Chapter VIII. St. Joseph: Model of the Hidden Life and First among the Saints
"For he that is the lesser among you all, he is the greater."
After our Lord and His Blessed Mother we can find no more perfect model of the life of union than St. Joseph. The doctrine which holds diat after Mary he has always been more closely united to our Lord dian any other saint tends to become more and more commonly accepted in the Church. It fearlessly declares the humble carpenter greater in grace and beatitude than the patriarchs, Moses, the greatest of the prophets, St. John die Baptist, and all die apostles, including St. Peter, St. John, and St. Paul, and, with all the more reason, proclaims him higher in sanctity than die greatest martyrs and doctors of the Church.
This doctrine was taught by Gerson1 and by St. Bernardine of Siena,2 and became more and more widely held from the sixteenth century on, being accepted as true by St. Teresa, St. Francis de Sales, Suarez, 3 and later by St. Alphonsus Liguori and many others. 4
'Isidore de Isolanis, O.P., Summa de donis S. Joseph, 1522 (new ed.; Rome: Berthier, 1897); Ch. Sauvc, Saint Joseph intime (Paris, 1920); Cardinal Lcpicier,
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 367
Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Ouanquam pluries wrote that the dignity of the Mother of God is indeed so sublime that nothing higher could be created, but as Joseph was united to the Blessed Virgin by the conjugal bond he no doubt approaches closer than anyone else the supereminent dignity by which die Mother of God so far surpasses all odier creatures. Conjugal union is in fact the greatest of all unions; because of its very nature it brings about a reciprocal communication of good between the two spouses. If therefore God gave St. Joseph to die Virgin as her spouse, He most certainly did not give him to her merely for her material support, as a witness to her virginity, and the guardian of her honor, but He must also have made him share through the marriage bond in the eminent dignity which she had received. 5 Since Mary surpassed in dignity all other creatures, as the encyclical just cited says, does it not follow that Joseph's pre-eminence should be understood not only as exceeding all odier saints' but also even the angels' ? We cannot assert it widi certainty. Let us content ourselves by expressing the doctrine more and more widely accepted diroughout the Church by saying that of all the saints Joseph is the highest in heaven, standing among the angels and archangels, nearest Jesus and Mary. His mission in regard to the holy family has made him the patron, protector, and defender of the universal Church; to him, in a special sense, Christians of all generations are confided, as the beautiful litanies summarizing his prerogatives show.
We wish to recall here the principle diat serves as a basis
Tractatus de Saneto Joseph (Paris, 1908); M. A. Michel's article, "Saint Joseph" in the Dictionnaire de theologie catholique; especially Sinibaldi, La Grandezza di San Ciuseppi (Rome, 1927), pp. 36 ff.
s Encyclical letter Quanquam pluries, August 15, 1899.
for the doctrine of St. Joseph's pre-eminence, which for five centuries has been gaining wider and wider acceptance; in this way we shall see him as a perfect model of the hidden life.
The requisite for an exceptional divine mission: exceptional sanctity
The general principle used by the theology to explain revelation and show us what Christ's fullness of grace, Mary's sanctity, and the apostles' faith should be, rests on their exceptional divine mission, a mission demanding a proportional sanctity. St. Joseph's case bears a similarity to theirs.
God's works are perfect, particularly those which He raises up immediately and exclusively. No disorder, no disproportion, can be found in them. The whole harmony of the divine work of creation offers us an instance in case. 6 We have other examples in God's great servants raised up by Him in an exceptional and immediate way to restore some divine work marred by sin. "And God created man to His own image." 7 "He hath purposed ... in the dispensation of the fullness of time, to re-establish all things in Christ." 8
We get a better grasp of the truth and importance of this revealed and self-evident principle by considering as a contrast what often happens in human affairs. Not infrequently the incapable and improvident occupy high offices and cause much harm to those whom they govern. At times we would be incensed at this condition if we did not remember that
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 369
God compensates for such things by hidden and often heroic acts of sanctity or if we forgot that each of us must say mea culpa for our own negligence in the exercise of offices and works entrusted to us, failing so frequently that we finish by no longer noticing our shortcomings. But disorder is disorder and inadequacy is inadequacy and nothing like either can be found in those immediately chosen and directly prepared by God Himself to act as His exceptional ministers in the work of redemption. God gives them a sanctity proportionate to their task, for He performs all things according to measure, and disorder or disproportion cannot be found in works properly divine, which have God alone as their author.
We see our chief example of this truth in the sacred soul of Jesus. From the first instant of its creation, it received an absolute fullness of grace, because it was united as intimately as possible to the Word of God, the source of all supernatural life, and because it was to communicate the divine life to us through the light of the gospel and by the infinite merits of the sacrifice of the cross: "And of His fullness we all have received. ... No man hath seen God at any time: the onlybegotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." 9 St. Thomas considers that this Gospel text and others similar to it signify not only the fullness of grace but glory or the beatific vision, enjoyed by our Savior in this world that He might lead us, as the Master of masters, to eternal life. 10
In virtue of the same principle, if Mary was to be fittingly
37 o THE LOVE OF GOD the Mother of God, she had to be "full of grace," 11 preserved from original sin, and associated with Jesus in all His sufferings and all His glories. Because of her unique mission in die world, the Mother of God should draw as near as possible to the Word made flesh in the two great mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption. She should receive more grace than any other creature, whether angel or saint, because she stands nearest the source of all grace. 12 For the same reason theology teaches us that the apostles, because they were more closely associated with our Lord than the saints who came after them, grasped the mysteries of faith more perfectly dian they. 13 In St. Thomas' eyes it would be bold to deny this, but we must remember that he was comparing the apostles only to the saints who came after them and not to St. Joseph or St. John the Baptist. 14 St. Joseph's mission seems greater than the apostles', greater too than the precursor's. His vocation had a uniqueness comparable to Mary's, and his exceptional destiny leads us to believe that he drew nearer to the source of all grace and is more closely united to our Lord than either the aposdes or the precursor.
St. Joseph's exceptional mission To St. John the Baptist was entrusted the task of announcing the immediate coming of die Messiah. It can be said dien
14 In Ep. ad Rom. 8: 23 about these words, "Nos ipsi primilias SptrttUS habentes" ; "Spintum Sanctum et tempore prius et caeteris abundantiut Aposloli habuerent." Likewise In Ep ad Ephes. 4: " about these words, "Et ipse dedit quosdam quidem apostolos, quosdam autem prophctas, alios vera evangelistas , alios autem pastores et doctores."
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 371 that he was die greatest precursor of Jesus in the Old Testament; and it is in diis sense diat St. Thomas understands our Lord's pronouncement in St. Matthew's Gospel: "Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of woman a greater tiian John the Baptist." 10 But our Lord immediately adds: "Yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." The kingdom of heaven is the Church on earth and in heaven, the New Testament surpassing the perfection of the Old although some just men of die Old have been holier dian many of die New. 16 And in die Church who is "he that is the lesser"? These mysterious words have received more than one interpretation. They make us think of words spoken later by Jesus: "For he that is the lesser among you all, he is the greater." 17 The lesser means the most humble, the servant of all, 18 and therefore, because of the connection and proportion of the virtues, the one who has the greatest charity. 19 And who in the Church
10 St. Thomas, In Matthaeum it: it. Here St. Thomas regards St. John the Baptist as the greatest of the great precursors of the Lord. The fact that he has this office seems sufficient to explain why he comes immediately after Mary and the angels in the litany of the saints. He brings the Old Testament to an end and announces the New. For those favoring this interpretation of Matt. 1 1 : 1 1 , see Lagrange, Evangile scion S. Matt., p. 222 (Paris: Lccoffre, 1923); Evangile scion S. Luc, p. 221; Knabenbauer, Evangclium secundum Matthaeum, I, 429-31.
Independently of the personal merits of the different servants of God, the New Testament, especially as it flowers in the glory of heaven, is certainly a more perfect state than the Old. Now St. John the Baptist stands on the confines of the two. On this point consult the exegetes referred to in the preceding note, M. A. Michel's article on St. Joseph in the Dtctionnaire de thcologte catholtque, col. 151 5, where these references together with some odiers arc recommended, for example, Pillion, Evangile selon S. Matthieu (Paris, 1878), p. 222, and D. Buzy, Saint lean Baptiste (Paris, 1922), Part III, chap. 3.
18 Cf. Luke 22: 26: "He that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is the leader, as he that servcth."
is die most humble ? He who was neither apostle nor evangelist nor martyr— exteriorly at least— nor pontiff nor priest, nor doctor, but who knew and loved Christ Jesus certainly no less than the apostles, the Evangelists, the martyrs, the popes and doctors of the Church: the humble artisan of Nazareth, the humble Joseph.
The apostles were called to make the Savior known, to preach the gospel that men might be saved. Their mission, like John the Baptist's, belongs to the order of grace necessary for the salvation of all; but an order still higher than the order of grace exists, one constituted by the very mystery of the Incarnation, the order of the hypostatic or personal union of the humanity of Jesus with the very Word of God. Mary's unique mission of divine motherhood adjoins this order, and Joseph's hidden mission also, in a sense, has a like position. This argument has been put forth in different forms by St. Bernard, 20 St. Bernardine of Siena, 21 the Dominican Isidore de Isolanis, 22 Suarez, 23 and other authors of more recent times. 24
Bossuet expresses all this with lovely clarity in his first
20 S. Bcrnardus, Homil. 2, super Missus est, propc finem: "Fidelis, inquam, servus et prudens, quem constiluil Dommus suae Mains solatium, suae carnis nutritium, solum denique in terris magm consilii coadjutorem fidelissimum."
21 St. Bernardine of Siena, Serm. I de S. ]oseph, op. cit. In a beautiful passage telling of the election of St. Joseph, his office and graces, he says: "5; compares eum ad totam Ecclesiam Christi, nonne iste est homo electus et specialis, per quem et sub quo Christus est ordinate et honeste introductus in mundum?"
22 In 1 522 Isidore de Isolanis, O.P., in a work highly praised by Benedict XIV, Summa de donis Sancti loseph, ed. cit., compares St. Joseph's prerogatives to the apostles and finds them greater, summing them up in these beautiful words: "Propnetates vero sancti ]oseph fuere deponsatio Reginae coelorum, nominatio patris Regis angclorum, dejensio Messiae promissi in Lege /udaeorum, educatio Salvaloris omnium." Part III, chap. 18. Cf. also Part III, chap. 17; Part I, chaps. 4, 5, 11.
23 Suarez, In Summam theologicum. III, q.29, disp. viii, sec. 1.
24 Sinibaldi, op. cit., pp. 36 ff. for a clear and excellent exposition of his line of reasoning relative to the order of the hypostatic union.
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 373 panegyric on this great saint when he tells us: "Among vocations I have noticed two in the Scriptures that seem direct opposites, the aposdes' and Joseph's. Jesus is revealed to the apostles to be announced throughout the universe; He is revealed to Joseph to be passed over in silence and to be kept hidden. The apostles act as light, to show Jesus Christ to the world. Joseph serves as a veil to cover Him; and under this mysterious veil are hidden for us Mary's virginity and die Savior's greatness. ... He who glorifies the apostles widi the honor of preaching glorifies Joseph with the humility of silence." Before the manifestation of the first Christmas should come, it had to be prepared for by thirty years of hidden life.
For each of us perfection consists in doing what God wills in the life to which He has called us. Joseph's entirely exceptional vocation seems, in its silence and obscurity, to surpass the calling of the greatest aposdes, touching so closely the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation. After Mary, Joseph appears nearer than anyone else to the Author of grace; and if he was, then he received in the silence of Bedilehem, during the sojourn in Egypt, and in Nazareth's little home, more graces than any other saint will ever receive.
His special mission in regard to Mary consisted chiefly in contracting with the Mother of God a real and absolutely holy marriage. According to the account given in St. Matthew's Gospel, 26 an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in his sleep and told him: "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Mary was really his wife by
a true 26 and entirely heavenly marriage, which was to have a fruitfulness wholly divine. 27 The initial fullness of grace given to the Virgin in view of her divine modierhood in a sense evoked the mystery of the Incarnation. 28 As Bossuet says: "The virginity of Mary drew Jesus down from heaven. . . . Since her purity made her fruitful, I have no fear to assert diat Joseph had his part in diis great miracle; for if angelic purity is Mary's treasure, this treasure lay in the keeping of the just Joseph." 29
Joseph, in the simple framework of a village carpenter's life, had the privilege of sharing in a stainless and reverent union with the most perfect creature that God has ever made. He has drawn nearer the Mother of God than any other saint, more closely allied than anyone else to the Mother of all men, Joseph himself included. Under all her titles as co-redemptrix, universal mediatrix and distributer of all grace, Joseph loved Mary widi the purest and most devoted love, a love that can rightly be called theological, for he loved the Virgin in God and for God, because of all the glory that she gave to God. The beauty of the whole universe bears no comparison to the sublime union of these two souls, a union created by the Most High, giving delight to the angels and joy to God Himself.
As to Joseph's exceptional mission in regard to our Lord, we know that in all truth the Word of God made flesh was confided to him rather than to any other of the just men of all generations. The holy old Simeon took the child Jesus into his arms for a few moments and saw in Him the salva-
20 Op. cit., first panegyric on St. Joseph, 1st point.
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 375 tion of the people, "lumen ad revelationem gentium" but Joseph looked after Him night and day during His whole infancy, often holding in his arms the Child in whom he beheld his Creator and Savior. From Him he received grace upon grace during the long years when he lived widi Him in closest daily intimacy, watching Him grow, contributing to His human education, receiving His obedience. 80 He is commonly called the "foster father of the Savior," but he was in a sense more than that for, as St. Thomas points out, 31 by marriage a man becomes a child's "foster father" or "adopted father" only accidentally; while there was nodiing at all accidental in Joseph being given charge of Jesus. He had been created and put into the world for just that end. It was his predestination, and in view of his wholly divine mission Providence had accorded to him all the graces that he had received from his infancy, graces of deep piety, of virginity, of prudence, and of perfect fidelity. In die eternal designs of God, Joseph's union with Mary existed simply for the Savior's protection and education, and Joseph received from God a father's heart to care for the Child Jesus. This was his principal mission; in view of it he received sanctity proportionate, in a sense, to his rank, to the mystery of the Incarnation, which dominates, in its infinite reaches, the whole order of grace. 32 Sinibaldi's recent work, ha Grandezza di San Giuseppi, 33 brings out St. Joseph's eternal predestination as the Blessed Virgin Mary's spouse, explaining with St. Thomas the threefold fitness of such a predestination. The Angelic
82 It can be asserted that Joseph was confirmed in grace from the time of his marriage to the Blessed Virgin. Cf. Diet, theol., article cited above in note 16. 88 Sinibaldi, op. cit., pp. 33~35-
37 6 THE LOVE OF GOD
Doctor established the same point himself; asking whether it was fitting that Christ should be born of a virgin who had contracted a real marriage, he gave as his answer that it was fitting for the sake of Christ Himself, His Mother, and us. 84
It was highly fitting for our Lord Himself because, until die time should come for the mystery of His birth to be manifested, He would not then be considered an illegitimate son and would have protection during His childhood. For the Blessed Virgin it was no less fitting because it kept her from being judged a guilty adulteress and stoned as such by the Jews, as St. Jerome observed ; it also served to protect her in the difficulties and persecution that began with the Savior's birth. It was, St. Thomas adds, very expedient for us, too, because we thus learn through testimony above suspicion, Joseph's, about Christ's virginal conception; in the human order of things, his testimony also lends support to Mary's. Lastly, it was supremely fitting that we should find in Mary at once die perfect model of virgins, of wives, and of Christian mothers.
Herein lies the explanation of why, according to some authors, the eternal decree of the Incarnation, so far as it must be realized hie et nunc, in such and such determined circumstances, included not only Jesus and Mary but Joseph as well. From all eternity indeed it was decided that the Word of God made flesh should be born miraculously of Mary ever virgin united to the just Joseph in bonds of true marriage. St. Luke thus expresses die carrying out of this providential decree: "And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 377 espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of die house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary." 38
St. Bernard called St. Joseph "Magni concilii coadjutorem fidelissimum." 36 Sinibaldi, following Suarez and odiers, asserts for the reasons given above that St. Joseph's ministry adjoins in a sense the order of the hypostatic union, 37 not that St. Joseph intrinsically cooperated with the Holy Ghost as a physical instrument in realizing the mystery of the Incarnation; his role is a much lesser one than Mary's as the Mother of God; but he was predestined to be, in the order of moral causes, the guardian of Mary's virginity and honor and the protector of the Child Jesus. We must avoid in this matter certain exaggerations which falsify the expression of a great mystery. 38 The worship due to Joseph does not specifically exceed the dulia paid to the other saints, but everything leads us to think that he, more than any odier saint, deserves to receive the worship of dulia. 39 In her prayers the Church mentions him immediately after Mary and before the apostles, for example in the prayer A cunctis. Although St. Joseph receives no mention in the canon of the Mass, today he has a special preface, and the month of March is dedicated to him.
86 Homilia 2 super Missus est, prope finem.
88 All physical cooperation even of an instrumental kind is excluded on St. loscph's part. The words of the Credo, "conceplus est de Spiritu Sancto," have always been understood "de solo Spiritu Sancto." Cf. St. Thomas, Contra Gentes, Bk. IV, chap. 45.
A great deal of testimony from the Fathers could be quoted on the subject, especially from St. Ephrcm of Syria, cited by Father Bovcr, S.J., in the Ephemerides theologicae Lovanienses , April, 1928. St. Augustine can also be consulted, P.L., XXXVIII, 351, and in modern times St. Francis de Sales, (Euvres, Vol. VI, cd. Dom Mackey (Annecy, 1895), pp. 354 ft.
37 8 THE LOVE OF GOD
In a discourse that was given in the Consistory Chamber on the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1928, His Holiness Pope Pius XI compared St. Joseph's vocation with St. John the Baptist's and St. Peter's. There is significance, His Holiness said, in the fact that God raises up certain magnificent and lustrous figures so near to one another as to be almost contemporaries:
St. John the Baptist, who came out of the desert with a voice now thundering like a roaring lion and now speaking with the accents of the friend of the bridegroom rejoicing at the bridegroom's glory, and at the last offering up before the world the glory of his own martyrdom; Peter, who heard the divine Master speak to him divine words that bore witness about him before all men of all ages: "Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church." "Going therefore, teach ye all nations." His was a magnificent and divinely radiant mission. Between these two, St. Joseph's appears, in recollection and in silence, almost unperceived and unknown, coming to light only centuries later when its silence was to be broken by a resounding hymn of glory. There where the mystery lies deepest, the surrounding night grows darkest, the silence grows greatest, the highest mission is to be found, accompanied and reechoed by a happy necessity in a brilliant retinue of virtues and merits. It is a unique and very high mission to guard the Son of God, the King of the world, to watch over the virginity and sanctity of Mary, to have a hidden place and share in this great mystery, shielded from the eyes of the centuries while cooperating in the Incarnation and Redemption. All Joseph's sanctity lies precisely in the completely faithful accomplishment of this great and humble mission, so high and so hidden, so splendid and so surrounded with shadows. 40
40 This discourse was given on the occasion of the decree of the heroic character of the virtues of Venerable Jeanne-Elisabeth Bichier des Ages.
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 379
St. Joseph's supernatural virtues and gifts
St. Joseph possessed die virtues of the hidden life in a degree corresponding to his sanctifying grace: 41 he had profound humility, penetrating and undismayed faith, immovable hope, and above all, immense charity growing without pause because of his contact widi Jesus. He was characterized too by the delicate bounty of a poor man made rich in his poverty by God's greatest gifts, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, bestowed in a degree proportionate to his charity. The litany says of him: "Joseph most just, most chaste, most prudent, most strong, most obedient, most faithful, mirror of patience, lover of poverty, model of workers, glory of home life."
At times his living faith was anguished : in its obscurity he had a foreboding of something too great for him, especially when he remained in ignorance of the secret of the virginal conception, which Mary's humility kept hidden from him. 42 Then God's message transmitted by an angel brought him light. Joseph could have hesitated to believe a thing so extraordinary, but he believed it firmly in the simplicity of his heart, and tliis signal grace, far from making him proud, confirmed him for all time in humility. Why, he asked himself, has the Most High given this infinite treasure to me, Joseph, to be guarded ? He saw with truth that he could never merit such a gift and understood the complete gratuitousness
42 St. Thomas says on the subject, in IV Sent., dist. 30, q.2, a. 2, ad 5: "Joseph noluit Mariam dimittere quasi aliam ducturus vet propter aliquam suspicionetn , sed quia timcbat tantae sanctitati cohabitare propter reverentiam, unde dictum est d: Noli timere. Matt. 1 : 20."
of the divine predilection for him, that the sovereignly free divine good pleasure has no other reason for being than itself. At the same time, the carpenter saw widi new clarity the meaning of the prophecies, and his faith grew greater and greater.
However, the darkness delayed little in returning, for Joseph was to make his way through sunlight and shadow. Already poor before becoming the object of the divine predilection, before receiving the secret of God, he became poorer still, as Bossuet remarks, when Jesus came into the world. The Savior found no room even in Bethlehem's meanest inn and had to go out and seek shelter in a stable. With so tender a heart, Joseph must have suffered at having nothing to give Mary and her Son. When Jesus enters a soul, the saints tell us, He comes bringing His cross and detaches the soul from everything else that He may unite it to Himself. Joseph and Mary understood this from the first, and the prophecy of the aged Simeon served to confirm their foreboding.
Persecution began almost at once, Herod seeking to have the Messiah killed. Warned by an angel, the head of the holy family had to escape to Egypt widi Mary and the Child Jesus. He set out for a distant country where no one knew him, with his work as his only resource; but he undertook the journey with strong faith in God's word as told him by the angel. His mission demanded that he hide our Lord, shielding Him from His persecutors, and returning to Nazareth only when the danger had been dispelled. Joseph acted as the minister and protector of Christ's hidden life, just as the apostles served as the ministers of His public life.
In the hidden life led by St. Joseph an ever brighter and sweeter light radiated from the holy soul of the Word made
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 381 flesh and illumined the dark and afflictive night of faith in which he walked. After the return from Egypt, during the years when the holy family lived at Nazareth, recollection and silence reigned in the carpenter's little home, a true sanctuary, more sacred than the holy of holies in the temple at Jerusalem. The three there maintained a silence full of sweetness, for it spoke of loving contemplation of God's infinite mystery come down to earth but still unknown to men. From time to time words served to convey the depths of their souls to one anodier, but in an atmosphere of such innocence and love diey had little need for speech; a look sufficed for mind to communicate with mind and heart to speak to heart.
After the contemplation of the Blessed Virgin there existed none simpler or more loving than the humble carpenter's when he looked upon Jesus. By grace he had received the sentiments of a most devoted and tender father and protector for Jesus and was loved by Him as a child and growing boy with a tenderness, gratitude, and strength only to be found in the heart of God. One look at Jesus served to bring back to Joseph the mystery of Bethlehem, the exile in Egypt, the great mystery of the salvation of the world. The incessant action of the Word of God made flesh upon Joseph was a creative activity, first giving life and then conserving it: "amor Dei infundens et creans bonitatem in rebus"; 43 it was a supernatural action, rich with ever new graces. No searching of ours will disclose to us greatness that can surpass Joseph's, found in such perfect simplicity.
In the Old Testament we find a similar figure in the prophet Joseph, sold by his brothers and destined to become
a symbol of Christ. He also knew the highest contemplation in the simplest form, divine contemplation wholly ^penetrated with the pure love of charity. In the new dispensation Joseph carried in his heart die world's greatest secret, the redemptive Incarnation, for die hour had not yet come to reveal it. The Jews would not have understood, they would not have believed; many of them looked for a temporal Messiah clothed in glory, not a Messiah made poor and suffering for us. Joseph's presence veiled the mystery: Jesus was called the carpenter's son. A common artisan housed the Word made flesh in his home, he possessed the Desired of the nations announced by the prophets and said no word of it to anyone, witnessing the mystery and tasting its delights in secret and in silence.
Joseph's contemplation brought him sweetness, but it also demanded abnegation great enough to include bitter sacrifice whenever he recalled Simeon's words: "Behold this Child is set . . . for a sign which shall be contradicted," and those spoken to Mary, "And thy own soul a sword shall pierce." Joseph saw die acceptance of the mystery of Redemption through suffering as the sorrowful consummation of the mystery of the Incarnation and he had need of all his great love's generosity to offer God, as a supreme sacrifice, the Child Jesus and His Blessed Mother, far dearer to him than life itself. To offer the Eucharistic sacrifice was not given to him, but he often offered the Child Jesus to His Father for us. As Abbe Sauve says, without seeing God's will St. Joseph accepted from it with equal simplicity the deepest joys and the bitterest sorrows.
We can hardly conceive what wonderful progress St. Joseph made in faith, in contemplation, and in love. The
ST. JOSEPH: MODEL OF THE HIDDEN LIFE 383 more hidden was his life on earth, the more glorified is he now in heaven. He whom die Word of God obeyed on eardi still holds a marvelous power of intercession over the heart of Jesus in heaven. As he once watched over Nazareth's home, he now watches over Christian families, religious communities, and virgins consecrated to God, acting as tiieir guide, so St. Teresa tells us, in the ways of prayer. He is also, as his litany reminds us, the solace of the wretched, the hope of the sick, the patron of the dying, the terror of demons, and the protector of Holy Church, the great family of our Lord. Let us ask him to reveal to us the worth of the hidden life, the splendor of Christ's mysteries, and God's infinite goodness as he himself saw it in the redemptive Incarnation.
Let us ask of him the grace of contemplation and of union that we may come to a fuller understanding of the Psalmist's beautiful words which the Church puts daily on our lips in the Pretiosa: "Look upon thy servants and upon their works: and direct their children. And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and direct thou the works of our hands over us; yea, die works of our hands do thou direct."' 14 Of St. Joseph we can say that such was his grace that the brightness of the Lord our God dwelt and continues to dwell in him, and so abundant was the fruit of this grace in him that he would share it with all who have caught a glimpse of the value of prayer and truly aspire to a life hidden with Christ in God. 46
Footnotes
Chapter 35 of 37