Glorious St. Joseph

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife” (Mt 1-20).

These are key words in the life of St Joseph, descendant of David. With them the eternal Father entrusts to a man – to the carpenter of Nazareth – a great mystery of God.

This mystery was entrusted first to the Virgin, also of the town of Nazareth, who, at the moment of the Annunciation of this same mystery, was already publicly betrothed to Joseph. She was, then, according to the law of Israel, his spouse. But she did not yet dwell in his house. She did not know man, as she herself declares to the angel (cf. Lk 1:34). To her, then, first of all, was entrusted the mystery of the Incarnation. The mystery of the Son “of the same substance of the Father”: of the Son of God who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was made man, so as to accomplish the eternal will of the Father. This Virgin of Nazareth was chosen to be his mother.

​Joseph becomes a participant in the same mystery of God, together with Mary, after her, as the Gospel of today’s solemnity testifies: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:20-21). The name “Jesus” in fact means “God saves”, and therefore: “Savior”.

To Joseph, then, to the carpenter of Nazareth, was entrusted, as to Mary, the same mystery of God. A great mystery, the mystery eternally hidden in God, a mystery that became flesh” in man’s history and was revealed to human hearts: to the eyes of faith.

​St Joseph, Protector of the Church, today, ​ on your solemnity, we pray to God with these words:
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“Almighty God, who chose to entrust the beginnings of our redemption to the loving care of St. Joseph, by his intercession grant that your Church may cooperate faithfully in the fulfillment of the work of salvation”.

Excerpts from a homily by St. John Paul II on St. Joseph

Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Luc-Olivier Merson