration to St. Joseph I’ve been learning more about the holiness, attributes, and power of St. Joseph’s intercession than I had ever known before. I encourage you to get the book and do the 33 day consecration. I leave you with this quote:
Who was holier than Joseph? Who was purer than the Most Holy Virgin? And yet he [St. Joseph] wanted to leave her secretly. But how prudently and righteously he wanted to do it! He did not want to separate from her openly, lest she be defamed, but clandestinely, that she may preserve her good name. You ought to learn from this holy and just man: although the deeds of others may seem evil to you and are said to be imperfect, you should judge them secretly, not openly, and judge in such a way that neither your conscience nor their good name be hurt. If you do so, you will not be lacking the light, so that you may judge rightly, as the righteous husband of the Most Holy Virgin did not lack light for comprehending the truth about how she had conceived.
St. Stanislaus Papczynski
May Almighty God Bless You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
