Mission of St. Joseph

This reflection was originally published in the June 2021 Encounter, and is offered again on the occasion of St. Joseph's feast day. 

Pope Francis declared 2021 the “year of St. Joseph.” In his apostolic letter, Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), the Holy Father recognizes the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as the patron of the Catholic Church, the reflections other popes have offered on St. Joseph, the devotion this beloved saint has evoked in the faithful, and humanity’s need for “the father’s heart,” especially during the trying days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this brief reflection, I want to explore the “mission” of St. Joseph so that all missionaries – from those who give a handful of hours to mission through their parish to the women and men who dedicate years, even their whole lives, to mission – will see in St. Joseph inspira- tion, support, and accompaniment for mission.

A missionary is a missionary-disciple who is sent by God, through the Church, to do the missionary work of the Church. While we usually think of a missionary as going off to a foreign land, missionaries serve in our neighborhoods, cities, and across the country, as well as around the world. The mission of St. Joseph can be seen through four places that this “minister of salvation” went to serve “the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood.”

“Joseph was a missionary. He heard and obeyed God’s word, he went where he was sent and “dwelt” where he was planted, and above all else, he loved Mary and Jesus.”

The story of Joseph – and I refer to him by his given name to encounter first the man who becomes the saint– begins in Bethlehem where he lives (the Gospel of St. Matthew) or where he travels to in compliance with the Roman census (the Gospel of St. Luke). Bethlehem is the place of dreams, of discernment, of wrestling with God’s will while suffering the oppression of Rome. Bethlehem is the place of birth, it is where Joseph be- comes a father, where he welcomes the three wisemen, where he rises to “take the child and his mother” and flees to Egypt to protect them from the evil of Herod.

Joseph’s mission takes him from his native country to provide for the well-being of Jesus and Mary. He is decisive and courageous leaving “by night.” Obedient to the will of the Father, Joseph “stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’” (Matthew 2:15). Joseph dwelt in the land of Egypt to establish his young family in safety and to fulfill the scripture.

According to the Gospel of St. Luke, Joseph goes to Jerusalem multiple times. After Jesus is born, circum- cised, and named, Joseph and Mary “took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” Joseph and Mary are clearly partners in the unfolding of Jesus’ mission to Jerusalem. Together, they heard the witness of Simeon and received his blessing. They would take Jesus “each
year” to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. Then, when Jesus was 12, they could not find him “among their relatives and acquaintances,” so they traveled back to Jerusalem and, after three days, found him in the Temple “sitting in the midst of the teachers.”

All who heard Jesus were “astonished at his under- standing and his answers.” Similarly, Joseph and Mary “were astonished.” Joseph witnessed Jesus embrace his mission, to “be in my Father’s house,” and to teach the teachers of the temple. The obedience of Jesus to Joseph and Mary in Nazareth points to the formation they provided him so he could “advance in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”

Finally, there is Nazareth. According to St. Matthew, Joseph was warned in a dream not to go back to Judea but decides to go to “the region of Galilee.” Joseph chooses Nazareth as the town where he will care for the “child and his mother.” In making that decision, Joseph fulfills what was spoken through the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazorean.” Nazareth is the place of the “hidden years” of Jesus’ life but clearly the place where he would grow into adulthood.

Nazareth is the “longest mile” of Joseph’s mission. It is a time of work – not just labor but craftsmanship, perhaps even artistry. It is a time when Joseph, presumably, taught Jesus how to be a carpenter as well as the religious traditions of his people. We know that Jesus could read and write – something that Joseph and Mary must have taught him.

Nazareth is also the place, we presume, where Joseph died. We know very little about the transition for Jesus – when he left home to find John the Baptist at the Jordan. We do not know if Joseph died before or after Jesus left. All four gospels attest to Jesus as a Nazorean and that he was the “son of a carpenter.” We do know that when Jesus begins his mission, only Mary accompanies him through those years to his death on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Joseph was a missionary. He heard and obeyed God’s word, he went where he was sent and “dwelt” where he was planted, and above all else, he loved Mary and Jesus. The mission of Joseph, as for every missionary, is to bring Jesus to the world. Through Joseph’s betrothal to Mary, his obedience to a God who reveals himself in dreams, his courage, his craftsmanship, and his father- hood, Jesus could “save his people from their sins.”

Saint John Paul II said, “Saint Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood” and that in this way, “he cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation and is truly a minister of salvation” (Patris Corde, 3)

In a recent address to seminarians (June 10, 2021), Pope Francis addressed their formators. “May they learn more from your life than from your words, as happened in the house of Nazareth, where Jesus was formed at the school of Joseph’s ‘creative courage.’”

Saint Joseph, minister of salvation, spouse of Mary, father to Jesus, Patron of the Church, Patron of Workers, Guardian of the Redeemer, Creative Courage, Shadow of the Father, pray for us.

Written by Don McCrabb.