Go to Joseph!

Ave Maria Meditations

Ite ad Ioseph!

 Jacob’s son – a figure of Saint Joseph

Many Christians, conscious of the exceptional mission of Saint Joseph in the life of Jesus and Mary, since the Old Testament is the forerunner of the New Testament, have tried throughout the centuries to find in the history of the Hebrew people deeds and images that prefigure the man who was to be the virginal spouse of Mary. Many Fathers of the Church have seen in the person of the same name, Joseph, son of Jacob the Patriarch, a prophetic announcement. When Pope Pius IX proclaimed Saint Joseph patron of the universal Church he gathered together those ancient insights. The Liturgy also gives witness to this same parallelism. Not only did these two men share the same name, but there are also to be found in their lives, interwoven in both cases with trials and joys, certain virtues and attitudes which are similar and coincide in many instances.

Joseph the son of Jacob and Joseph the virginal spouse of Mary both went to Egypt as the result of whole series of providential circumstances. The first Joseph went there because he was pursued by his brothers and handed over to strangers out of envy, circumstances that prefigure the betrayal that Christ would have to undergo. The second Joseph went to Egypt having fled from Herod in order to save the Child who was to bring salvation to the world.

Joseph the son of Jacob received from God the gift of being able to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, and was thus himself forewarned as to what would happen later. The other and greater Joseph also received God’s messages in dreams. Saint Bernard observes that the former was given to understand the mysteries of dreams; the latter deserve to know and to share in the most supreme mysteries.

It is as if the dreams of the first Joseph, although experienced in his person, were in fact fulfilled in the second Joseph. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers … he said to them … “Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf … Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said … and behold, the sun, the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me”.

These dreams became a reality when his father Jacob went down to Egypt with the whole family and did indeed kneel before Joseph, who was by then governor of that land. But at the same time we can see his dream prefiguring the mystery of the Holy Family of Nazareth, that mystery in which Jesus, The Son of Justice and Mary, praised in the Liturgy as shining Star, all bright and beauti­ful, both submitted to the authority of the head of the household. We can think of it as prefiguring the many devout Christians who turn to this great saint and ask for his help in so many ways.

The first Joseph won the confidence and the favor of Pharaoh and became the overseer of the granaries of Egypt. When famine ravaged the lands of neighboring peoples and they came to Pharaoh to beg for wheat in order to stay alive, he said to them: “Go to Joseph; and what he says to you, do”. When the whole of those regions were famished, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to all comers from Egypt’s empire … Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy groin, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

Now too the entire world is ravaged by hunger, a hunger for doctrine, for piety and love. The Church bids us: “Go toJoseph”. In the face of all the necessities that we personally suffer, she says to us: “Go to the Holy Patriarch of Nazareth”

There are moments of great indecision in our lives, moments of uncertainty and urgent need. Go to Joseph, Jesus says to us. He who during his life was entrusted with the great mission of caring for Me and my Mother in our bodily needs, he who guarded our very lives at so many times of crisis, will continue to care for Me in my members, who are all those who suffer and are in any kind of want. Go to Joseph; he will give you whatever you need.

Saint Joseph‘s patronage over the universal Church and over each one of us. We should turn to him in any necessity

He is the prudent and trusted servant whom the Lord placed over his household. The Liturgy applies these words to Saint Joseph, a faithful and wise father, who promptly attends to the needs of the Church, that great family of the Lord. It is very pleasing to Jesus that we should get to know Joseph and ask for his help. He is the one Jesus loved so much whilst he was on earth and loves so much now in Heaven. He is the one from whom He learned so much and to whom He talked from the moment He could lisp his first words.

Joseph governed the house of Nazareth with a father’s authority. The Holy Family was not only a symbol of the Church, but in a certain way contained the Church within itself as a seed contains the tree, and a spring con­tains the river. The holy house of Nazareth contained the foundations of the nascent Church. This is why the holy Patriarch considers specially entrusted to him the crowds of Christians who go to make up the Church, that is to say, this immense family spread throughout the earth, over which ­because he is Spouse of Mary and Father of Jesus Christ ­he possesses, so to speak, a father’s authority. Thus is it something natural and most worthy of the blessed Joseph, that, as once he succored all the needs of the family of Nazareth and surrounded it in a holy fashion with his pro­tection, so now he should encompass the Church of Jesus Christ with his heavenly protection and defense.

This patronage of the holy Patriarch over the univer­sal Church is principally of a spiritual order; but it also extends to the temporal order, as did that of the other Joseph, son of Jacob, who was called by the king of Egypt savior of the world.  Saints and good Christians of all centuries have had recourse to him. Saint Teresa (of Avila) tells of the great devotion she had to Saint Joseph, and of her own experience of his patronage: “I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant. I am astonished at the great favors God has bestowed on me through this blessed saint, and at the perils from which he has freed me, both in body and in soul.  If I were a person writing with authority, I would gladly describe at length and in the minutest detail, the favors which this glorious saint has granted to me and to others … I only beg, for the love of God, that anyone who does not believe me will put what I say to the test, and he will see by experience what great advantages come from his commend­ing himself to this glorious patriarch and having devotion to him. Those who practice prayer should have a special affection for him always. I do not know how anyone can think of the Queen of the Angels, during the time she suffered so much with the Child Jesus, without giving thanks to Saint Joseph for the way he helped them”.

Ite ad Ioseph: Go to Joseph

We must turn to Saint Joseph and ask him to guard and protect the Church, since he is her defender and pro­tector. We must ask him to help our families in their necessities, and to help us in our own spiritual and material needs: Sancte Ioseph, ora pro eis, ora pro me…Pray for them, pray for me.

For the men and women of today, just as for those of any other age, Saint Joseph represents a dearly loved and venerable figure, whose vocation and dignity we all admire, and for whose faithfulness in the service of Jesus and Mary we thank him. Through Saint Joseph we go straight to Mary, and through Mary, to the source of all holi­ness, Jesus Christ.  He teaches us to speak to Jesus with piety, respect and love: Joseph, blessed and happy man, we say to him in the words of an ancient prayer of the Church, who was permitted to see and hear the God whom many kings wished in vain to see and hear, and not only to see and hear him, but to carry him in your arms, kiss him, clothe him and care for him … , teach us to receive him with love and reverence in Holy Communion; give us a greater sensitivity and finesse of soul. Saint Joseph, our Father and Lord: most chaste, most pure … You were found worthy to carry the Child Jesus in your arms, to wash him, to embrace him. Teach us to get to know God, and to be pure, to be worthy of being other Christs. And help us to do and to teach, as Christ did. Help us to open up the divine paths of the earth, which are both hid­den and bright; and help us to show them to mankind, tel­ling our fellow men that their lives on earth can be of an extraordinary and continual supernatural effectiveness.

Moreover, Saint Joseph provides us with a model whose silent teaching we can and should strive to follow. In human life, Joseph was Jesus’ master in their daily con­tact, full of refined affection, glad to deny himself the better to take care of Jesus. Isn’t that reason enough for us to con­sider this just man, this holy Patriarch, in whom the faith of the old covenant bears fruit, as a master of the interior life? Interior life is nothing but continual and direct conversation with Christ, so that we may become one with him. And Joseph can tell us many things about Jesus. Therefore, let us never neglect devotion to him – ‘Ite ad Ioseph’: ‘Go to Joseph’.

Fr. Francis Fernandez (In Conversation with God)