Saints for our times
ST JOSEPH
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin, Patron of the Universal Church, Terror of Demons BY MARIA MADISE
“Some Saints are privileged to extend to us their patronage with particular efficacy in certain needs, but not in others; but our holy patron St Joseph has the power to assist us in all cases, in every necessity, in every undertaking.” – St Thomas Aquinas
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he power and grandeur of St Joseph exceed all human imagination. And even so, his humble life with the Word Incarnate provides us with an example to follow in every aspect of human life that we can imagine. Everything we know about his life and his person is in relation to the Divine Child and His Blessed Mother. That is, all we know about St Joseph is his reaction to the Divine mystery unfolded beneath his eyes. There is nothing known about St Joseph that is separate from Jesus and Mary. What better model could we desire to imitate at this time of Lent in order to lose our own interests and transform everything in our lives to the service of God and His Blessed Mother, generously and totally, without reserve. Carmelite author Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen urges us to surrender ourselves to that service “with a heart filled with God, with a heart that lives with Him” and which is nourished by ceaseless prayer.1 SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) invites us to consider the noble birth of St Joseph, the bridegroom:
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“He was born of Patriarchal, Royal and Princely stock in a direct line as has been said. For St Matthew in his first chapter established a direct line with all the aforementioned fathers from Abraham to the spouse of the Virgin, clearly demonstrating that all patriarchal, royal and princely dignity come together in him…”2 The nobility of birth must be complemented with the nobility of nature. Dr Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira notes: “To even begin to comprehend the nature of St Joseph… we must bear in mind two awe-inspiring facts. St Joseph is the virgin-husband of Our Lady and the guardian-father of Our Lord.”3 Dr de Oliveira explains the incredibility of these two facts: “The husband must be proportional to the wife. St Joseph’s spouse is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most perfect of all creatures, and masterpiece of the Creator’s handiwork. In her incomparable person, we find the sum of all the virtues of all the angels, and saints, indeed all creation until the end of time… From among all men, God chose one man worthy to love and honour the Mother of His Only-Begotten Son as her husband. He was a husband proportional to his wife in love of God, purity, wisdom,
justice – in every virtue. St Joseph was that man.”4 “However,” he continues, “there remains something even more incomprehensible. The father must be proportional to his son, and, as we have noted, the Son for Whom God sought an earthly father was none other than His Own. There could be but one man fit for such an awesome responsibility, the man God created for precisely this vocation and whose soul He crowned with every virtue. That man, too, was St Joseph.”5 Even considering the royal line which St Joseph belonged to by birth, Dr Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira concludes: “It is beyond our power to imagine the grandeur of St Joseph’s exaltation.”6 PROTECTOR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH
On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 1870, Blessed Pope Pius IX, following appeals received from bishops worldwide, had declared St Joseph to be Patron of the Universal Church, “in this most sorrowful time” when “the Church herself is beset by enemies on every side and oppressed by heavy calamities, so that impious men imagine that the
CAL X M A R IA E
