And for this great humility and this great love, Saint Joseph was given the greatest gift…He was the person who was allowed to Kiss the Holy Face of God!
I believe one of the greatest love stories of all time is the love story between Our Blessed Mother, the Queen of Heaven, and her holy spouse Saint Joseph.
Now I understand that as a Catholic, such an idea may be a little jarring... Obviously, the most important doctrine of the Catholic Church is the Incarnation, which means that Conception of Christ (God the Son) occurred by the Power of the Holy Spirit – rather than through the actions of any human man. And this means that it can be confronting to think of the great love that Saint Joseph must have had for the Blessed Virgin, his wife, because the entire basis of their relationship was non-sexual!
You see, in focusing on the lack of physical connection between the Blessed Virgin and the Foster Father of Christ, it can be easy to forget that love is not a synonym for sexual relations… And yes – sexual relations are a beautiful part of the vocation of marriage, but they are certainly not the only part. And this means that in this very special marriage in the Holy Family was a marriage founded on great love, but not sexual relations.
And that love was so pure – so wonderful – that Saint Joseph really gave up everything in his life for that woman and that Child. He gave up the opportunity to have biological children. He gave up the opportunity to be rich and important. And he gave all of this up based on the word of the Blessed Virgin and a dream about an angel. And in this way, he was really the first priest of the New Testament – because he spent his life protecting the Tabernacle and the Blessed Eucharist, who are the Blessed Virgin and Christ.
Can you imagine how excited he would have been to know that it was he who had been chosen to be the husband of the beautiful young, holy girl, Mary? Can you imagine how proud he would have been to have all the other young men in the village know that he was the guy who was going to be able to come home to Mary and provide for her? Can you imagine how excited he would have been in thinking about the future?
And then – BANG! The Blessed Virgin came to him, pregnant with a Child who was not his child. And he knew the Blessed Virgin. He knew that she would never be immoral or unchaste. So, he knew that she could not be deceiving him and he knew that she would . And that means that he knew that the Child was God. And in knowing that, he stood aside and said to God – I will bow out, that woman is not mine – she is YOURS!
And can you imagine how disappointed he must have felt? Can you imagine how sad he would have been to think that he would have to live his life without her? Can you imagine how much he grieved to know that people might say terrible things about her? And how did he fix this? Well, he fixed this by trying to step aside and take the blame as a man who walked away from his pregnant fiancé and her Child.
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’” (Matthew 1:18-24).
And for this great humility and this great love, Saint Joseph was given the greatest gift… He was the person who was allowed to Kiss the Holy Face of God!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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