Molly Fernandes
Joseph a simple and humble name but very powerful in the Bible used in the Old and New Testament. This name has great significance and those personalities are role models. The Joseph today I speak about is the Just, simple and quiet man. A man of no words but of simple acts! A man who walked the talk. A man who meant what he said, promised and lived to the full. A man betrothed to Mary. A man, who willed to collaborate in the Plan of Redemption and fulfilled his role to the full! Joseph proved to be a man of faith, a worthy successor to the great Patriarchs who followed the call of God through the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the coming of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah. God entrusted this silent, humble man with the unique privilege of raising, protecting, teaching, and training Jesus as a growing child. Joseph accepted his role of fatherly care with faith, trust, and obedience to the will of God. He is a model for all who are entrusted with the care, instruction, and protection of the young. Yes, Joseph the Worker, the Carpenter, is a faithful witness and servant of God’s unfolding plan of redemption.
Most of us affirm our faith in God and trust Him that He loves us, cares for us and never forgets us. We do this with great ease when the circumstances in our lives are moving smoothly, when everything is in place and going in our favour. But life as we all know is not always beautiful and rosy. When we are in deep sorrow, frustrated and feel rejected and abandoned by God through the persons with whom we live and work for, where could we place ourselves on the scale of faith….?
Abraham who is known not only as our father but the father of our faith was blessed by God when He came to believe and trust God’s promise of countless descendants even if he and Sarah were way past their child-bearing years.
Joseph the father of our Lord Jesus Christ was likewise a man of faith. Amidst his confused heart and the possibility of punishment by authorities, he accepted God’s Word as His will. He took Mother Mary for his wife and became father to Jesus. During good and bad times, our faith should be firm, constant and the same. Nothing should make our faith for our God to ever waiver, nothing should ever make us doubt about God’s love for all of us.
Matthew the evangelist tells us that Joseph was a “just man”. John Chrysostom (347-407 AD), a gifted preacher and bishop of Constantinople, comments on the great virtue we see in Joseph which qualified him to be a worthy guardian and foster father for the child Jesus:
“The concept of ‘just’ here signifies the man who possesses all the virtues. By ‘justice’ one at times understands only one virtue in particular, as in the phrase: the one who is not avaricious (greedy) is just. But ‘justice’ also refers to virtue in general. And it is in this sense, above all, that scripture uses the word ‘justice’. For example, it refers to: a just man and true (cf. Job 1:1), or the two were just (cf. Luke 1:6). Joseph, then, being just, that is to say good and charitable…”
Today St. Joseph reminds and invites us as a care taker, a father, a husband, a worker, to be just, responsible and dedicated to the given task, the entrusted mission to work with love and passion, come what may being (faith)ful and (trust)ing in the living God.
