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May 20, 2005
Homily 1 May 2005
By Fr. Hathaway FSSP
Mater Dei Latin Mass Community

St. Joseph the Worker
On Joseph. His Greatness

As we say of the Blessed Virgin that she is the most blessed of all women for God singled her out to be His mother so we may say of St. Joseph that, besides our Lord, he is the most blessed of all men for God chose him to be His foster father.

Why was St. Joseph espoused to Mary and thereby become the foster father of the Savior?  Could not Almighty God have done otherwise?  Of course!  God, however, does not work miracles without necessity.  Rather in His ordinary providence, God works through people.

Recognizing this fact, St. Jerome presents three reasons why God chose blessed Joseph to be the spouse of Mary and His foster father.  First, he tells us that Joseph was chosen so that our Savior’s genealogy would be known as coming from a line of kings for while both Joseph and Mary were of the kingly line of David only the male was considered to confer this distinction.
Second, St. Joseph was espoused to Mary to preserve her reputation (and life) for pregnancy out of wedlock was a crime punishable by stoning.  Third, Joseph was chosen to guard and provide for the holy family for, as we know, this family endured all manner of hardship.

To these reasons, St. Ignatius adds a fourth.  He says God pre-ordained that Joseph be the spouse of Mary so that the devil would be uncertain concerning the truth about our blessed Lord… was He the awaited Messiah or no?

In thinking of St. Joseph, foster father of our divine Savior, we must not succumb to that Protestant mistake of reducing God’s free acts to mere whims.  The Protestants say of Mary, “She was just a woman… God could have picked any woman to be His mother… she is not that special.”  The fact, however, remains that God did not pick just any woman; rather He chose from all women only Mary to carry Him nine months in her womb, to bare Him at the breast, to go with Him to the cross; and it is this same Mary who now accepts repentant sinners as adopted children.  In the same way we must see the election of St. Joseph.  While God could have picked any man to be His foster father He picked Joseph; who cuddled, fed, and clothed the Divine Infant; who trained the Son of God in his carpenter’s shop; who was, in all ways, a father to Jesus and it is this same Joseph who also accepts us as adopted sons if we ask this of him. 

We will not go wrong to place ourselves in Joseph’s care.  This man the holy scriptures call “a just man.”  This just man never speaks in all the scriptures.  The lesson?... just men are known by their deeds, more than not words.

If we examine the deeds of Joseph we find a soul boasting a garden of virtue.  Mildness in his quiet way, without harshness of rebuke, of wishing to put Mary away; humility in his docile reception of the angel’s message; chastity in his constant purity while espoused to the most beautiful Virgin; obedience in his prompt rising and flight into Egypt; patience in his suffering without complaint all the trials as head of the holy family.

If we wish to have Joseph as our friend and second father we too must love virtue.  Disobedience pleases only the devil, the instigator of that first act of disobedience which lost Adam and Eve paradise; telling lies pleases only the devil, the father of lies.  If we wish to be a son of Joseph, we must grow in obedience and truthfulness, and all virtue; if we need help, let us go to Joseph… he will be a father to us and build in us a tower of virtue.

This was the experience of St. Teresa of Avila, who chose St. Joseph as the patron of her order.  She writes, “I chose glorious St. Joseph for my patron and I commend all things to his intercession.  I do not remember ever to have asked of God anything by him which I did not obtain.  I never knew anyone who, by invoking him, did not advance exceedingly in virtue; for he assists in a wonderful manner all who address themselves to him.  Go to Joseph!”

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