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Writer's pictureSarah Raad

Word

“Joseph is not perfectly silent. He speaks the name ‘Yahweh saves.’” (Father Matthew Kauth, “Imitation of Saint Joseph”, p.46).



Altarpiece of St Joseph the Worker (Pietro Annigoni)


I have been thinking about Saint Joseph, the Foster Father of Christ.

 

When I was a little girl I really did not think very much about this Saint.  After all, a great deal of focus is placed on the sinlessness of the Mother of God.  And I think that what happened to me was that over time the intense focus on the Blessed Virgin and her sinless state meant that I was rarely interested in considering Saint Joseph in any more serious a capacity.  After all – I would reason to myself – Saint Joseph was just a normal man.  He was not a blood relative of God.  It was not his DNA in Christ’s genes in the way that it was the DNA of the Blessed Virgin in His genes.

 

If Christ looked like another human, it would have been like His mother – not His foster father.

 

And for some reason that also caused me to consider that Saint Joseph really had no impact or imprint on the life of Christ.  I used to think that Saint Joseph was sort of like a cardboard cutout.  He was placed into the life of the Blessed Virgin and of Christ as someone who was not terribly essential to the story.  God did not rely on Saint Joseph to make sure that everything worked according to His plan.  After all, Saint Joseph had sinned.  Nobody ever said that Saint Joseph was conceived without sin.

 

And that was how I used to think.

 

But that was wrong.

 

Father Matthew Kauth wrote in his book, “Imitation of Saint Joseph” at page 46, “While we have no words of Joseph in all of Scripture, we know one thing he said: Jesus. His name is Jesus. Joseph is not perfectly silent. He speaks the name “Yahweh saves.” Through Mary does the child receive a human nature, through Joseph his human name. The Word is spoken to Mary and she conceives. The word is spoken to Joseph and he breaths that name forth in utterance.”

 

And I have been reflecting on that over the last few days.

 

You see, It is not just that Saint Joseph named Christ – literally gave the Son of God the name that God had intended for Him, but he did so much more than that too.

 

You see, Saint Joseph was not only important to the story of Christ – he was critical to the success of salvation.  He was responsible for protecting the Blessed Virgin and God Himself in human form.  And though he might not have been sinless, he was certainly very holy.  How could he not be holy – having fathered God himself through the course of his Earthly life?  His was the masculine behaviour that Christ observed and imitated.  His were the words that Christ listened to.  He was the person who instructed Christ in matters of faith, morals and ethics when Christ was a young boy.

 

And God – who could have done anything in any way – allowed Himself to be instructed by a human man, simply because that man was Joseph, and God trusted him with that task.

 

And I have been thinking about that today – as I have been thinking about that word – Christ.  For it seems that there were several people responsible for making a way for the salvation of souls.  And Saint Joseph is a terribly great Saint…  A terribly, terribly great one…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.

 

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