Go to Joseph

Saint Joseph was my mother’s favorite Saint. She told me once that she had prayed to Saint Joseph for more than 30 years in the hopes that one of her five sons would become a priest. Perhaps to convince him, she named her final two sons in his honor: my brothers Daniel Joseph and Joseph Anthony. Apparently Joseph chose the unexpected son instead. I was baptized at Saint Joseph’s Church in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio before we later moved to the big city and bright lights of Akron, and Saint Sebastian’s Parish.

Joseph belongs to a small cadre of Saints who enjoy two feast days, along with Peter, Paul and John the Baptist. On the First of May, we celebrate Saint Joseph the Worker. This feast was inaugurated by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counter-celebration to the communist May Day celebrations, which included International Workers’ Day. But he is most recognized on March 19th in his title “Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” He is also, of course, the foster-father of Jesus.

All that we know about Saint Joseph can be found in the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew. The original “strong, silent type,” he utters not a single word in the Gospels, content to allow the Blessed Virgin Mary to take center stage. He is known as a man who trusts in his dreams and in God’s angels. If he had lacked the openness and imagination to believe in God’s word to him, Mary would have been stoned to death. So, where would we be without him? Tradition suggests that he died before the Lord’s public ministry, surrounded by Jesus and Mary, thus becoming the Patron to whom we pray for a happy death.

Joseph is usually depicted in art holding the Christ Child or a carpenter’s square, as well as a lily, the symbol of purity, since his marriage with Our Blessed Mother was one of chastity. For this reason he is often depicted as an older man since his relationship with the Blessed Mother was one of Protector rather than one who would have conjugal rights. The statue in our church depicts him with the Christ Child, but the Child is holding the lily for him. Our diocesan Cathedral is named for Saint Joseph, who is the secondary patron for the diocese, following the Blessed Mother in her title of the Immaculate Conception.

As head of the Holy Family, depicted in artwork in the rear of our church, he is invoked by some for protecting the family home during storms as well as for assistance in selling the home when needed. “Ite ad Joseph” meaning “Go to Joseph,” is a phrase borrowed from the Old Testament. They are the words of Pharaoh to the people of Egypt during the years of famine. (Genesis 41:55) This, though, is Joseph, the beloved son of the Patriarch Jacob. The phrase, however, was borrowed by St. André Bessette, carved beneath the statue of Saint Joseph at the foot of the hill leading up to Saint Joseph’s Oratory in Montréal. These words can become a direction for prayer for us now, especially in this Year of Joseph.