Saint Joseph Solemnity

Saint Joseph - Sermon in Chapter 17th March, 2010

Br. Philip

· All that we know for certain of St Joseph is contained in the first two chapters of St. Matthew and St. Luke’s Gospel.

· Matthew’s infancy narrative presents Joseph as an important figure linking Jesus to Israel in order to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah, despite the virginal conception and despite being raised at Nazareth .

· When the Gospel story begins, Joseph had already moved north to work as a builder in Nazareth and it is there he married Mary the Mother of Jesus. In the event that followed the marriage – the census journey to Bethlehem . Christ’s virgin birth there, the flight into Egypt and the return to Nazareth – the evangelists have recorded scarcely any Joseph’s thoughts or reactions. The little they have recorded reveals him as a man of singular uprightness, the patient instrument of God do what is require of him with unquestioning faith.

· The true greatness of Joseph, however, does not lie simply in the life he lived. The New Testament constantly calls him the father of Jesus, and although this does not involve physical generation, it involved more than mere guardianship in God’s place. Joseph was an essential part in the human family in which the Son of God became man, and his relationship with Christ was no less for being virginal than was that of his Virgin Mother.

· This fatherhood Joseph continues to exercise over the Church, in which the mystery of Christ is extended through time.

· The Apostolic Exhortation on St. Joseph entitled “The Guardian of the Redeemer” and issued by Pope John Paul II is the most precise and complete document ever issued by the Holy See on St. Joseph . In that document, it is remarkable the Pope singles out Saint Teresa of Avila and the special impetus she has given to devotion to the head of the Holy Family. The Pope describes his importance Joseph was in daily contact with the mystery ‘hidden from ages past’ and which dwelt under his roof. This explains, for example, why St. Teresa of Jesus, the great reformer of the Carmelites, promoted the renewal of veneration of St. Joseph in Western Christianity.

· St. Teresa tells us, in her 'autobiography', that ‘I began to doubt physicians of earth had recourse of those of heaven’. She especially devoted her prayer to St. Joseph . It was through him, she asserts, she was completely cured of paralysis when she was twenty-seven. Her confidence in the powerful intercession remained limitless. ‘I do not remember asking anything of him that was not granted. God seems to have given other Saints power to help in particular circumstances, but, I know from experience, that this glorious Saint Joseph helps in each and every need’.