Today we celebrate one of the great Saints – St. Joseph
We can take a moment to reflect on the greatness of this Saint –
God entrusted his own Son (God himself incarnate) to Joseph’s care. Joseph (along with Mary) was chosen by God to nurture and raise God-incarnate. God knew how solid Joseph was or else he could not have been chosen for this task – a task that, one could argue, was second only to Jesus’ own task of achieving our salvation.
St. Joseph was hugely significant in Jesus’ life. It is an understatement to say that St. Joseph had a great deal to do with the person that Jesus grew up to be. The key characteristics that define Jesus’ humanity – his courage, perseverance, kindness, compassion, and humility, his forgiving-nature, his dedication to his task, his willingness to sacrifice everything for everybody, and his devotion to God – were all nurtured by Joseph (and Mary).
And how about this –
Jesus used the metaphor of “Father” to define both his own and our relationship with God. For Jesus to be able to emphasize God’s fatherly nature as much as he did, he must have had a tremendous experience with his earthly father. This implies that Joseph must have been a most loving and compassionate father to Jesus, a person that Jesus knew he could always count on and trust, a person who made sure that Jesus knew that he was loved unconditionally, a person that Jesus knew was willing to sacrifice all for his son.
St. Joseph – mine and all the other Joseph’s namesake – a tremendous person. He was – as my own son Joseph might say – “Epic”.
We can all look to St. Joseph as a role model. We can be inspired by him, and we can always aspire to be like him.
Happy St. Joseph’s Day