Blessed Solemnity of Saint Joseph

In honor of the great Saint Joseph, I want to direct you to the posts wherein I talk about him. The articles may be found here, here, here, here and here and indirectly here.

Most of us do not realize the grandeur of Saint Joseph and the intensity of his faith and trust in God. If my theory is correct and God originally planned that we conceived children virginally as Mary and Joseph did, and if the test of virginity was the test of our first parents, then Joseph is more than the foster father of Jesus. If God had originally planned that parenthood was to be obtained via a deep union with Him and a profound trust in His provision, then Joseph would be a true father of Jesus. We usually don't say Joseph was the true father of Jesus because that implies, in the common way we use that word 'true,' that Jesus was conceived in the normal manner. Mary conceived from the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her, not from the generative powers of Joseph.

Fatherhood is more than physical generation. There are plenty of men walking around today that have physically generated children who have little or no resemblance to being a father. And on the other side of that reality, there are a great number of wonderful men and women who could not have children, and yet they sacrificed and brought children into their life through adoption; they are mothers and fathers in the full sense of the word. Parenthood has more to do with the care of children than with their generation.

In their trial of faith, Mary and Joseph trusted in God immensely; they desired children more than anyone has, and yet God asked them to remain virgins forever. That doesn't make sense, and yet they trusted in God's unintelligible request. The reward for crucifying their greatest earthly desire? They are entrusted with the Son of God as their very own child. In addition to that unimaginable gift, Mary is the mother of us all, and Joseph as the patron of the universal Church is the father of all. Trusting in God, they let the seed of children fall into the ground to die, and it has become the greatest of all plants bearing overabundant fruit. Their sacrifice has become their reward.

With all that being said, I think it can be said that in the true and full sense of fatherhood, Joseph is the human father of Jesus. Since Jesus was conceived through Mary and Joseph's unity as spouses and their unity to God in their trust of Him, they passed the original test of our first parents. They did what Adam and Eve did not, and as such, they did what God had originally intended man to do to become a parent. Fatherhood has to do with caring for children in that unique fatherly way together with union with God, and in that regard, no one has been more a father than Joseph was to Jesus.

On a side note, this is partly why priests are called father. They are united to God and have passed the test of virginity as Joseph did, and they care for God's flock, the children of God. Priests truly are fathers who daily lay down their life for the protection and care of their children. Priests also participate in the spiritual birth to the children of God when they baptize, and they cooperate in bringing the dead children back to life through the sacrament of Confession. It is commonly said that priests take the Church as their spouse, and some saints have said that they take Mary as their spouse. I think that is true. To priests: take Mary as your spouse and give your whole self to her as Saint Joseph did so that together in your complete trust in God you may bear abundant fruit, giving birth to Christ Himself once again and bearing Him to the world.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
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