St Joseph
Feast day: 19 March
St Joseph is one of the most important saints of the calendar, yet he is rarely mentioned nowadays. St Joseph as a Jewish father would have had a great influence on his son. Father and son would have attended Jewish rituals together, since men and women were separated in the synagogue. Little boys often identify with their fathers and want to be like them, and in fact Jesus did grow up to be a carpenter (Mk 6:3). We can imagine him as a small boy playing in Joseph’s workshop with glue, paints, pieces of wood and nails, learning gradually to make things himself. We can see Joseph patiently teaching Jesus his trade, so that one day he could take over the business. Joseph presumably taught Jesus about his Jewish heritage and about his descent from the great King David. He would have told him tales from the Jewish scriptures. No wonder Jesus grew up to be such a wonderful story teller!
Joseph is not mentioned by name in the Pauline letters or in the gospel of Mark. There are only two passing references to him in John (Jn 1:45 and Jn 6:42). Both actually belittle Jesus. Nathanael, when told that Jesus son of Joseph is the Messiah, wondered aloud whether anything good could come out of Nazareth; and when Jesus was preaching about the Eucharist the Jews scornfully remarked: "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?"
In the gospel of Luke the focus is on Mary and her call to become the mother of Jesus; it is she who was addressed at the presentation in the temple and it is she who chided Jesus for staying behind in Jerusalem. It is only in the gospel of Matthew that Joseph takes centre stage, and even here he never speaks. Matthew's gospel was written for Jewish Christians and he took trouble to trace Joseph’s lineage back to Abraham, making it clear that God's promise was fulfilled. He continued by showing the descent from David, from whose line the expected Messiah was to come. Matthew goes on to describe how Joseph, on finding that Mary was pregnant, at first decided to divorce her, but after his dream took her home as his wife as he had been commanded. Her child would be legally his. He was born in Bethlehem, where it appears Joseph and Mary were living. Matthew tells Joseph’s story to establish the ancestry and legitimacy of Jesus. It was Joseph who protected his family by taking them to Egypt to escape from Herod, and Joseph who made the decision to return home and live in Nazareth in Galilee where they would be be safer. Here Matthew ends his account of Joseph and we hear about him no more.
Joseph was obviously still alive when Jesus stayed behind in the temple (Luke 2:41-53). Jesus talked of his father in this scene from Luke; but where did this image of his father come from? The only father he had known was Joseph. It is probable that the carpenter of Nazareth, the upright Jew and protector of his family, who listened to the voice of God through his dreams, brought the young Jesus to a experience and knowledge of his heavenly father Abba. When this was done Joseph disappeared from the picture.
In the past many people saw in Joseph a saint to whom they could relate, an ordinary working man who would understand their problems. This is still true today.
St Joseph, worker, earthly father of Jesus, pray for us.