If you're like me, a major fan of the adoptive father of the Christ-child, you're overjoyed at the announcement of The Year of St. Joseph, which Pope Francis announced on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception this past week! Also, if you're like me, you were a little surprised that this year of St. Joseph started the day it was announced! But I think the Holy Father is realizing the tremendous need we have in the world for the fatherhood of St. Joseph!
A Crisis of Lost Fatherhood
The Church has been making the truth known for years now that there is a crisis in fatherhood particularly in the United States of America, but also across the world. More than ever, we are missing the presence of authentic fathers. That's not to say that there are none; but rather, to find one or to have an authentically present and faithful father in your life is a rare experience enjoyed only by a few.
The devastating ramifications of the lack of fatherhood are clear and supported by numerous studies and statistics. We can point to any one result and see how the lack of a strong and steady father figure has impacted thousands and thousands of lives. But above all, for us as Christians and Catholics, where we see the crisis most of all is in the number of those leaving the Church. Young adults are leaving in droves. The consistent factor among those who stay is harrowing: the presence of a father who was authentically invested and leader in the family's Catholic faith.
I can honestly affirm that this was true for me. My parents, who are heroic parents on many levels, homeschooled my five siblings and me for my whole K-high school academic journey. To hear them tell the story of their initial decision, when they were told that the subjects taught by the father would be prioritized by the children, they both determined that my dad needed to be the one who taught us Religion. That's not to say my mom didn't participate at all in this area of our education, but since my mom was home with us on a daily basis, we saw her faith daily. This made the investment of my dad in catechizing my siblings and I apparent. Mom would frequently take us to daily Mass, but there were plenty of times when Dad would meet us there. The faith was always a shared responsibility in our home, and since it was part of family life as well as school and home life (since they were all integrated in my brain because, hey, homeschooled), my mental image of Church was inseparable from my mental image of family life.
Sadly, my experience is not the norm for many of my peers. There are plenty of them who hold onto their faith because one parent is invested while the other is not. There are others who are the only person in their family who practices their Catholic faith (and they consider the fact that they've remained in the faith a miracle of its own).
This is why we need St. Joseph. St. Joseph, even though he was not Immaculately Conceived nor the Son of God, was the leader of the Holy Family. When the family needed to leave Bethlehem, to whom did the angel appear? Joseph! And Joseph took up the responsibility and the challenge, mustered his courage, woke his wife and child, and set out on a journey to a distant and strange land to protect the precious gift that the wise men had come to adore shortly before. Joseph takes the lead.
Joseph's Silent Strength
We also need St. Joseph more than ever at this time because of the wisdom and strength that he offers. St. Joseph is distinguished as a righteous man in Matthew's Gospel (Mt. 1:19), which means blameless before God due to a desire to keep God's law and covenant. In this way, Joseph is much like his namesake from the book of Genesis - Joseph, whose brothers threw him into a dried up cistern simply because he was their father's favorite, who resisted temptations, who was responsible and wise enough to be made Pharaoh's right-hand man in Egypt, and who ultimately forgave his brothers once they had proved themselves changed men.
Consider Joseph's position. Joseph is a carpenter, well-established in the community, and betrothed to Mary. He discovers that Mary has been found with child. Joseph knows Mary to be a woman of holiness, and so rather than jump to conclusions, he works to reconcile what he knows of Mary with what he knows of the circumstances. (There are some traditions that say that the overwhelming stress of being unable to mentally reconcile these two truths turned Joseph's hair white within a week.) But Joseph did not let the circumstances convince him that he was wrong about Mary. He knew that he wasn't wrong about her. Therefore, he decided to divorce her quietly so that she would no harm would come to her (and, some sources say, because he felt himself unworthy to be husband to her if what she said was true - that she had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit).
Joseph, therefore, stayed away from rash judgment. He did not let the circumstances and appearances alter his judgment. He remained righteous in his way of thinking and his way of acting. He intended to do no harm, no matter what, on neither a moral nor a human level. Only an act of God can bring him to the full realization of the truth and/or a change of direction. And God does not disappoint!
Bam! In a dream, Joseph encounters a messenger from the Lord who tells him:
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home (Mt. 20b-24).
I love that Joseph is addressed by the angel as "son of David", because we often forget that St. Joseph was descended from the line of kings as a descendant of the house of David. We could honestly say that Joseph is the rightful heir to the throne, while Herod is an impostor king, set up by Rome. Yet Joseph is not a resentful, rebellious young man; rather, he is righteous and it is this righteousness that sets him apart as a holy spouse for the Mother of God.
In an age of "cancel culture" and swift accusations, judgments, and a general spirit of unforgivness in our society, Joseph's response of faith to the miraculous conception of Jesus in Mary's womb stands as "a sign of contradiction" to the present age. He was ready to back away and be compassionate towards Mary, but when called upon by God to step up and be a father and a husband in the Holy Family that needed a protector and a leader, Joseph did exactly that! Joseph responded like the holy man of God that he is and takes Mary as his wife and raises the Son of God as his own son.
A professor of mine once reflected to the class that he believed this role of Joseph was more the role of a protector than we might realize. Consider this - the Evil One knew the prophecy of Isaiah, too: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel.... Therefore, he would have been on the prowl - looking for a woman, a virgin, who was pregnant and alone. Therefore, the presence of Joseph as husband and father would have "thrown off" the devil's scent. Perhaps this is why we refer to Joseph by another title: Terror of Demons. This same professor, a Scotsman by birth, was adamant that Joseph's quiet strength is something that we can imagine being silent yet terrifying: "You shall not lay a hand on this woman or this child, and if you even try you'll have to go through me first."
Embrace Your Spiritual Father
In this year of St. Joseph, I've determined to finally read a book that's been on my shelf for years: Meet Your Spiritual Father, by Mark Mirevalle, PhD. As you've probably guessed, it is all about St. Joseph. I've also felt a tug towards asking St. Joseph to intercede for me as I continue to discern my own call to the vocation of marriage. I know he is a powerful intercessor, so I know I can trust him with the hopes I have to find a holy spouse. :)
How will you get to know this spiritual father of ours, good St. Joseph, the terror of demons? Think about it. Pray about it. And let's enter into the Year of St. Joseph with faith and joyful expectation.
St. Joseph, pray for us!
the Itinerant Catechist
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