FIRST CENTURY Jesus’ cousins, since Aramaic, the language he HUSBAND OF MARY AND spoke, did not have a separate word for “cous- FOSTER-FATHER OF JESUS �t. Jose�hin.” The Gospels never suggest that Joseph FEAST DAYS: MARCH 19 AND MAY 1 and Mary had the responsibility for children (ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER) apart from Jesus. The long journeys he made, one a headlong flight all the way to Egypt to N TODAY’S CULTURE, efforts to redesign and re- save the infant Jesus, suggest a man who was define the family are well under way. How- in the prime of his life, not a widower with six Iever, a family, as God designed it, needs a or more grown children. father as well as a mother. St. Jo- Joseph was a carpenter, and he seph is the best model of the kind taught his foster-son Jesus the of father every Christian fam- same trade. He was called a ily needs. “just man” (Mt 1:19), and Everything known his virtues are seen in his about Joseph is told in actions. He first ap- the Gospels. Like his peared in the Gospels wife Mary, he was a on the horns of a di- remote descendant lemma: his espoused of King David. He wife Mary was preg- was the son of Ja- nant, he cannot be- cob (Gospel of lieve that she had Matthew) or Heli sinned, but he can- (Gospel of Luke) not bring her to (the likely recon- his home when he ciliation is that the knew the child was men were brothers not his. “Unwilling and that Joseph D to put her to shame, A V I D [he] resolved to divorce was the legal son C H A R her quietly” (Mt 1:19). of one and the de- L E S P scendant of the oth- H God sent an angel to O T O er through marriage G Joseph in a dream to R A P to his brother’s wid- H reveal the truth of the Y ow, a custom command- virginal conception of ed in the Old Testament Jesus by the power of the when a man died childless). Holy Spirit, and upon awak- His birthplace is not known, ening he took her into his home, although Bethlehem is possible completing the two-part process of since he returned there to be enrolled marriage customary at the time. for a census, a circumstance that resulted in Je- Joseph cared for the heavily-pregnant Mary sus’ birth there. The Gospels name four broth- when they traveled to Bethlehem to be enrolled ers of Jesus and an unknown number of sis- and during the difficult time when they could ters. Possibly they were Joseph’s children by find no lodging in the crowded city and were an earlier marriage, but more likely they were forced to shelter in a cave used as a stable. Fol- The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. “God’s plan of salvation necessitated the presence of Joseph, to whom the Father entrusted two missions, husband and protector of the virginity of Mary and foster-father and guardian of the Redeemer.” lowing the departure of the magi who had come sus and Mary after this event suggests a most from afar to worship Jesus, he was told by an holy death in their presence before Jesus be- angel in a dream that King Herod intended to gan his public life. kill the Child who might threaten his usurped God’s plan of salvation necessitated the pres- throne, and to take his family to Egypt. Joseph ence of Joseph, to whom the Father entrusted rose immediately and they fled. They settled two missions, husband and protector of the vir- there for, perhaps, several years until Herod’s ginity of Mary and foster-father and guardian of death, when Joseph, for the third time, was vis- the Redeemer. He accepted both responsibilities ited by an angel in a dream and instructed to with unquestioning faith in God’s commands. take his family home. He realized the God knew his heart, and Joseph emerges danger of returning to Judea, the from the pages of the Gospel as a strong, realm of Herod’s successors, and faithful, and courageous man. He had his fears were reinforced in a fourth a total respect for the will of God and dream which led him to decide to a total openness to God’s will in his settle further north, in Galilee. life. He acted quickly and decisively Joseph last appeared in the Gos- in difficult situations. Immense faith pels when the Holy Family went to and trust in God’s will were the Jerusalem for the feast of Pass- essential foundations of his over, as they did every year, sanctity. There is every when Jesus was twelve. likelihood that his consent These pilgrimages in- was divinely rewarded with volved perhaps scores a supernatural purity and of people from every holiness. The constant village, since Joseph presence of God — as and Mary took a full his foster son — would day to realize, on not have been possible their return, that if he were a sinful hu- Jesus was not man person. He was among their “kin- also called to a life of folk and acquain- total continence. Yet tances” (Lk 2:44). between him and Joseph and Mary Mary there surely returned to Jeru- was a deep and ten- salem, spent three der love. True love days anxiously look- is not self-seek- ing for Jesus, and final- ing but selfless- ly found him in the Tem- ly generous. Jo- ple. After they returned seph gave himself, home, Jesus “was obedient completely, to the to them” (Lk 2:51). Jo- welfare and pro- seph’s quiet disappear- tection of his wife ance from the life of Je- PHOTOGRAPHY CHARLES DAVID and foster son. St. Joseph ~ Page 2.