This article was originally published in the Spring 1954 issue of Mount Carmel magazine under the title, “Saint Joseph”. At that time, Bl. Marie-Eugene was Fr. Marie-Eugene.
Saint Joseph
by Father Marie-Eugene, O.D.C.
Translated by Fr Oswald J. Murphy.
The question of rivalry for preeminence between St Joseph and St John the Baptist has so often been debated that one hesitates to link them together. Yet, as a matter of fact, such a juxtaposition offers some first-rate instruction. The sacred tasks allotted to these two great Saints, as well as their distinctive holiness, can be said to be complementary one to the other.
St John the Baptist is the precursor, the voice crying out in the wilderness ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord’ (St Mark, i, 3). He is the herald whom the kings of old sent on ahead to announce their coming and to prepare the people to meet them. Almighty God, in His supreme wisdom, bestowed on John all those qualities essential in the perfect herald of the Messiah, qualities which would attract the common people, capture their imagination and thus bring them to repentance for their misdeeds. In St Matthew’s Gospel (xi, 18) we are told that John came ‘neither eating nor drinking’. He wore a rough tunic of camel-hair. His language, eloquent, direct, colourful, penetrated to the depths of the soul and unravelled the secret thoughts of the human heart ; and beneath this unkempt exterior there flourished a profound humility, a gentleness that sprang from a pure love. In a sense, John reflected Christ whose coming he foretold in such vivid language. He has brought the people together and now prepares them for the great event: ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ (St John, i, 36). John has fulfilled his. mission. His work is completed, and now ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (St John, iii, 30).
St John the Baptist revealed Christ. St Joseph, however, had a wholly different task: the Saviour of the world must for a while be guarded, protected from the public gaze. During those quiet years of preparation for His ministry among men, Jesus needed solitude, needed care and support. The Infant Christ had all the helplessness of a child. He preferred that poverty and humility which, as St Teresa has explained in her Way of Perfection (chap. ii) afford the best protection here on this earth. And so it was that the humble Joseph was chosen by God to watch over the needs of Jesus of Nazareth. The humility of this just man was of a rare quality; indeed it might be fittingly described as a mantle which concealed those precious spiritual gifts which had been lavished upon him. Externally, Joseph possessed nothing that might have attracted curiosity. He would have passed unnoticed in a crowd. All those graces, favours, those particular virtues consonant with his dignity remained ever hidden. He shunned the limelight. Fame was abhorrent to him.
This faithful guardian of Jesus and Mary was to be a lofty exemplar of Christian humility. Joseph belonged to the royal house of David. Whatever may have been his aspirations in the past, now as the head of the Holy Family, rooted in humility, he had no outside interests. Nor did he elect to live in Bethlehem, the place of origin of the fallen royal house. He also fled Jerusalem. In that holy city, surrounded by the religious and political aristocracy clinging pathetically to the remnants of its former glory and ever more jealous of its rights and privileges, Joseph, by reason of his lineage, would certainly have met with respect, a gracious deference. But no. On his return from Egypt, conscious of his responsibilities towards the Mother and Child, he took refuge in distant Galilee. It was in poor, despised Nazareth, whence so it was alleged no good could come, that he found peace and retirement.
At Nazareth, Joseph was not looked upon as a prince of the synagogue, nor did he move among the influential people of that district. Did anyone even suspect his noble origin? He is the carpenter, the woodworker of the village–a lowly occupation which sheltered him from unwelcome attentions and sharp gossip. ‘Is not this the carpenter’s son?’ (St Matthew, xiii, 55). This was the question raised by the people of Nazareth at the beginning of Our Lord’s public life. The astonishment, the actual words uttered by the people on this occasion, indicate very clearly to us the perfect way in which Joseph had fulfilled his mission as guardian. We realize, too, that his work as the village carpenter had successfully hidden his other more important qualities-the rare graces of the Saint. The descendant of the royal house of David is the servant of the village! This truth affords us at least a glimpse of the remarkable humility which adorned the pure soul of St Joseph. Obscurity, lowliness, has many distinct advantages. For one thing, it preserves the soul from exterior dangers and helps to cultivate interior piety. As Father Faber has aptly remarked, Almighty God so marvellously endowed St Joseph with interior light and love that the most extraordinary happenings took place in the depths of his soul. Indeed, we may add that Joseph’s humility was so perfect that we can only guess what were the incomparable gifts granted to him. The Saviour of the world had His prophets, also His twelve Apostles, and through the centuries His successive Vicars on earth to proclaim and safe-guard the Truth. But there was only one man who, as it were, stood between Him and Heaven itself, and whose particular task it was to direct the Holy Child along the paths decreed by the Eternal Father. Moreover, his holy marriage with Mary gave to St Joseph a part of the plenitude of the graces bestowed upon her, and through Divine Omnipotence his role as Foster-father enabled him to show a true paternal love for the Infant Jesus.1
Can we not believe that as time went on the Infant Christ gave tender proof that He was aware of this warm constant affection, this delicate anxiety? The Heart of Jesus must surely have been moved by this unselfish devotion.
True humility does not mean that one must ignore or deny the precious gifts that have been given to the soul. Rather one should admit, as St Angela of Foligno says, that Almighty God is the author of every good and at the same time appreciate the fact that the recipient of spiritual favours is merely a poor fragile vase. There can be no doubt that St Joseph was fully aware of the extraordinary graces that filled his soul. He clearly perceived the divine splendours as well as human lowliness. As he gazed into the limpid eyes of Jesus, enraptured by the divine light, Joseph was moved to humble adoration–adoration that reminds us of the angel prostrate before the majesty of God. In a word, Joseph’s humility deepened with his exquisite charity.
Furthermore, Our Lady shed the rays of her sublime privileges on St Joseph, and he, recognizing her shining holiness, also discovered his own inferiority in the order of divine grace. The close companionship which he shared with Jesus and Mary helped him to see with ever increasing clarity the real nature of his mission as Spouse and Foster-father. He was placed near to Jesus and Mary, to command if necessary, but above all to serve.
St Joseph, then, fulfilled his sacred mission by the constant practice of the lovely virtue of humility. And be it remembered this humility was free and joyous; for as St Teresa in her Life (chap. xxx) observes, true humility is untroubled, is never cast down…it brings repose, sweetness, light ; and if there is pain, it is the pain that comforts. The humble soul is forgetful of self ; and only by steadfastly looking towards God does that soul find true liberty of spirit, strength to overcome difficulties, and a guiding light. St Joseph was the perfect head of the house at Nazareth precisely because he was the perfect model of humility.
The time came when Jesus, in obedience to the will of the Eternal Father, must show Himself to the world. Joseph, like a good humble servitor, had quietly disappeared from the scene. His task was done. The successful preaching of Jesus in Galilee might perhaps have brought renown to the carpenter who had worked so laboriously in the silence of Nazareth. Or again, Calvary might have disclosed to the world the splendours of Joseph’s soul and set a seal on his heroic virtues. Almighty God, however, willed to envelop his faithful steward even in greater obscurity. Joseph remained unknown. Centuries must pass before the glory of this hidden Saint would spread across the world.
In the sixteenth century the Church was menaced by the most fearful of heresies: Protestantism, whose doctrine of private interpretation in matters of religious belief sapped the very foundations of Christian truth and prepared the way for modern unbelief. Thus one may assert, the life of Christ was gravely threatened. It was again the hour of Joseph to serve his Lord. God had once vouchsafed to the prophet Elias on Mount Carmel a vision of the Blessed Virgin upon a tiny cloud and elevated above the sea so that all her children might reverence her;2 at a later date it was to St Teresa, the Reformer of Carmel that He revealed the humble Joseph. Teresa received striking proof of St Joseph’s powerful intercession with God, and she unceasingly urged her spiritual children to turn to this great Saint in all their needs. It was her fondest wish that St Joseph would be known and loved by the whole world. Consequently, she tells of the wonderful favours granted to all those who invoke his aid. It was largely through her efforts that his feast-day was solemnly observed. Teresa founded eighteen monasteries, three of which were specially dedicated to St Joseph. All of these monasteries, one need hardly say, fostered devotion to the holy Spouse of Mary.
‘Go to Joseph’, pleads St Teresa. ‘He can grant you all your needs. Our Saviour desires to show us that in Heaven He listens to the prayers of him whom He obeyed on earth.’
The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, in all its dangers, like the Infant Jesus, invariably turns to St Joseph. Has he not time and again frustrated the evil designs of those who hate the Faith? Not without reason, then, has the Vicar of Christ, the Sovereign Pontiff, proclaimed St Joseph to be the Head and Protector of the Universal Church. Today this great Saint is at once the Head and the servant of the Church of God.
It is particularly to souls who are attracted to the interior life that Teresa of Avila recommends a lively devotion to St Joseph. Listen to her own words : ‘I have never known anyone who has honoured him and who has not advanced in virtue, for he has a marked interest in the spiritual progress of those who betake themselves to him…Interior souls should honour him in a particular way. Those who seek a master of prayer need only choose this Saint as their guide and they will never take a wrong step.’ Humility attracts both God and men, and it is the standard which contem-plative souls must bear aloft, for in the end it dominates the world. It was beneath the mantle of Joseph’s humility that the Infant Jesus in Nazareth advanced in wisdom and grace. We, too, should take refuge under this same mantle so that each one of us may increase ‘unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ’ (Ephesians, iv, 13).
