It is hard to think of a more delightful occupation than to converse about the glories of St. Joseph. No doubt it is a constant topic of conversation among the inhabitants of heaven. Do not small children especially delight to praise their fathers in the company of their friends? And Jesus, Who often delights to dwell among men in the form of His sacred infancy, like other children will certainly not fail to praise the glories which He Himself has conferred upon His father Joseph. Therefore, let us call upon the saints and angels to assist us as we contemplate the heavenly glory of St. Joseph.
If we wish to speak of the heavenly glory of St. Joseph, right away we come face to face with a great difficulty. It is this: there is little or nothing said about the heavenly glory of St. Joseph in all of Sacred Scripture. Indeed, even about his earthly life, there is scanty information, the Scriptures have not even left us a single word uttered by him: not so much as a scrap from the master’s table. If we do not know how to speak of earthly things, therefore, how shall we speak of heavenly ones?
But we trust in the words of the Lord: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which although it is the smallest of all seeds, grows into the largest of plants, in which the birds of the air take their rest.” There are certain passages of Sacred Scripture which are like the smallest seeds of the greatest power. Their power is hidden at first, but later they grow and the truth they contain extends broader and higher, so that even the holy angels find their rest in such profound truths. Think for example about all the passages of Scripture we have concerning the prophet Moses, and the few we have concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary, and yet we know more now about Mary than about any of the saints or prophets because the seeds of truth in holy Scripture concerning her are much more powerful than others. So although the passages about St. Joseph are small in size they are not lacking in power to reveal the truth about his heavenly glory.
In a parable about the relationship between our life on earth and our life in heaven, Jesus once said:
*Lk. 19:12-19
In this parable, Jesus clearly teaches that our glory in heaven is proportional to our work on earth, even if the reward, ruling over many cities, is far beyond the labors. As St. Paul declares, “I judge that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed.”
“Well done, good and faithful servant: because you have been faithful in little matters, I will put you over great ones.” What were the “little” matters entrusted to St. Joseph, in comparison to which his heavenly glory would be so great? Spouse of the Mother of God, Guardian of the Virgin, Foster Father of the Son of God, Protector of the Chirst Child, Head of the Holy Family. We may say first of all that Scripture clearly teaches that St. Joseph held the place as husband and father in the Holy Family.
We must not make the mistake, as some do, of thinking that Joseph was really just an unnecessary appendage or figurehead in the Holy Family, as if he happened to be included for good form to make a bella figura. Or that he was a doting old man who played the role of a kindly grandfather who mostly slept as Mary and Jesus went on with their daily business. Indeed, the Scriptures are unambiguous in their testimony that St. Joseph acted in all respects like a true husband and father. It was not to Mary or Jesus, but to Joseph that the angel appeared three times to instruct him about the safety of his family, and where they ought to live. Ladies, if your husband woke up from a dream and told you we’re moving to Egypt, NOW, how much respect for your husband’s authority would you have to have not to laugh out loud, much less do exactly as he said? And the teenage Jesus is said to have been obedient to Joseph, even after an impressive manifestation of His wisdom to the doctors in the temple. There is no doubt that Joseph exercised unquestioned authority in his household.
Indeed, if there was ever a family where the family roles ought to have been reversed or changed, it was in the Holy Family. The child was God, and the mother was the Immaculate Conception. The smartest, holiest and most powerful one was the child, and the least prudent, least intelligent, and least holy one was the father. To make matters worse, the child already had a heavenly Father, and the Mother was already the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and conceived while remaining a virgin. If ever a family didn’t need a husband or father it was this one. And yet the plan of God was as unequivocal as His wisdom is profound: the Son of God needed an earthly father, the Virgin Mary needed a husband. This is a lesson for our times in which every kind of pitiful excuse is proffered to change the structure of the natural family, to render fathers or mothers dispensable through divorce…or worse unnatural unions…or to reverse the roles of husbands and wives, parents and children. The all-wise God did not seem to think any reason justified tinkering with the structure of the family as He had originally designed it.
In the book of the Prophet Isaiah the Incarnation is prophesied together with those whom God predestined to cooperate in the Incarnation. There we read of a great sign that the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. The Hebrew word has there “almah,” which is translated here as Virgin. But almah does not mean exactly virgin, as does the Hebrew word “bethula,” and the Greek word “parthenos.” Rather, as St. Jerome testifies, “almah” signifies a young maiden, certainly a virgin, but also one who is under the care of a guardian. And that guardian was Joseph, as the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Gospel of St. Matthew makes clear. From the very beginning, therefore, Joseph was included in the plan of the Incarnation as a necessary complement to the Holy Family.
So Joseph really was a husband to Mary and father to Jesus, and this was the “little” matter with which he was entrusted. Besides this, we know that God gives to each one the grace sufficient to carry out his mission, and that the Scriptures testify that St. Joseph was always and everywhere faithful to that grace throughout his earthly life. This grace to which St. Joseph was so faithful was the seed of the glory which he would later inherit.
Joseph therefore received the effective grace to be the worthy spouse of the Mother of God. St. Paul says that “husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the Church, delivering Himself up for it, so that he might sanctify it…so also ought husbands to love their wives as their own bodies.” Joseph received the grace not only to give his life for the Virgin Mary, but also to be an instrument in the sanctification of her who was ever Immaculate. Certainly, he did not cleanse her from any stain or sin, but as her husband he had a special grace from God to lead his wife along paths to ever greater sanctity. It was through him that God’s will often was made known to her, so that she might grow in holiness, and his example gave constant occasions for her to kindle the fire of divine love which burned in her incomparably Immaculate Heart. What kind of grace would be sufficient for such a mission: to cooperate with the sanctification of the most Holy Mother of God?
In the glory of heaven, that grace blossomed forth to greater things still, so that St. Joseph now protects and sanctifies the entire Church. This is why He is patron of the universal Church, because on earth he was set over her who was the model and type of the Church.
Joseph also received the effective grace to be the foster father of the Son of God. This meant that Joseph was called to love Jesus as his own son, and that Jesus, besides having a filial affection and piety, honored and was subject to Joseph. It is a difficult thing to love God well without the further complication of loving God as if He were your own child. Yet to St. Joseph was given the miraculous grace not only to love God with his whole mind, heart, soul, and strength, but to be an image of the heavenly Father in His love for His Only-Begotten Son, a grace granted to no other creature save St. Joseph. And Jesus obeyed the will of Joseph perfectly. Consider that every action of Christ had infinite value and contributed to the salvation of the world. With His every action, Jesus was accomplishing the salvation of souls. Yet those actions were often determined by the will of St. Joseph. He therefore must have received grace in such abundance that never did St. Joseph compromise in the least the salvation of souls. What divine light and love must have dwelt in that holy soul as he guided the Savior of the world and the King of the universe to bring about the greatest common good of all the elect. Joseph was also the head of the Holy Family. He had care of the common good of that family upon which depended the good of the whole world.
Once Jesus asked His disciples: “Who is that wise and faithful steward whom the Lord set over His family to give them wheat in due season?” (Lk. 12:42). The allusion to the dispensation of wheat, through which the patriarch Joseph saved the whole people from famine, leaves no doubt that Jesus had his own father Joseph in mind. “Truly, I say to you,” He continues, “He shall set him over all He possesses.” The grace which St. Joseph exercised on earth as foster father of Jesus and head of the Holy Family, has now blossomed into a greater glory. He sees clearly now that divine will to which he was always faithful, and in such depth that nothing that pertains to the good of the Mystical Body, on earth or in heaven, escapes his penetrating gaze. For he is placed not over five or ten cities, but over the entire kingdom of heaven, to distribute the good gift of God, the Holy Spirit, to all the elect.
The glory of St. Joseph would not be complete unless he also is among those first-fruits of the resurrection: one who, like Jesus and Mary, has already received the promised resurrection of the body, as Blessed Pope John XXIII believed. Indeed, this was foreshadowed in the Old Testament by the carrying of the bones of Joseph into the promised land. The bodily resurrection and assumption of St. Joseph into heaven is a consequence of the unique relationship he had to the Incarnation and the order of predestination. He was among the first seeds of the Church as a member of the Holy Family, and therefore, it was necessary that he be among the first fruits of the resurrection to bring about the reunion of that whole family in it’s entire and personal communion, so that not only individuals, but also the human family as such can definitively claim its place in heaven.
There is not time to consider further the radiant crown of purity which the chaste guardian of the Virgin merited, or the crown of martyrdom that was certainly his who would have shed every drop of his blood for Christ countless times, or the manifold other glories that certainly belong to St. Joseph. But let it suffice to say that we know with certitude now who it is that sits at the right and the left hand of the Savior at the heavenly banquet, as Pope John Paul II authoritatively stated: “There can be no doubt but that Joseph approached as no other person ever could that eminent dignity whereby the Mother of God towers above all creatures.” (Redemptoris Custos n.20). And we know too why Jesus said it was not His to give, but His Father in Heaven, for these were His parents, and in filial humility He desired not that He should confer the honor, but that His Father in heaven do so.
Glorious St. Joseph, who sit beside your Son in heaven, look upon us poor sinners who still long to sit one day with you at that heavenly banquet. Speak a kind word on our behalf to Him, and to your beloved spouse, so that we might be made worthy to behold your glory and praise the undivided Trinity for ages unending, Amen.
