St Theresa said there is no saint for everything like St Joseph. He is like the Leatherman of all saints. Today I would like to talk about the foster father of Jesus. St Joseph is an easy man to forget. He didn’t say a word in Scripture, yet St Joseph’s life spoke volumes and prayers to him are answered. Joseph is the humble branch that the Lord exalted. He did not exalt himself, but he let the Lord do all that. He walked by faith and not by sight as the Second Reading tells us. Joseph is, definitely, the man of faith.
You can imagine the life of St Joseph – a man of virtue, a master of his passions, not saying that he didn’t have them. He was probably very passionate, yet he directed his passions for good. His life wasn’t easy. He was not in control of it but let God run the show with radical trust. Joseph controlled what he could and not what he couldn’t. Some things that strike me about Joseph is that he chose poverty, even though he was an immensely skilled carpenter. Can you imagine how hard it would be for a man who was not able to provide a house for the most beautiful and virtuous woman on the planet? I am sure St Joseph did his best to provide a house for Mary. He used his skill and knowledge to make it pleasing to her, then just before they were going to really use it for their child, off to Bethlehem and he can’t provide anything but a stable for his most beloved wife and son, the Son of God, that must have hurt his pride. Joseph though walked by faith and knew that God does all for our betterment and he trusted. And God guided him because of that trust. Then took him to Egypt and then to a different town where he did not live before. What a life of trust.
You would think that in the Holy Family Mary would do all the holy things and Joseph would do all the work. But Joseph was truly a father who taught his son the things of God. He, though the only sinner in the family, led his family, served his family and protected his family. He, though not the new Adam, trained the new Adam how to be a man. He showed him what virtue and sacrifice looked like. Unlike Adam, he did not fail to protect his bride and the fruit of her womb. Joseph did whatever it took to keep his wife and son safe. He started at a young age in that training, I am sure.
Not much is said about Joseph yet to me everything is said about him because God chose Joseph to protect and love Mary and to guide His own Son and to be a faithful example of God the Father’s love to Him. Joseph had to be something special. The greatest of all men after Jesus. If God gave Jesus Joseph to teach Him how to be a man, then we men can be sure that Joseph is the guide of all men in their training and virtue. This is our friend and, in Canada, our patron.
I am not sure if you are aware of this, but we Canadians have something to be proud of. We have in Canada the largest shrine to St Joseph in the world and it is full of signs of the power of this most holy man. It is full of wheel chairs, crutches, canes of people who have been miraculously cured there. St Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal is worth seeing. Many monastic foundations owe their ability to start through the intercession of St Joseph. Mission monks were short $100,000 some seventy years ago and they started a novena to St Joseph. They received their money through a very unlikely source, their groundskeeper. I also remember the story of the Brothers of John the Evangelist. They had been exiled from their country, given a bombed-out seminary by a French bishop and winter was coming on. They had nothing yet, after a novena to St Joseph, they received a large cheque from a fellow to get them through the winter. There are many stories, of course. Another worth mentioning is the Holy Staircase in Santa Fe. The builders made a mistake and forgot to build a staircase to connect the choir loft. No one could come up with a solution that would fit the chapel. It was either too big or too ugly or too costly. They prayed to St Joseph and soon a man came on a donkey with simple hand tools and built this magnificent spiral staircase. There is no central pole, no nails. No one has ever been able to explain how it works. It looks as if it would collapse, yet many people can walk on in without stressing it. You can look it up online.
So what can we get from St Joseph? Prayers, virtue and the finest example of being a man. You may see statutes of St Joseph in fancy clothes and facial blush or lipstick but that is not who he was. He was a working man who carved out a living for his family with his hands, as many men do today. He led his family in faith and devotion. If you want to have an amazing time next time you do a project, ask St Joseph to help you and guide what you are doing. Be reflective, consult him often and see what happens. St Joseph teaches us that we are not alone and that he will always be there to help.
We will be like the mustard seed when we follow Joseph. We may not look like much to the world and the world may not think you could accomplish much because you are humble, but God will do so much through you that will send that world’s head spinning. We men need St Joseph as a guide, as a model. We should daily pray for his guidance, to work like him, to lead our families like him, to love like him and to be virtuous and humble like him.