I once told a priest how much I had appreciated a beautiful homily he had given on Our Lady. He smiled mischievously and replied: ‘Well, I am the rector of a Marian shrine. It wouldn’t say much if I couldn’t preach on her!’
As well as having the care of a church dedicated to St Joseph the Worker, I have always been struck by him in the Gospel narratives. Could there be a better example of actions speaking louder than words? He is there at the most important and intimate moments of Our Lord’s hidden life, and yet he says little. Nothing, even. Not a single word he spoke is recorded. Yet we need no pretty speeches to understand why the Church places the figure of St Joseph before us. The collect for today reminds us to ask for St Joseph’s intercession so that the ‘Church may constantly watch over the mysteries of human salvation, whose beginnings you [God] entrusted to his faithful care’. Actions indeed speak louder than words, and it is St Joseph’s actions which should serve to encourage us and inspire us.
Today we are reminded of a different kind of greatness. It is not the greatness of the pagans, lived out in public words or asserted achievements, but greatness found in the quiet observance of God’s law. It is a faithfulness which is strong and silent holiness, which is lived out in a daily acceptance of God’s will. Our world values what is seen, bragged about and loudly proclaimed. It overlooks, and even disdains, un-signalled virtue. St Joseph reminds us that much of what God sees as precious is hidden from the ‘learned and the clever’.
The scriptures describe St Joseph as a ‘just man’. No small praise or thoughtless compliment. To be just in the scriptures is to live in right relationship with God. It is to be attentive to His will, and to act with justice and integrity. Think of St Joseph’s immediate response to his discovery that Our Lady was with child. Even when he mistakenly thinks he has been betrayed, he decides to act with compassion and mercy, seeking to spare her shame. And yet, when the angel speaks to him in a dream, he immediately lays aside his own plans and does what the Lord requires of him.
I have always thought there was something so beautiful in this, especially for our world today. St Joseph listens, and then he acts. There is no hesitation, to be sure, nor argument, resistance or demand for explanation. His life is shaped by the will of God, rooted in his quiet trust in providence. One might say he is someone who simply ;gets on with it’.
St Joseph’s vocation is unique. Obvious, I know – but sometimes the obvious needs stating! He is entrusted with the care of the Father’s Only-Begotten Son, and with His Blessed Mother. No other human being had this asked of them. He stands at the threshold of the mystery of the Incarnation. While he may not have fully grasped what the angel’s message to Our Lady meant, for she would surely have told him all about it, he accepts it and faithfully carries out the task assigned to him, without complaint and also without fanfare. St John Chrysostom wrote about how St Joseph places himself ‘entirely at the service of human salvation’.
We see it in the journey to Bethlehem, the difficult circumstances of Our Lord’s birth and the fearful flight into Egypt. These are dramatic events which St Joseph navigated as he sought to protect the precious treasure God had entrusted to him. Then there is the not-so-dramatic, which many parents will understand. These are the hidden years in Nazareth. They are marked by ordinary duties of family life and responsibility, of tiring work and a child wandering off. St Joseph diligently cares for what he does not fully understand, and in doing this he teaches us to live by faith. In this, he becomes a model for fathers, for workers and for every Christian who seeks to live virtuously and well in the circumstances of ordinary life.
It is perhaps by no coincidence that we celebrate him during Lent. Lent is a time of bringing ourselves back to what really matters. It is an opportunity to set aside distraction, noise and the desire to be seen and admired, and leads instead into prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It helps focus our minds and souls into a more faithful obedience to God.
Considering St Joseph, we might consider Lent to be a return to Nazareth. It is an invitation to rediscover the hidden life, where God is present in the quiet rhythm of daily fidelity. St Joseph is a guide on this path. He teaches us how to listen more attentively, to trust more faithfully and to act more courageously. And let’s not forget that, as a solemnity, it brings with it a little respite from our penances. Husbands can treat their family too!
It is fitting then to turn to St Joseph in prayer, especially on his feast day. We can entrust to him our families, our work, our responsibilities, our burdens and our uncertainties. There is something so moving about the fact that the man who watched over the Holy Family continues to watch over the universal Church with his intercession and example. He shows us how to remain steady, how to act with virtue and courage, and how to trust in God’s will even when the path seems unclear or we do not fully understand what is being asked of us.
In the midst of a world which leaves no thought unspoken and no selfie unposted, St Joseph stands before us as a reminder that God often works most profoundly in silence. In that quiet, we too may learn to live as St Joseph did: simply, faithfully and close to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Fr Gary Dench is the parish priest of St Joseph the Worker, Hutton and Shenfield, in the Diocese of Brentwood
