March 19—St. Joseph, Husband of Mary

Ite ad Joseph.  “Go to Joseph!”  But why?  We have Mary, who intercedes continually on our behalf.  We have Jesus, of course, who listens to our prayers and knows our needs before we do.  We go to Joseph because he was the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus.  He took care of and protected both of them.  He took Mary into his home after he had discovered that she was pregnant with Jesus, protecting her from being stoned to death for adultery.  He took her and the unborn Son of God to Bethlehem and found a place to stay, even though he was desperately poor.  He rescued them from Herod’s sword by fleeing to Egypt.  He raised Jesus as his son, taught him the trade of carpentry, and showed him what it meant to be a righteous man, for that is what he is called in the Gospel of Matthew (1:19).  He never said a word in any gospel, but he did what God called him to do.

Ite ad Joseph.  “Go to Joseph!”  Joseph is the patron of the Universal Church, which is the Bride of Christ.  As a husband and father, Joseph modeled for the young Jesus the meaning of spousal love in his celibate love of his wife, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Joseph was the first “Abba” that Jesus knew as a child.  Joseph pointed Jesus to his true Father in heaven.  Joseph points us to our Father as well.  Those of us who are fathers and/or husbands, we need to model true love for our wives and point our families to our Father.  We need to “Go to Joseph!”