Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Joseph. It is a solemnity, the highest rank of feast in the Church.
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St. Bernadine of Siena says, that when God gives a person a certain vocation: to be a husband, or mother, or priest, or a nun, or a father – when God gives a certain vocation, he also gives that person all the graces needed to fulfill the task.
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Now St. Joseph was chosen to be the guardian and protector of the greatest treasures in the universe: Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin – the Savior of the world, and the Queen of the world, and he carried out his vocation with complete fidelity.
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For example: When he heard that Herod would kill the Child Jesus, he flew immediately into action: ‘We must flee the city, he thought – ‘now! During the night’ And in his calm, quiet way, he reassured Mary: ‘It will be ok. You are safe.’
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Working quickly and with hardly a word, he loaded the mule, and made all the preparations in one night, for a journey of over 300 miles. Always prudent and wise, he took a few tools, to support his family in Egypt. Mary put together a bundle of clothes for the Child and she looked to her protector: O Joseph! O Joseph.[i]
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Here is just one hint of the courage of St. Joseph. Joseph is the silent one in scripture. He says not one word. He does not impose himself on anyone, yet to call on him, one will find his immediate, fatherly care to keep us safe and secure.
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St. Joseph protected and guarded the Child of the Blessed Virgin, but we too are the children of Mary. Joseph protects us. When we are afraid, Mary seems to say to us: go to Joseph! When we are sad, and don’t know the way, she says, go to Joseph!
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St. Joseph is not only the Patron of the Universal church, he is also the patron of a happy death. A happy death is not to die without suffering or trial – the great saints suffered much. A happy death is to die in the friendship of God, with our sins forgiven, and St. Joseph is the Patron of a happy death because he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary.
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So when we are anxious or worried, let us go to Joseph, this protector. And if we fear death, let us simply place our concern in the care of St. Joseph and then think nothing more of it.
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[i] Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Liguori, p. 272.
