Beatus vir qui in lege Domini voluptas eius est, et de lege eius meditatur die ac nocte. Blessed the man whose delight is the law of the Lord, and ponders his law, day and night.
Come with me to the first of the psalms to get a glimpse of the character the scriptures give of this enigmatic Joseph, drawn for us by both St Luke and St Matthew in their infancy narratives. St Matthew handed down a text that is written from the perspective of Joseph, as the descendent of the royal line of King David. Two strands are evident in his account, the first being the genealogy of Joseph and the second, the annunciation by the angelic messenger. The first is designed to show Joseph’s descent from Abraham and the royal Davidic line in a torrent of begetting repeated thirty-nine times. Abraham begot[1] Isaac… Jesse begot David… and so on, only to halt abruptly with Jacob begot Joseph. Given the rhythm of the text one expects the next step to be Joseph begot… but no! Joseph does not beget. In the language of the text, “Jacob begot Joseph, the spouse of Mary of whom Jesus the Christ was born.”[2] It makes clear that Joseph was destined to be the legal father of Jesus by virtue of the fact that legal paternity was sufficient by itself to confer all hereditary rights; in this case those of the messianic line.
The second strand, the annunciation to Joseph, highlights the key theme of this reflection, that Joseph is a just man. It confirms that Jesus is the one promised, since the time of Abraham: “Now Jesus’ birth as Christ (Messiah) took place in this manner.”[3] It then presents the dilemma that confronted Joseph. The text reads literally: “His mother Mary, having been pledged to Joseph, before their coming together, found herself to be with child in her womb, from the Holy Spirit.”[4] Mary was found to be with child. How could Joseph make sense of that, knowing that he was not the father? Yet the text now refers to him as the husband (άνήρ) being a “just” man (δίκαιος) confronted by this mystery, her mystery.
Most commentators speak of the doubt of Joseph, in the sense that he understood that Mary would be considered an adulteress, but he being a just man would shield her from the law by divorcing her secretly.[5] However, this interpretation does not satisfy. Philologist theologians[6] have determined that an exact translation of the text indicates that Joseph could not reveal what Mary had shared with him in confidence and that he must guard in his heart her precious secret. So as the “just one” he must separate himself from her, in awe of the action of God the Holy Spirit, for he did not wish to expose publicly (δειγματίσαι) her mystery. The apparition of the archangel resolved his dilemma. Joseph no longer needed to be perplexed (ένθυμηθέντος) for his concerns had been allayed. In the following sequence the sense of the text may be expressed as: “while it is true, as you well know, that what has been begotten in Mary is of the Holy Spirit, she will bear you a son, and it is you who must give the name to this child”.[7] Joseph then is to be for Jesus his true human father while being his legal father.
Elsewhere in the scriptures Jesus is referred to as the carpenter’s son. Fatherhood, integrity and contemplation are significant descriptors of Joseph in those instances that he appears in these sacred texts. He is therefore the perfect role model for manhood in every society. His fatherly care is epitomised in the account of the flight into Egypt to escape the slaughter determined by Herod. After receiving another nocturnal visitation from the angel of the Lord with the directive: “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him”, the narrative records that he promptly “rose and took the child by night…”[8]
Likewise, in the account of keeping the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, he and Mary discover that Jesus is missing during their return to Nazareth. When they found him in the temple, teaching, they were astounded (έξεπλάγησαν). Mary voiced their concern saying “your father and I have been in distress searching for you.” Whereupon Jesus replied that he is obliged to be “in the house of my Father”.[9] St Luke records that his mother kept all these things in her heart. There can be no doubt that Joseph did likewise for he could identify with that text of Solomon: “… there I was beside him like a master craftsman, and I was daily his delight rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men…”[10]
His contemplative nature encourages us to adopt the ardour of his love for his Son, to be in companionship with Him, observing Him, engaging Him in one’s activities and being careful not to lose Him. Significantly, to know that the first place to look for him is in the temple, one’s inner temple of the Spirit, for while Jesus is referred to as the “son of Joseph”,[11] he remains the “beloved Son of the Father”. Joseph too, like Mary, is a magnifier whose spirit draws one into deeper contemplation of the infant Jesus, his boyhood, his maturity and manhood. He withdraws into obscurity so that his son, the only Son of the Father, may enter the limelight. Even so, he remains central to the mystery of the Incarnation and, in that capacity, he is a titan of our faith.
As a just man archetypically, Joseph was imbued with the faith of Israel, meditating the divine Law and expressing his communion with God, with the psalms of his ancestor, David, especially, “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night - also my heart instructs me; I keep the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand… therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body also dwells secure.”[12] For the just man is “like a tree that is planted by streaming waters, whose leaves shall not wither, whose fruit is brought forth in due season, and whatever he does shall prosper.” Is it any wonder that St Teresa of Avila wished to persuade everyone to “be devout to this glorious saint; for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God. I have never known anyone who was really devout to him, and who honoured him by particular services, who did not grow visibly more and more in virtue; for he helps in a special way those souls who commend themselves to him”?[13] Dr Peter Waters, March, 2021.
[1] Most translations now construe έγέννεσον as “was the father of” which does not have the immediacy of “begot”. [2] In the prologue to his gospel, St John speaks of “the name of him who was born not of human stock, nor urge of the flesh, nor will of man but of God himself” indicating the virgin birth. Jn 1:13. [3] This is a precise translation of the Greek, Του δέ Ιέσου Χριστου ή γένεσις οϋτως ήν. [4] Μνηστευθείσης τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ Μαρίας τῷ Ἰωσήφ πρὶν ἢ συνελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εὑρέθη ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου. [5] The Jerusalem Bible translation reads, “Joseph, being a man of honour, and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.” [6] For example, Ignace de la Potterie, SJ ; René Laurentin, Simeon Leiva-Merikakis, OCSO. [7] De la Potterie, I, SJ, (1992) Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant, isbn 0-8189-0632-4, p.59. [8] Mt 2:13, 14. [9] Lk 2: 48-9 (ούκ ήδειτε ότ έν τοις τοΰ Πατρός μου δει εϊναί με?) [10] Prov. 8:30-1. [11] Jn 1:45; 6:42. [12] Ps 16: 7-9; [13] The Life of Teresa of Jesus, ch. 6.
