St. Joseph, Christ’s Foster-Father and Man of God

Today is the feast of St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and foster-father of Jesus Christ. Together with Jesus and Mary, St. Joseph makes up the family so sinless and dedicated to God’s will that they are called the Holy Family.

It has been traditionally believed by some Catholics that St. Joseph was cleansed from Original Sin while an infant, and that he did not sin during his life. This would be appropriate since Joseph was chosen by God to care for the immaculately conceived Blessed Virgin and the God-man Jesus Christ. God would choose the holiest man in Israel for such an important task. Certainly we know that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were all devout Jews who put serving God at the center of their lives.

Joseph was a carpenter. While he was of the royal line of David, a respected distinction for any Israelite, he himself was a humble laborer who lived in the backwater town of Nazareth. This is actually a compliment to Joseph—he was not worthy of honor because he was rich and powerful in a worldly sense, but because he was virtuous and obedient to God. Jesus specifically chose to live and work among the poor. Through Joseph and Jesus, Who worked with Joseph as a carpenter, all honest labor was sanctified and made admirable. In the Christian tradition, we are to respect each individual for his virtues and hard work, not for his gold or political office. It’s a religious belief that much later on was applied to politics and society by the American Founders.

Joseph did not have an easy life, even though he was blessed by God. His chosen wife was found to be pregnant, and he did not know that it was the direct action of God rather than a sinful relationship until he received a vision telling him Mary had conceived through the Holy Ghost (Matt. 1:20). Then, just before Jesus’s birth, Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census, and there the only shelter they could find was a stable. After that Herod’s murderous jealousy of the newborn King (Jesus) forced Joseph to take Mary and Jesus far away to a foreign land, Egypt. Later, when they returned to the Holy Land, Joseph had to work hard as a carpenter in Nazareth, which was a town looked down upon by the learned and prosperous of Israel and Rome.

Yet Joseph was always faithful. No words of his are recorded in the Bible, but we can see in Scripture that Joseph always immediately gets up and does whatever the Lord has commanded him. Joseph was a man of action, and that action was geared toward one goal: doing God’s will, and doing it quickly.

Joseph spent many years living with the God-man Jesus. He taught and cared for and loved the little boy Who would become Savior of the world. Besides Mary, Joseph was the human who spent the longest amount of time in intimacy with Jesus during Christ’s earthly life. Surely those years must have made Joseph ever holier and closer to God, on a level that few humans have ever attained.

That is why we should ask for St. Joseph’s aid and intercession. Like Joseph, our main goals in life should be doing God’s will and loving Jesus. Let us pray to St. Joseph that he help us stay close to Jesus and Mary, that we too might be good and faithful servants in all that we do.