Good St. Joseph
December 23, 2007

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Reading 1: Is. 7:10–14

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 24:1–2, 3–4, 5–6

Reading 2: Rom. 1:1–7

Gospel: Mt. 1:18–24

Link to Readings

By Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.

Today’s Gospel focuses on St. Joseph, husband of our Blessed Mother, the Mother of God.

Try to imagine a photograph of the Holy Family. St. Joseph would be standing in the back, perhaps even in shadows. This is how the Church has regarded St. Joseph in the Holy Family: a very important figure, but almost always in the background. Before thinking about the relationship of St. Joseph and our Blessed Mother, consider the little we do know about St. Joseph.

First, St. Joseph’s background.

Both St. Matthew and St. Luke trace St. Joseph’s ancestry back to David. This shows that as the legal son of Joseph, Jesus was rightly called “Son of David.”

St. Joseph evidently was living in Nazareth at the time of his betrothal to the Virgin Mary. Yet he was probably a native of Bethlehem. We know that he owned property there. It was primarily for the sake of property taxes that he was required to register in the Roman census at Bethlehem.

St. Joseph was a “carpenter.” The Greek word tekton means craftsman or artisan. It could be used to designate a worker in stone or metal, but was mostly used to refer to a woodworker—a cabinetmaker or carpenter.

Artists ordinarily portray St. Joseph as an older man, but this is probably a mistake. The rabbis of that time taught that a man should marry in his later teens. Scripture tells us St. Joseph was a “just” man, which means a law-abiding man. He therefore probably would have followed the custom of his time by marrying young.

A "Just" Man

Think now about the Jewish custom of betrothal.

The Gospel informs us that the Virgin was “”betrothed” to St. Joseph. Ordinarily an engagement would be arranged by parents of the couple, or by a match-maker. (Remember the match-maker in “Fiddler on the Roof”?) The betrothal was the ratification of the engagement. If either the projected bride or groom was unwilling to enter into the marriage, the engagement could be broken. But once they betrothed themselves each to the other, the betrothal was binding. It could be broken only by going through the process of divorce.

The betrothal lasted for a year. During that time the couple were known as man and wife, but they lived apart. It was during the period of the betrothal of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin that he learned she was with child.

St. Joseph’s immediate reaction was his decision to divorce the Virgin “quietly,” as Scripture says. That is, divorce her in a proceeding that did not require specifying the cause for the divorce. (Remember now: We’re talking about dissolution of a betrothal, not of a marriage.) St. Joseph decided to divorce the Virgin Mary because he was a “just” man. That means he conscientiously observed the law. The law forbade a man to marry a woman who during their betrothal had been guilty of fornication with another man.

But then the Holy Spirit intervened, and St. Joseph took the Virgin as his wife.

An angel explained to St. Joseph that the Virgin had conceived by the Holy Spirit; that she was to bear a son who would be called “Jesus”; and that her Son would save His people from their sins.

At the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary had obediently accepted God’s will by consenting to the virginal conception of Jesus. Now St. Joseph displays a similar faith in obedience to God’s command. He took the Virgin Mary as his wife. That is, he went through the ceremony wherein she was taken into his home.

"Until she had borne a son"

Today’s Gospel ends in the middle of a sentence. The rest of sentence is this: “but he [St. Joseph] knew her not [that is, they were not joined in sexual union] until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus” (Mt. 1:25).

Protestants point to this verse as basis for rejecting Catholic teaching that the Virgin Mary was perpetually a virgin. They argue that Scripture plainly says St. Joseph did not consummate his marriage with the Virgin Mary until she had borne a son. So, they say, this clearly means that after she had borne a son, St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary did live as man and wife.

Protestants make this argument in the face of the earliest tradition of the Church that the Virgin Mary was virgin not only before the birth of Jesus, but also always afterward. Those make this argument simply do not understand Hebraic ways of expression.

As used in the verse just quoted, “until she had borne a son,” the word “until” says nothing about events after the birth of the Virgin’s Son. Scripture uses the words “till” and “until” to state that a particular action did not occur up to a certain point, and leaves the matter there. Unlike the modern use of “until”—and the Protestant argument is based on the modern usage—the scriptural use of “till” or “until” does not imply that the action did occur later. When Scripture states that St. Joseph did not “know” the Virgin “until” she had borne a son,” the word “until” means exactly what it does in many other instances in Scripture.

Consider a few of those instances.

In 2 Samuel 6:23, we read, “Michal the daughter of Saul had no children until the day of her death.” Shall we follow the Protestant interpretation of “until” and assume she did have children after her death?

According to Genesis 8:7, when Noah released a raven from the ark, the bird “went forth and did not return till the waters were dried up upon the earth.” Yet we know the raven did not return after the waters were dried up.

Or note what Scripture tells us in Deuteronomy 34:6 about the burial of Moses: regarding the place where Moses was buried: no man knows “until this present day.” But we know that no man since Moses’ burial has known the location of his burial.

Finally, 1 Maccabees 5:54 tells us, “And they went up to mount Sion with joy and gladness, and offered holocausts, because not one of them was slain till they had returned in peace.” There is no suggestion that the soldiers were killed after they left battle. And we could add other examples of this scriptural usage.

The Church has always taught that the marriage of St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary was a genuine marriage, though never consummated. Non-Catholics also argue that since St. Luke (2:7) reports “she brought forth her first-born son,” the phrase “first-born” must mean she had other children. However, Scripture uses the word in a purely literal sense. It does not mean there necessarily was a second-born or a third-born child. It simply means that the first was the first. Period.

Jesus' Foster Father

Now think about St. Joseph in the context of the birth of Jesus.

St. Luke (2:5–6) records that St. Joseph and the Virgin went to Bethlehem to be enrolled in the tax census, “And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.” It was a four-day journey by foot from Nazareth to Bethlehem. St. Joseph and the Virgin surely would not have started such an arduous journey just a few days before she was due to deliver. When Scripture tells us Jesus was born “while they were there” [in Bethlehem], it seems to imply they had been in Bethlehem some time before His birth.

There was no room for the Holy Family in the inn: We can’t be certain what that means. It could have been due to hardness of heart on the part of an innkeeper. It could have been due to the fact that Bethlehem was crowded with visitors come to enroll as St. Joseph had done. And after all, an inn was a kind of stockade with open alcoves. Perhaps St. Joseph and the Virgin decided an inn was not a fitting place for the Virgin to give birth to her Son.

Whatever the reason, St. Joseph took the Virgin to a cave ordinarily used as refuge for cattle. There the Virgin laid her new-born Son on the stone shelf that ordinarily held feed for the animals.

By divine appointment, St. Joseph was Jesus’ foster father.

St. Luke several times refers to Jesus’ “parents” and to St. Joseph as Jesus’ “father.” Scripture thus links St. Joseph with the Virgin Mary as a true parent of Jesus, through a virginal parent.

As Jesus’ legal father, St. Joseph exercised the right of naming the Child (Mt. 1:21, 25). St. Joseph probably circumcised the Child at home. We read of Jesus’ accompanying St. Joseph and the Virgin to Jerusalem for the Passover, when Jesus was twelve. We read of Jesus’ being left behind, and of his parents’ finding him after three days. “. . . your father and I have been looking for you anxiously” was the Virgin’s reproach to her divine Son. (Lk. 2:48) Then we read of Jesus going back to Nazareth with His parents, being obedient to them and growing in wisdom and stature.

And here the story of St. Joseph ends, so far as the scriptural narrative is concerned. After that, and apparently before Jesus began his earthly ministry, St. Joseph died.

Pray for Us!

Now consider St. Joseph in the life of the Church.

Time does not permit our going into the history of the Church’s devotion to St. Joseph, but we can at least note some of the honor paid to him by the Church. St. Joseph is the patron of workmen, families, virgins, the sick and the dying; of prayer and the interior life; of those in authority; of priests, religious, and travelers; of devotion to Mary; of a number of countries, including Mexico, Canada, Belgium.

St. Joseph was proclaimed patron of the universal Church in 1870. In 1937, Pope Pius XI chose St. Joseph as patron of the Catholic Church’s campaign against atheistic communism. The events of recent years seem to indicate that St. Joseph has been hard at work in that particular patronage. You’ll recall that even the secular media acknowledge Pope John Paul the Great’s pontificate as a significant factor in the collapse of communism. In 1961, Pope John XXIII proclaimed St. Joseph heavenly protector of the Second Vatican Council.

Finally, and most important, as Pope Leo XIII taught: “more than any other person he [St. Joseph] approached that supereminent dignity by which the Mother of God is raised above all created natures.” In other words, for his holiness and dignity, the Church venerates St. Joseph as second only to our Blessed Mother herself.

You and I must continually invoke the prayers of St. Joseph, especially here at the end of Advent. God chose St. Joseph to be the foster-father of His own Divine Son. Excepting His Blessed Mother, who can help us more to be devoted to the Holy Child than St. Joseph?

St. Joseph, pray for us!

Father Ray Ryland is CUF's spiritual advisor.

Back to Homily Archive

Help us continue to provide great homilies. Click here to donate today.