♔ ST. JOSEPH PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH ♔ by Dom Bernard Marechaux O.S.B.

The Church is a reproduction of Mary; it is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ; it is an expansion in space and time of the house at Nazareth. It was in harmony with all His works that God should have placed the Church under the protection of St. Joseph, into whose hands He had placed Mary and Jesus and whom He had made the head of the Holy Family. St. Ambrose sheds dazzling light on this. That great Doctor of the Church calls Mary “the type of the Church,” and in St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin and guardian of her virginity, he sees the type of the episcopate, which is like him in being the spouse of the Church and guardian of her precious virginity.

He sets up this parallel: on a higher level are Mary and Joseph, and on a lower, dependent level, are the Church and the episcopate. Joseph especially represents the episcopate and the Pope, who sums up all that the episcopate is. In the same way that the Church is under the sway of Mary, who is her type, says St. Ambrose, so the episcopate and the Pope, who expresses its unity, are under St. Joseph’s influence. The Pope and the bishops, in their concern for the Church, should find their inspiration in the tender respect and devotion which this great saint showed towards Mary, his virgin spouse. Could there be a more beautiful model?

If we try to understand how this glorious patronage is exercised, we would say that St. Joseph guards the Church with jealous care from the harmful influences of the world in which she lives, but to which she does not belong; he defends her against the attacks of demons and wicked men who are their agents; he supplies her with exterior, and even more, with interior help, procuring for her the most precious outpourings of God’s grace, keeping her in peace and tranquility, despite the furious assaults constantly launched against her. Last of all, St. Joseph expands the Church.

Have you thought about St. Joseph carrying the Child Jesus into Egypt? About this, St. Leo says that “this nation which was abandoned to ancient superstition was marked by a secret grace for the salvation which was at hand.” Joseph, bringing Jesus into Egypt, sowed there a seed of grace which in its own time would bear fruit in astonishing fashion. See how he expands the Church, he who, as we have said, represents the episcopate, spouse of the Church, and collaborates secretly but powerfully with the labours of the missionaries who broaden her confines. It is through him that Jesus Christ penetrates into areas still closed off by the devil.

Let us honour St. Joseph with our whole soul; with all the joy of our hearts let us honour him with the greatest veneration it is possible to offer a saint, for that is the clear wish of the Church. Let us go to Joseph in our necessities, in our wants, in our worries and in our alarms. His patronage answers to all; he is the dispenser of Divine Providence.

We must beware of going to him only under the pressure of physical need; instead we should seek the growth of our interior life and the deepening of its roots in God. St. Joseph is the patron par excellence of the spiritual life, because in his soul the balanced interplay of its powers is in perfect harmony, and his soul is the most adoring, the most prayerful and totally submissive to God’s will. Let us go to him to be impregnated with his attitude towards God and his burning love for Mary and Jesus.

Let us go to him to obtain every blessing, especially that of fruitfulness, for all Christian families, every religious community and the whole Church.