March 19 is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is also known as “St. Joseph Day”.
What do you know about St. Joseph – besides the fact
that he is the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Son
of God?
In honoring him on this solemn feast of St. Joseph, the
Scripture Readings (2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a,16; Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matthew
1:16, 18-21, 24a) give a good image of who St. Joseph is.
In these readings, we see Abraham, David, and, of
course, Joseph. And what is common to all of these readings is God’s promise –
covenant.
In the First Reading (2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a,16),
God promised David of the coming of the mighty Davidic Messianic King, through
Prophet Nathan. In the Second Reading (Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22), God’s promise
to Abraham to be the father of all nations (Genesis 17:4-8) is addressed. Then,
the Gospel Reading (Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a) describes God’s commandment and
promise to Joseph the Messianic nature of Mary’s Son for observing His command to
take Mary as his wife though she was made pregnant by Him out of wedlock.
And all of these three men were faithful servants of
God. Though David sinned because of a sensual temptation (2 Samuel 11:1-27), he
was nevertheless faithful to God. And Joseph’s faithfulness is comparable to
Abraham’s.
These three faithful men share something important
in common - all of them hailed from the same lineage (Matthew 1:1-16). And out
of this lineage, Jesus was born, too (Matthew 1:16), because Joseph accepted
Mary as his wife, and she was already pregnant with Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke
1:26-38; 2:1-7).
Joseph was engaged with Mary (Luke 1:27). But, she
became pregnant with the Son of God before her matrimonial consummation with
Joseph (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:28-38). This troubled Joseph, so he was thinking
to cancel his betrothal with Mary, as he was a righteous man in keeping the Law
(e.g. Deuteronomy 22:22-27), while protecting her from shame (Matthew 1:19).
Because Mary was made pregnant by God for His salvific
scheme, and this Son was to be born as Davidic (2 Samuel 7:8-16; Isaiah 11:1-5;
cf. Matthew 1:16). Mary’s husband cannot be any available and legally suitable
man, because her Son to be Davidic, as prophesized, her husband had to be of
the Davidic lineage. And it has to be Joseph for he hailed from the line of
David (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:27). Thus, to save the betrothal between Joseph and
Mary, through Archangel Gabriel, God command Joseph to take Mary as his wife:
Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is
through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him
Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins
(Matthew 1:20-21; cf. Luke 1:28, 30-33, 35).
So Joseph faithfully followed the above commandment
and took Mary to his home as his wife (Matthew 1:24). By observing the above
commandment, Joseph served God as the earthly father of Mary’s Son, Christ the
Son of God.
This shows Joseph’s absolute faithfulness to God. And
because of Joseph faithfully obeyed this commandment, taking Mary as his wife
and becoming Jesus’ earthly father, the incarnated Theos-Logos (Word-God) (John 1:1, 14) in the human flesh of Jesus
was safely born to us (Luke 2:7).
And because Joseph faithfully followed another commandment to him, Jesus was saved from the danger of murderous Herod (Matthew 2:13-15).
Therefore, without Joseph’s steadfast faithfulness
to God, demonstrated in his observance of God’s commandments, we could not have
had our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, as Mary’s faithful fiat to serve as the Theotokos (Luke 2:38) needed a support
from the earthly Davidic husband. And this was Joseph.
Because of the faithfulness of Joseph, Mary became
her husband and her Son also became his Son on earth in order to have Nathan’s
oracle to David on the Messianic Davidic King (2 Samuel 7:8-16) was fulfilled.
It was indeed Joseph’s steadfast faith in God,
comparable to Abraham’s, that played a critically important role, together with
Mary, whose faith was perfect, to fulfill God’s promise to David of the Davidic
Messianic King, who is the King of all nations, the King of kings, to save
people of all nations, affirming God’s promise to Abraham as the father of all
nations. Why Abraham to be the father of all nation? Because Jesus, like David
and Joseph, draws the Abrahamic lineage, thanks to Joseph’s faithfulness to God’s
command to take Mary as his wife, Jesus is not only the Son of David (Matthew
1:20), but also the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1), the Son of the father of all
nations. And this means that Jesus is the Davidic King of all nations, the King
of kings, not only because of God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 17:4-8) but
also God’s promise to David (2 Samuel 7:8-16).
Though he at first thought that he just could not
take Mary as his wife, upon finding her pregnancy outside the wedlock, Joseph
trusted God and therefore observed His command to take her as his wife. What if
Joseph was not so faithful and rejected God’s command to take Mary with him?
The salvation history would have been very different.
For St. Joseph to be honored as the husband of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, whose Son is Jesus, it is because of his faithfulness,
comparable to Abraham’s. And, inspired by St. Joseph, we strive to cultivate
steadfast faith like St. Joseph’s – always trusting God to be fruitful with our
faith (i.e. Jeremiah 15:5-10).
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