With a Father’s Heart

An extract from the Pope’s message for The Year of St Joseph

… that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as “the son of Joseph” (Luke 4:22; John 6:42; cf. Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3).

After Mary, the Mother of God, no saint is mentioned more frequently in the papal magisterium than Joseph, her spouse. My Predecessors reflected on the message contained in the limited information handed down by the Gospels in order to appreciate more fully his central role in the history of salvation.

Blessed Pius IX declared him ‘Patron of the Catholic Church,’ Venerable Pius XII proposed him as ‘Patron of Workers’ and St John Paul II as ‘Guardian of the Redeemer.’ St Joseph is universally invoked as the ‘patron of a happy death.’

Now, one hundred and fifty years after his proclamation as Patron of the Catholic Church by Blessed Pius IX on 8 December 1870, I would like to share some personal reflections on this extraordinary figure, so close to our own human experience.

My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic, when we experienced, amid the crisis, how our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people, people often overlooked. People who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines, or on the latest television show, yet in these very days are surely shaping the decisive events of our history. Doctors, nurses, storekeepers and supermarket workers, cleaning personnel, caregivers, transport workers, men and women working to provide essential services and public safety, volunteers, priests, men and women religious, and so very many others. They understood that no one is saved alone… How many people daily exercise patience and offer hope, taking care to spread not panic, but shared responsibility. How many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing our children, in small everyday ways, how to accept and deal with a crisis by adjusting their routines, looking ahead and encouraging the practice of prayer. How many are praying, making sacrifices and interceding for the good of all (Meditation in the Time of Pandemic,
27 March 2020).

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. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all.

A beloved father

The greatness of St Joseph is that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus. In this way, he placed himself, in the words of St John Chrysostom, at the service of the entire plan of salvation.

St Paul VI pointed out that Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood by making his life a sacrificial service to the mystery of the incarnation and its redemptive purpose. He employed his legal authority over the Holy Family to devote himself completely to them in his life and work. He turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of himself, his heart and all his abilities, a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home.

Thanks to his role in salvation history, St Joseph has always been venerated as a father by the Christian people. This is shown by the countless churches dedicated to him worldwide, the numerous religious Institutes, Confraternities and ecclesial groups inspired by his spirituality and bearing his name, and the many traditional expressions of piety in his honour. Innumerable holy men and women were passionately devoted to him. Among them was Teresa of Avila, who chose him as her advocate and intercessor, had frequent recourse to him and received whatever graces she asked of him. Encouraged by her own experience, Teresa persuaded others to cultivate devotion to Joseph.

Every prayer book contains prayers to St Joseph. Special prayers are offered to him each Wednesday and especially during the month of March, which is traditionally dedicated to him.

Every day, for over forty years, following Morning Prayer, I have recited a prayer to St Joseph taken from a nineteenth-century French prayer book of the Congregation of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary. It expresses devotion and trust, and even poses a certain challenge to Saint Joseph:

Glorious Patriarch St Joseph, whose power makes the impossible possible, come to my aid in these times of anguish and difficulty. Take under your protection the serious and troubling situations that I commend to you, that they may have a happy outcome. My beloved father, all my trust is in you. Let it not be said that I invoked you in vain, and since you can do everything with Jesus and Mary, show me that your goodness is as great as your power. Amen.

Popular trust in St Joseph is seen in the expression “Go to Joseph,” which evokes the famine in Egypt, when the Egyptians begged Pharaoh for bread. He in turn replied: “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do” (Genesis 41:55). Pharaoh was referring to Joseph the son of Jacob, who was sold into slavery because of the jealousy of his brothers (Genesis 37:11-28) and who – according to the biblical account – subsequently became viceroy of Egypt (Genesis 41:41-44).

The aim of this Apostolic Letter is to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal.

Jesus told us: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). The lives of the saints too are examples to be imitated. St Paul explicitly says this: “Be imitators of me!” (1 Corinthians 4:16). By his eloquent silence, St Joseph says the same.

Given in Rome, at St John Lateran, on 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 2020, the eighth of my Pontificate