The Truth about Saint Joseph: Encountering the Most Hidden of Saints by Fr. Maurice Meschler

Author:Fr. Maurice Meschler [Meschler, Fr. Maurice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 2019b Uncategorized
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
Published: 2017-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The Shadow of the Heavenly Father

Spiritual writers are fond of calling Saint Joseph the shadow of the heavenly Father, an engaging, elevated, and truthful representation indeed. It expresses the full extent of his greatness and the complete concept of his high vocation in a most concise and sublime manner. Above all, he was the foster father of the Savior. The heavenly Father is the type and origin of all fatherhood in Heaven and on earth (Eph. 3:15); and so every human father is a representative and image of the heavenly Father. In the case of Saint Joseph, however, this is verified in a most characteristic and glorious manner, and that from three viewpoints.

First, Saint Joseph is the image of the heavenly Father as regards authority. Authority is the first distinguishing mark of the father. It is naught else than one’s power and right to govern and command because one is either the originator of life or occupies a position of superiority, which in a way is also a kind of original authorship, for no society can come into being or continue in existence without a head. Each of these kinds of authority has its origin and type in the heavenly Father, who in the Godhead Itself represents the principle of origin, destiny, and conservation. This fatherhood is the august distinction and the glory of the first Person of the Most Holy Trinity. The eternal Father condescends to transfer His royal right to Saint Joseph, and this in a manner not granted to any other man. True, Saint Joseph is not the natural father of the Savior. Because of his marriage bond with Mary, however, he is the head of the Holy Family, and all its members are by right subject to him. The divine Master Himself, because of His generation from the Father, says that He is less than the Father (John 14:28); He is subject to the saint by reason of the saint’s position of authority as head of the Holy Family. Jesus belongs to Joseph as foster son, and this relationship is always recognized by the heavenly Father. Saint Joseph confers the name of Jesus upon the Child; he presents Him in the Temple to the heavenly Father; to Joseph the heavenly Father makes known the commands and directions for the guidance of the Holy Family.

The divine Savior and Mary also saw in Joseph the visible representative of the heavenly Father. This was the reason why our Lord, as a young man, and perhaps even as a man, was subject to Joseph and carried out his orders with so much readiness, with such prompt, joyful obedience, and with such perseverance. In Joseph the Savior saw the shadow of the glory of His eternal Father; in the direction of the saint He recognized the will of His heavenly Father; in His converse with Joseph He held, in a manner, converse with His own heavenly Father; and while obeying the saint, He could always say: “For I do always the things that please Him” (John 8:29).

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