"Go to Joseph"

Dear Friends,

If your childhood memory dates back to the 1940s or 50s, you may recall how St. Joseph was pictured on holy cards – always an old man with luxuriant white hair and beard, a white lily nearby. That image of Joseph was the artist’s way of protecting the relationship between Joseph and Mary, for her virginity was sacred, and as a holy old man, Joseph would not violate her.

With the Second Vatican Council, many images changed, including that of Joseph. Look at the holy family pictured above. Joseph is young and virile, a man who had an absorbing task before him – to use his energies and talents to love and support Jesus and Mary.

Believers throughout history have grasped the significance of Joseph when male protection was everything to a family. Since early Christianity, people have honored Joseph. Teresa of Avila called him “a protector for all the circumstances of life.” Cardinal John Newman named him Holy Joseph, “because no other saint but he lived in such and so long intimacy with the source of all holiness, Jesus, God incarnate, and Mary, the holiest of creatures.” Pope Francis, in an Apostolic Letter entitled Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), shared some of his personal reflections on Joseph, writing: “Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble.” We are, as a world, in times of trouble right now. The pandemic and the many crises it has spawned give evidence to that reality. A look at the frontline medical workers we see on television, who beg us to mask up and be socially distant, are ordinary people like Joseph, often overlooked. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in salvation history.

For centuries, believers felt that Joseph was not only the protector of Jesus and Mary, he was the protector of the Church as well. In celebration of the 150^th anniversary of St. Joseph being named patron of the universal church, Pope Francis proclaimed that the Church will celebrate this year as Year of Saint Joseph, from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021. Both Pope Pius IX in 1870 and Pope Francis in 2020, described the times in which they lived as full of darkness – times that needed the protection of one who knew how to protect the most sacred in life. These popes went to Joseph, for they knew that Christ and His people who are here today, are in need of Joseph as a companion and guide.

So, this year, let’s all “Go to Joseph!” Let’s include him in our prayer. Let’s think about his life and virtues and emulate all we can of this loveable, loving man’s life. When we think of refugees and the hopeless, unemployed workers, fathers who support their families, let’s “Go to Joseph.” He himself experienced these hardships. Let’s “Go to Joseph” when we think about our own families, for he himself treasured his family as he went with them down uncharted paths.  

~Sister Joan Sobala