St. Joseph: Guardian and Hearer

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you look over the congregation at any Catholic parish around the world, into a Catholic school classroom, or on the roster of every religious order, you can see from names alone that St. Joseph is well loved! But for someone so integral to the life of Jesus and for such a beloved saint of the Church, it seems we only know what is most essential for us to know about his life.

From the Gospels, we learn that Joseph:

•  Hailed from the house and the line of King David of the Old Testament (Matthew 1:16);
• Was a “just” or “righteous” man (Matthew 1:18);
• Received the message of God’s angel to care for Mary and Jesus (Matthew 1:20);
• Observed the feasts and customs of the Jewish law with Mary and Jesus (Luke 2:41); and
• Responded quickly and receptively in faith whenever he learned the will of God (Matthew 1:24, 2:21).

For our purposes today, we can focus on two characteristics of St. Joseph. First, we’ll consider St. Joseph as the guardian of Jesus and Mary.  Second, St. Joseph remained receptive to hearing God’s will and responded to it immediately. 

St. Joseph is often referred to as the “Guardian of the Redeemer.” This isn’t simply a legal category to protect Mary and Jesus since Jesus has been conceived through the Holy Spirit. St. Joseph watches over and protects Mary and Jesus as a spouse and father through several truly precarious and dangerous situations. First they flee from Herod’s wrath to Egypt. Then they settle down in Nazareth safely away from the anger of Herod’s son, Archelaus. And when Jesus is older, Joseph and Mary worriedly search together for Jesus for days because they believe him to be lost and alone in Jerusalem. 

What would it have been like to bear the immense responsibility with Mary for Jesus’ well-being? Can we imagine what it would have been like to lay awake at night, praying for the grace and strength needed to do so? Maybe that first dream played out in Joseph’s mind repeatedly–“do not be afraid … you are to name him Jesus”--as he completed his daily work, or sat watching Jesus and Mary together in their home, or walked with them to the synagogue.

 In her work The Reed of God, the author Caryll Houselander reflects on the life and spirituality of Mary. She suggests that we are asked (like Mary) to “bring or bear Christ into the world.” She then challenges her readers to consider how they might do that in their own lives. Similarly, if a fundamental aspect of St. Joseph’s calling in life was to watch over and safeguard Mary and Jesus, we might ask: how can we be a guardian of the Lord in our world today? 

Jesus associates himself with little children (“whoever receives one of these in my name receives me” in Mark 9), with the persecuted (“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” in Acts 9), and with the least of these (Matthew 25). With St. Joseph, we might ask: where is God asking me to care for and keep safe his little ones, those who are persecuted, or those who have no one to advocate for them? Where am I asked to safeguard the presence of God revealed in this world? 

Second, St. Joseph’s life reveals that he was receptive to God’s will. As soon as he hears what God is asking of him, he acts immediately! When he is considering ending his betrothal to Mary, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, telling him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home. Joseph wakes up, rises, and does so immediately. He flees with Mary and Jesus to Egypt as instructed and later returns home to Israel--again, as instructed by an angel while dreaming. Each time he understands what God asks of him, Joseph takes what he hears and quickly acts on it. He does exactly what Jesus will exhort his followers to do if they are truly his family: “hear the word of God, and keep it.” 

Today, we can ask St. Joseph to pray that we guard the presence of Jesus in the vulnerable of our world. And we can ask him to pray that we be  open to hearing God’s will for our lives and respond with trust in God’s providence. 

Hope Zelmer

Hope Zelmer is a writer and a former theology teacher and campus minister at Fenwick High School, a Dominican Catholic preparatory school in Oak Park, Illinois. Hope has written for publications such as FaithND, Church Life Journal, and FemCatholic. She holds a BA and MA in Theology from the University of Notre Dame. 

Above: The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1680, The National Gallery, London.