Solemnity of Saint Joseph

For my confirmation, I chose the name Joseph. I considered him as a brilliant role model. It's a great blessing that the Church declares this day a Solemnity and that, during Lent, you can say the Gloria at the Mass.

First and foremost Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary, was faithful and committed to God. Think about the eyebrows that would have been raised towards Joseph in Nazareth once the community discovered Our Lady was with child before being married to him. He could quite simply have left them. Yet Joseph, through the message of an Angel through a dream, committed himself to assisting Mary in bringing up the infant child Jesus, the Saviour of the world. It is this commitment to God that gives us such a fantastic example.

When in the Holy Land, I did not reflect much upon the role of Joseph so much because you become so immersed in the conception, birth, childhood, public ministry, Passion, death and Resurrection of Christ when moving from holy place to place. But now that I've had time to reflect on some of the significant moments involving St Joseph, the experience of the Holy Land enriches a devotion to this earthly father of Jesus.

During the visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, we went down to the crypt of the Catholic Church that is next door to the grotto. Before celebrating Mass in the Chapel of St Jerome, we were shown the altar to St Joseph, where he is said to have had the dream warning the Holy Family to escape to Egypt. Joseph clearly recognised these dreams as messages from angels directing him which move to make next amid vulnerable surroundings, with more than 150km and a desert separating them from home. His response reminds us as Christians to do what we think God's will is and yearn to come closer to Jesus. It is also an example for us to defend Christ and our faith in a humble but clear way in times when we are attacked.

In Nazareth, we were able to visit the house of the Holy Family. In this place, all western perceptions of what Nazareth is like are eradicated. In essence, it was a group of a relatively small number of caves. It was a poor place. We don't hear much about Jesus growing up, but what we do know is that Joseph is a vital figure in the early life of Our Lord. As the opening line of the hymn for today's morning prayer of the church states:

Joseph wise ruler of God’s earthly household,
Nearest of all men to the heart of Jesus,
Be still a father, lovingly providing
For us, is brethren.