St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, Patron and Model for Fathers

Joseph, the husband of our Lady, foster-father of our Lord, guardian of the Holy Family, is honored liturgically on March 19 as patron of the universal Church. The memorial of St. Joseph the Worker is on May 1. This quiet, just, humble man, protector of families and patron of fathers, is also invoked for a happy death.

Most of our reliable information on St. Joseph is contained in the first two chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Here we discover that Joseph was of royal descent from David, that the family was from Bethlehem in Judea and that Joseph, who was a builder, had moved from Bethlehem to Nazareth in Galilee.

Joseph was engaged to Mary and upon learning that she was pregnant; he had plans to divorce her. Described in Matthew as a righteous man, he intended to dismiss her quietly. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream to tell him, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (MT 1:20-21).

"When Joseph woke from sleep he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him." (MT 1: 24).

What a strong man of faith Joseph was! How he must have suffered, not knowing the secret of Mary's incarnation. Of course, she could not tell him - he would not have understood. "It was a mystery beyond the capacity of the human intellect and the possibilities of human language." (Pope John Paul II, The Holy Father's homily during the celebration of Mass on the Feast of St. Joseph, at the L. Liberati Stadium. Vatican, March 1981.)

Joseph reveals to us the dignity of human fatherhood. As Pope John Paul II reminds us: “The family rests on the dignity of human fatherhood -- on the responsibility of the man, husband and father, as also on his work. Joseph of Nazareth bears witness to this for us."

“The unity of the family, its stability, is one of the fundamental blessings of man and of society. At the basis of family unity there is the indissolubility of marriage -- if man, if society seek the ways that deprive marriage of its indissolubility and the family of its unity and stability, then they cut off, as it were, the very root of its health, and deprive themselves of one of the fundamental goods on which human life is built.” (Pope John Paul II, March 1981)

Message from John Paul II to Men:

“Dear Brothers! May that voice which Joseph of Nazareth heard during that decisive night of his life always reach you, in particular when the danger of the destruction of the family looms up. "Do not fear to persevere"! "Do not give up"! Behave as that just man did.”

"Fatherhood is responsibility for life: for the life first conceived in the woman's womb and then born, in order that a new man, who is blood of your blood and flesh of your flesh, may be revealed. God who says: "do not abandon the woman, your wife", says at the same time: "receive the life conceived in her"! Just as he said to Joseph of Nazareth, although Joseph was not the blood father of him who was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary.

"God says to every man: 'accept the life conceived of you! Do not allow it to be suppressed!' God says this with the voice of his commandments, with the voice of the Church. But he says so above all with the voice of conscience. The voice of human conscience. This voice is univocal, in spite of everything that is done to prevent people from listening to it and to stifle it, despite everything that is done, that is, so that man and woman will not listen to this simple and clear voice of conscience."

"Men of work, men of hard work know this simple voice of conscience. What they feel most deeply is precisely that bond which unites work and the family. Work is for the family, since work is for man (and not vice versa) -- and precisely the family, first and above all the family, is the specific place of man. It is the environment in which he is conceived, is born and matures, the environment for which he assumes the most serious responsibility, in which he fulfills himself daily, the environment of his earthly happiness and human hope.

And so today, on St. Joseph's day, knowing the hearts of the workers, their honesty and responsibility, I express the conviction that precisely they will assure and consolidate these two fundamental goods of man and society: the unity of the family and respect for the life conceived under the mother's heart. "

(Pope John Paul II, The Holy Father's homily during the celebration of Mass on the Feast of St. Joseph, at the L. Liberati Stadium. Vatican, March 1981.)