GARCIA-LUENSE: Celebrating St. Joseph as patron of the universal Church

On March 19, we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Shortly before the start of Holy Week, we get a break from our Lenten fast and have an opportunity to feast and celebrate.

This will be the one time this year we have a Gloria at Mass after Ash Wednesday and before the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. We celebrate Joseph as the patron of the universal Church, and his feast has been universally celebrated in the Roman Rite on this date for nearly 500 years and in some locations for over a millennium.

While there are many traditions and stories surrounding Joseph, our only certain information about him comes from the Gospels. Even there, the information is a bit thin, with no mention of him in the Gospel of Mark and only two brief references to Jesus being the son of Joseph in the Gospel of John. It is only in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels that we get much information.

In the Gospel of Matthew, there are many details that make us associate this Joseph (the husband of Mary, foster father of Jesus) with the patriarch Joseph (the favored son of the patriarch Jacob, he of the multi-colored coat sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt). According to the genealogy in Matthew, both of them have a father named Jacob.

The Joseph of Genesis was a noted interpreter of dreams. Three times, St. Joseph received a message from an angel of God in a dream. The patriarch Joseph trusted God, even in the midst of dire circumstances that brought him as a slave to Egypt. St. Joseph trusts the message of his dreams and responds immediately, even when the message seems impossible (that his betrothed is with child by the Holy Spirit) or requires him to go to Egypt and sojourn there for a time. Matthew uses this connection between St. Joseph and the patriarch Joseph to help us see how Joseph’s foster son, Jesus, is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament. In the person of Joseph, we get the very Lenten reminder of the essential connection between old and new.

The Gospels tell us that Joseph was a “tekton.” This is usually translated into English as carpenter, but there is some scholarly disagreement as to whether it should be understood more generally as “craftsman,” with the possibility of including not only woodwork but also either stone masonry or metalwork. Regardless of the details, he was a person who engaged in skilled manual work that had a creative element. It is worth taking a moment to reflect on these three aspects of his work.

Joseph’s work has a manual and physical quality. It requires actual physical effort and exertion. In venerating Joseph the worker, we highlight the dignity we have as embodied beings. What we do with and in our bodies matters; our bodies are a pathway God uses for our sanctification. This is a good reminder of why fasting is a part of our Lenten discipline.

Joseph’s work is skilled. It must be learned from someone and practiced over a lifetime. Those who develop this skill have a responsibility to pass it on to the next generation. Several comments in the Gospels suggest that he did just that with Jesus. This aspect of Joseph’s work, therefore, highlights our existence as social creatures. We exist not alone and independently but as part of a society and community. We depend on the community and contribute to it. This is a good reminder of why almsgiving is a part of our Lenten discipline.

Finally, Joseph’s work has a creative aspect to it. Any craftsman, regardless of medium, does not merely reproduce exactly what has been done before. Each project requires some level of innovation and adaptation to the particular circumstances. This highlights the unique way in which God has chosen to associate humanity to Himself as co-creators and partners in the ongoing project of the unfolding of creation.

Therefore, in Joseph, we are reminded of the dignity of the human person and humanity’s special place. That special place includes how our Creator uniquely desires to be in relationship with us. This is a good reminder of why prayer is an essential part of our Lenten journey.

As we celebrate St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church, we take a brief break from the severity of our Lenten disciplines to be reminded of why we do what we do — to recall that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the ancient promises and of our own hearts’ desires. 

Brian Garcia-Luense is an associate director with the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.

(Photo by James Ramos/Herald)