Patronage of St. Joseph/Third Sunday after Easter
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today we celebrate the feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph, as well as commemorating the Third Sunday after Easter. The reading from the book of Genesis records the dying patriarch Jacob’s words to his son Joseph. He was comely to behold, but they that held darts provoked him and envied him. “His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel. The God of thy father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that lies beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills shall come.”
The words of the dying patriarch Jacob to his son Joseph come as the climax of a remarkable story of hatred and bitter rivalry that had finally ended in forgiveness and reconciliation. Joseph had been his father’s favourite son, but this had provoked his elder brothers to jealously. They had plotted to kill him, but had been persuaded to desist by Ruben. He had been sold into slavery in Egypt, but had been so successful in his position that he had eventually risen to prominence in his adopted country. His advice had been used by the Egyptian Pharaoh to help with the economic planning needed to deal with a famine. He had risen to be second in the land after the Pharaoh himself. His brothers had been sent by their father to seek relief from the famine in Egypt. They had met with Joseph, but he had become so assimilated to his new environment that they had not recognised him. It was only later that he revealed his true identity to them and his father Jacob himself travelled to Egypt to be reunited with the son whom he feared that he had lost. He had finally been able to die in peace in Egypt. As Joseph himself said, though his brothers had intended evil, God had used the situation for good. Although all had seemed lost good prevailed in the end. It provides a powerful lesson to us today not to abandon hope even in the most unpromising of circumstances.
Many of the same themes are recapitulated in the life of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary who bore in her womb the Word made flesh. He had feared that she had been unfaithful when he found that his espoused had conceived before they were married. He had thought it best to exercise charity and divorce her privately. He had been informed in a dream by an angel that the child was not conceived as a result of an illicit union, but by the Holy Spirit and that he would be called Jesus, for he would save his people from their sins. King Herod had feared a rival to his putative status as King of the Jews and had massacred the innocents in Bethlehem. St. Joseph had been compelled to seek refuge with the young child and his mother in Egypt until after the death of Herod. Despite the bleak pessimism of the situation, good had eventually triumphed over evil.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux states: “What and what manner of man the blessed Joseph was, we may gather from that title wherewith, albeit only as a deputy, God deemed him fit to be honoured- he was both called and supposed to be the Father of God. We may gather it from his very name which, being interpreted, signifieth increase. Remember likewise that great patriarch who was sold into Egypt, and know that the husband of Mary not only received his name, but inherited his purity, and was likened to him in innocence and grace.
If then that Joseph was sold by his brethren through envy, and was brought down to Egypt, and was a type of Christ sold by a disciple, and handed over to the Gentiles, the other Joseph flying from the envy of Herod carried Christ into Egypt. That first Joseph kept loyal to his master, and would not carnally know his master’s wife; that second Joseph knew that the lady, the mother of his Lord, was a virgin, and he himself remained faithfully a virgin towards her. To that first Joseph it was given to know dark things in interpreting of dreams; to the second Joseph it was given in sleep to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
The first Joseph laid by bread, not for himself, but for all people; the second Joseph received into his keeping that living bread which came down from heaven, not for him only, but for the whole world. We cannot doubt but that that Joseph was good and faithful to whom was espoused the mother of the Saviour. Yea, I say, he was a faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord appointed to be the comfort of his own mother, the keeper of his own body, and the only and trusty helper in the eternal counsels.”
Let us make our own the words of today’s Collect:
O God, who in thine unspeakable providence didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Joseph for thy most holy mother’s spouse; grant, we beseech thee, that we who revere him as our protector upon earth, may become worthy to have him for our intercessor in heaven.
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