St. Joseph Can Be Our Dad, Too

Friday, Jun. 11, 2021

Up until this year, I never gave much thought to St. Joseph. I knew, of course, that he was the husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, but other than that he seemed a minor character in the grand sweep of the greatest story ever told. After all, the Bible records no words that he spoke. He gets a couple of mentions at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, appears briefly in Luke, and not at all, except to be named as the father of Jesus, in Mark and John.

Then Pope Francis declared this to be the Year of St. Joseph and issued his apostolic letter Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), which I’ve read a couple of times. It’s not a long document – barely 20 double-spaced pages, including footnotes and, like most of Francis’ writing, extremely readable. 

The letter’s opening line is a perfect meditation for Father’s Day: “With a father’s heart: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as ‘the son of Joseph.’”

How can we love with a father’s heart?

Another thought from the reading is a perspective that I had never considered: Joseph  decided against divorcing Mary when she became pregnant with a child that was not his, fled with his family to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath and ensured that Jesus was raised a pious Jew – by these actions and all his others “Joseph declared his own ‘fiat,’ like those of Mary at the Annunciation and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,” Francis writes.

But Joseph’s fiat, unlike those of Mary and Jesus, is expressed solely by actions, not with words. At the same time, Joseph “is certainly not passively resigned, but courageously and firmly proactive,” Patris Corde states, and adds, “Joseph’s attitude encourages us to accept and welcome others as they are, without exception, and to show special concern for the weak, for God chooses what is weak.”

For me, Mary is almost a mythical creature – conceived without original sin, mother of the son of God. Joseph, on the other hand, is astonishingly human. God didn’t come upon him but rather spoke to him through angels in dreams, and yet “God trusted Joseph,” Pope Francis writes.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful epitaph – “God trusted me”?

Joseph accepted responsibility for Jesus even though he wasn’t his son, but as Francis writes, “Fathers are not born, but made. A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child. Whenever a man accepts responsibility for the life of another, in some way he becomes a father to that person.”

I wonder if, by kneeling in prayer, it’s possible to have Joseph accept responsibility for me. “O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence” is a line from a prayer addressed to St. Joseph that was composed by Pope Leo XIII. 

“Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble,” Pope Francis writes, and the way to make that discovery is to read and pray about Joseph.

To be loved with a father’s heart is to be accepted unconditionally, to be protected, taught, watched over, Pope Francis writes. I would call a man who did this “Dad,” not “Father.” In this we have a sterling precedent: Jesus himself called the Heavenly Father “Abba” – an intimate name a Hebrew child would call his paternal parent. St. Joseph was Christ’s earthly father, we are brothers and sisters to Christ, and so I pray, “St. Joseph, please bless all those dads out there as they strive to love with a father’s heart.”