“Where was St. Joseph buried?” a parishioner asked me recently. I thought for a moment and replied, “I don’t think we know. I have been to three places that claim to be burial sites for Mary: in Jerusalem, Ephesus and Kashmir. I have been to two burial sites for Jesus: inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and just outside the walls of Jerusalem. But I’ve never heard of or read about a burial place for St. Joseph.” “How, sad,” the parishioner commented. As I thought more about it throughout the day, I remembered that, according to the German mystic, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, the incorrupt body of St. Joseph is buried somewhere in Bethlehem just waiting to be discovered.
As we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph on this Friday, 19 March, during this Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis announced last December to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, allow me to offer some more reflections on St. Joseph. You may recall that I first wrote about this Year of St. Joseph in the 20 December 2020 Parish Bulletin. In addition to not knowing where he was buried, we know very little about the life of St. Joseph with any reliability. There are apocryphal accounts about him that speak of his being previously married and having six children from that first marriage – two daughters and four sons. These accounts also relate that after his first wife died, when he was 90 years old, St. Joseph agreed to marry Mary, whose family was too poor to provide a dowry for her, when he was selected among the elders of Nazareth by pulling the long stick, which flowered after he pulled it. That’s why he is depicted holding a lily, popularly called St. Joseph’s Lily. While these accounts have provided much material for artistic renderings of St. Joseph, they are not considered to be reliable since they are not found in the canonical books of the Bible.
The very little that we do learn about St. Joseph comes from the gospels, specifically the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John. From them, we read that Joseph learned in a dream that Mary was with child through the power of the Holy Spirit and that he should take Mary, to whom he was betrothed, to be his wife. The angel of God further instructed Joseph to name Mary’s son, thus making the child his son by Jewish law. And, he was to name him Joshua, which means “God saves” (cf. Mt. 1:19-21). We are familiar with the Latin rendering of that name: Jesus. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Gospel of Matthew recounts that Joseph had another dream in which an angel instructed Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. Meanwhile, the Gospel of Luke recounts that Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem shortly after his birth to present him to the Lord, in accordance with Jewish law (cf. Lk 2:22-24); afterward, they returned to Nazareth. The Gospel of John indicates that Jesus was known as the “son of Joseph, from Nazareth” (Jn 1:45). The only other mention of St. Joseph in the Bible is also found in the Gospel of Luke where the finding of Jesus in the Temple is recounted (cf. Lk 2:41-52).
Although we know little about the life of St. Joseph, we hold him in such high esteem that every Catholic Church traditionally has his statue, along with a statue of Mary. Down through the ages, the faithful have turned to him for intercession and, in 1870, Pope Pius IX declared him to be the Patron of the Universal Church. Now, 150 years later, we have the privilege to reflect on his life and example during this “Year of Saint Joseph” which began on 8 December 2020 and will end on 8 December 2021. In his recent Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis describes St. Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows. In this letter, Pope Francis notes that he wrote Patris corde against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he says, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, they resemble Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” who nonetheless played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”
In his Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis highlights “the creative courage” of St. Joseph, which “emerges especially in the way we deal with difficulties.” “The carpenter of Nazareth,” explains the Pope, “was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting in divine providence.” He had to deal with “the concrete problems” his family faced; in this way, he can be an inspiration to us all.
At the conclusion of his Letter, Pope Francis provides a prayer to St Joseph, which he encourages all of us to pray:
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
As we continue to celebrate this Year of St. Joseph, I invite you to turn to him often in your prayer. He can be a great source of encouragement, inspiration and courage and we can all use this during these challenging times, can’t we?