♔ THE SLEEPING ST. JOSEPH ♔

God speaks ... by a dream in a vision by night, when deep sleep falls upon men, and they are sleeping in their beds:  Then he opens the ears of men, and instructs them in what they are to learn. – Job 33:14-16

Pope Benedict XVI:  St. Joseph is presented as a “just man” (Matthew 1:19), faithful to God’s law, ready to do His will. On account of this he enters into the mystery of the Incarnation after an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and tells him: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife with you. In fact the child that has been conceived in her comes from the Holy Spirit; she will give birth to a son and you will call him Jesus: he in fact will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:20-21). Forgetting the thought of repudiating Mary in secret, he takes her in because his eyes now see the work of God in her.

St. Matthew 2:13-14  When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt...

St. Alphonsus Liguori: Consider the ready obedience of St. Joseph, who raised no doubts about the time of the journey, nor about the manner of travelling, nor about the place in Egypt in which they were to stay, but immediately prepared to set out. He instantly makes known to Mary the command of the angel, and on the same night sets out without guide on a journey of 400 miles through mountains, across rugged roads and deserts. … How much St. Joseph must have suffered on the journey into Egypt in seeing the sufferings of Jesus and Mary! … Joseph was indeed conformed in all things to the will of the Eternal Father, but his tender and loving heart could not but feel pain in seeing the Son of God trembling and weeping from cold and the other hardships which He experienced on that hard journey.

St. Matthew 2:19-22  Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, and take the child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” So he arose and took the child and his mother, and went into the land of Israel.

Pope St. John Paul II:  And so Jesus' way back to Nazareth from Bethlehem passed through Egypt. Just as Israel had followed the path of the exodus "from the condition of slavery" in order to begin the Old Covenant, so Joseph, guardian and cooperator in the providential mystery of God, even in exile watched over the one who brings about the New Covenant.

St. Matthew 2:22-23  But hearing that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there; and being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee.  And he went to a town called Nazareth. 

This passage from Matthew (2:22-23) is often passed over quickly without a word or thought, but I believe that even this scene merits mention. In it we find that Joseph is afraid to return to Judea with his family, fearing that Herod’s successor would seek to destroy his Son. Though St. Joseph has faith he still has a temporal fear which is a part of the human condition and the Heavenly Father understands this. So once again He sends His messenger to instruct Joseph on what he is to do. This mention of Joseph’s fear speaks volumes not only about our human frailties but also of God’s compassion. The Heavenly Father allows Joseph to have, to a certain extent, self reliance even if it allows for him to fear. But the Lord is merciful, and so He sends his messenger to advise Joseph on the course he should take, to bring his family safely out of exile.

ARTICLE FROM “VATICAN INSIDER”

ANDREA TORNIELLI - Vatican City

Pope Francis has a statuette of St. Joseph near his room in St. Martha’s House, where he leaves prayer requests: “He’s a carpenter and he gets the job done, even though he sometimes makes you wait”

 “The Holy Father really makes St. Joseph work. Francis’ devotion to Jesus’ adoptive father has spread to all those who work in and around the Pope’s residence, including the Swiss Guards…” Francis has a great devotion for St. Joseph and even keeps a statuette of the saint in a marble-topped dark wooden chest of drawers just outside his room (Room 201) in St. Martha’s House. The Pope slips prayer requests he has written under the pedestal and as the pieces of paper grow in number – “the Holy Father really makes the saint work” - the statuette slowly rises.

Today, 1 May, is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and so it is the right occasion to write about a devotion which has accompanied Pope Francis since his childhood days. The parish of Flores, the Buenos Aires neighbourhood where Francis was born and grew up, is dedicated to San José. It was in this church, dedicated to Jesus’ adoptive father, that Bergoglio attended mass and had his earliest Christian experiences. It was in this parish and under St. Joseph’s protection that on 21 September 1953, Bergoglio met Fr. Carlos B. Duarte Ibarra at the age of (almost) 17. After going to him for confession, he discovered his priestly vocation. Francis’ pontificate is also under St. Joseph’s protection, having been solemnly inaugurated on 19 March 2013.

 

“Let us never forget that authentic power is service, and that the Pope too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service which has its radiant culmination on the Cross. He must be inspired by the lowly, concrete and faithful service which marked Saint Joseph and, like him, he must open his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. Only those who serve with love are able to protect!” Pope Francis said in his homily on the Solemnity of St. Joseph.

 

On 5 July 2013 the Pope consecrated the whole of the Vatican City State to St. Joseph and St. Michael the Archangel, whom the Governorate had previously chosen as its own patron saint.

The wooden statuette of St. Joseph which is by Francis’ room in St. Martha’s House is about forty  centimeters long and depicts the saint dressed in gold-trimmed dark green and red garments, typical of Hispanic American iconography. Joseph is lying down and asleep, a positions which is symbolic of the Gospel: it is always in his sleep that Jesus’ adoptive father receives messages from heaven about Mary and which name the Child should take and warnings about the danger Herod represents, causing the flight into Egypt. Bergoglio had a similar statue in the room he occupied for eighteen years at the Colegio Máximo of San José in San Miguel where he was rector and where he also lived when he was Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus. The statuette of the sleeping St. Joseoh which he kept in the Buenos Aires curia is one of the few things the Pope had sent over from Argentina after his election: the head came off during the journey to Italy but Bergoglio saw to it that it was fixed.

“You know,” Francis told one of his collaborators in the first months after his election, “you have to be patient with these carpenters: they tell you they’ll have a piece of furniture finished in a couple of weeks and it ends up taking a month even. But they get the job done and they do it well! You just need to be patient…”

 

Tenderness, silence, concealment, avoiding the spotlight and his vocation to protect: these are some of the qualities Francis appreciates in the saint. This is why although the Pope’s statuette depicts the patron saint sleeping, Francis makes him work a lot, often asking him for a helping hand.