The 19th of March is the Feast of Saint Joseph, the adoptive father of the son of God. He is remembered as a righteous man, Joseph the just. Yet he lived a humble and obscure life. And perhaps he struggled with his conscience too…
Saint Joseph did not preach to multitudes, nor teach disciples, nor heal the sick or raise the dead. Although he was the heir of David’s throne, he was poor rather than rich. He lived a humble, hidden life, pursuing his daily labour to rear his family in the fear of the Lord. Therefore he was chosen by divine lot to be the protector and provider of the infant Saviour of the world. And the sons of his first marriage—James, Jude, Joses, and Simon—became leaders of the early church.
Saint Joseph’s lot was humble and obscure. But his task of saving Jesus from Herod’s hand, and raising him to manhood, was as vital to the salvation of the world as the work of Paul or Peter. In the same way, though our lot may be humble, we should do it as best we can, remembering that big doors turn on small hinges.
THE DEATH OF JOSEPH
There’s a story I like about Joseph. It is told in an old text of the eastern church, The History of Joseph the Carpenter, which purports to be narrated by Jesus. (Scholars date it to the sixth century. But it could be earlier or later, for there is very little evidence of its date at all.) This History describes Joseph the Carpenter as a good and righteous man. But then comes the hour of his death, and this most righteous man cries out in desperate anguish over his sins:
Woe to my tongue and my lips, which have brought forth and spoken vanity, detraction, falsehood, ignorance, derision, idle tales, craft, and hypocrisy! Woe to my eyes, which have looked upon scandalous things! Woe to mine ears, which have delighted in the words of slanderers! Woe to my hands, which have seized what did not of right belong to them! Woe to my belly and my bowels, which have lusted after food unlawful to be eaten! Woe to my feet, which have too often walked in ways displeasing to God! Woe to my body; and woe to my miserable soul, which has already turned aside from God its Maker! What shall I do when I arrive at that place where I must stand before the most righteous Judge, and when He shall call me to account for the works which I have heaped up in my youth?
The History of Joseph the Carpenter, 16.
Then Joseph looks up and sees Death and Gehenna and their demons coming to take him away. But he cries out to Jesus, who enters and comforts him, and holds him, and calls upon Michael and Gabriel to come for his soul. And so his soul is borne from the bosom of Jesus to the Paradise of God.
I suppose none of us is as righteous as we appear. We have all fallen short of the glory of the God. But, like good Joseph, we may cry in our distress to Jesus—crushed for our iniquities—and he will save us.
Click here to read about Messiah ben Joseph.
Here is the The History of Joseph the Carpenter.