♔ YOUNG ST. JOSEPH - NOT AN OLD WIDOWER ♔

♔ ST JOSEPH THE OLD WIDOWER? ♔

Given the customs at the time, Mary was believed to be no older than sixteen when she was married. We are told by the mystics Venerable Maria de Agreda, Mother Maria Cecilia Baij, and Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, that Joseph was a young man at the time of his espousal to Mary. Through the ages, art has shown him as an elderly man hunched over his walking stick, barely able to stand. Joseph was not a senior citizen.  No offense to the elderly, but God would choose a strong, energetic man who would be able to support his family. Why, then, was Joseph depicted as an old man in so many European art pieces through the centuries? There are two reasons for this:

The first reason was to explain the “brothers and sisters” of the Lord, mentioned in the Bible. The apocryphal book titled, “The History of the Carpenter Joseph,” states that he was once a priest as well as a carpenter who was a widower with four sons and two daughters, meaning Mary’s stepchildren would be far older then she was. Apparently, Joseph was old enough to be Mary’s grandfather. This is false, and the notion of Christ having “brothers and sisters” will be explained in a later post, though some Christians are too proud and do not want an explanation—choosing instead to be deaf to the fact that Mary and Joseph were both young virgins at the time of their marriage and remained so afterward.

The second reason for the elderly Joseph was to protect the virginity of Mary. The idea of the Virgin Mary living with a handsome and robust man was not acceptable as people would think that he might have some inclination to have sexual relations with her, therefore robbing her of her virginal title. This insults both Joseph and his bride. The Bible tells us that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14.) Mary herself tells us this when the angel Gabriel tells her she will conceive: “How can this be since I am a virgin?” (St. Luke 1:27, 34.)

St. Jerome (347–420,) Doctor of the Church, explains the virginal relationship between Joseph and Mary:

That God was born of a virgin we believe because we read it. That Mary consummated marriage after her childbirth we do not believe because we do not read it.  Nor do we say this in order to condemn marriage, for virginity is itself a fruit of marriage, but because there is no license to draw rash conclusions about holy men.

For if we wish to take the mere possibility into consideration, we can  contend that Joseph had several wives because Abraham and Jacob had several wives and that from these wives, the ‘brethren of the Lord’ were born, a fiction which most people invent with not so much pious as presumptuous audacity. You say that Mary did not remain a virgin; even more do I claim that Joseph was virginal through Mary, in order that from a virginal marriage a virginal son might be born. For if the charge of fornication does not fall on this holy man, and if it is not written that he had another wife, and if he was more of a protector than a husband of Mary, whom he was thought to have as his wife, it remains to assert that he who merited to be called the father of the Lord remained virginal with her. — St. Jerome

♔ VOWS OF CHASTITY  ♔

The earliest saints of the Church, who would have had contact with the original twelve Apostles, were all in agreement that the mother of Jesus was a virgin both before and after the birth of Christ. Also, Church traditions fully support that Joseph, being led by the Holy Spirit, chose to offer everything about himself to God, and had made a vow of virginity early on in life. Given that he was sanctified by God, and given many special graces, this doesn’t seem so strange.

Venerable Maria de Agreda: From his twelfth year he had made and kept the vow of chastity… and was known for the utmost purity of his life, holy and irreprehensible in the eyes of God and of men.

St. Francis de Sales: How exalted in this virtue of virginity must Joseph have been who was destined by the Eternal Father to be the companion in virginity of Mary! Both had made a vow to preserve virginity for their entire lives, and it was the Will of God to join them in the bond of a holy marriage…

This was not a common practice; however, Jesus was not a common man, so why should we doubt His parents’ uncommon vows? Joseph and Mary were Jews, and yes, it was unusual to make vows of virginity in their culture, but it is the same in our own culture today! If someone tells you they have made a vow of virginity, would you doubt them? You may doubt them, you may not, but you would be inclined to ask them why they say this. Why would anyone want to live without sex!? Because sex, in its proper context of “making love,” is one of life’s most beautiful treasures, and some people, impelled to serve God in a unique way, choose to offer it to the Lord instead of to themselves. Joseph gave one of the most beautiful gifts he could offer to God. Virginity in our culture is seen as prudishness and “old school,” and some people lie to say that they are not virgins! It is seen as something to lose as early as possible and to brag about losing – more notably among young men. If it were the other way around and virginity was seen as something to cherish, this perpetual virginity of Joseph would not seem so strange.

Pope St. John Paul II: In the Liturgy, Mary is celebrated as "united to Joseph, the just man, by a bond of marital and virginal love." There are really two kinds of love here,   both of which together represent the mystery of the Church - virgin and spouse - as symbolized in the marriage of Mary and Joseph. “Virginity or celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of God not only does not contradict the dignity of marriage but presupposes and confirms it. Marriage and virginity are two ways of expressing and living the one mystery of the Covenant of God with his people,” the Covenant which is a communion of love between God and human beings.

The Bible gives us examples of people who gave their gift of virginity to God and were not ashamed of people knowing it. They were seen as holy, not because sex is bad and they were abstaining from it, but because they saw this God-given gift as being so wonderful and they wanted to offer it and themselves wholly to God. It is a selfless act of love!

Revelation 14:1, 14:4 And I saw, and behold, the Lamb was standing upon Mount Sion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads… These are they who were not known with women; for they are virgins.

♔ VIRGINAL TRINITY ♔

The great St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-389) proclaimed that the first virgin ever is the Holy Trinity. God the Father is a virgin who generates the Son in all His goodness; God the Son is a virgin who existed in Heaven without a mother; God the Holy Spirit is a virgin, who proceeds gloriously from the Father and the Son. As the Heavenly Trinity is the first and altogether virgin, so is the second Trinity, on earth. The Earthly Trinity of Jesus, Mary and Joseph mirror the Heavenly Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Jesus (God the Son) connecting the two Trinities. If Jesus is a virgin and Mary is a virgin, why wouldn’t Joseph, who completes this virginal Trinity, be one as they are?

St. Josemaria Escrivá: You don't have to wait to be old or lifeless to practice the virtue of chastity. Purity comes from love; and the strength and gaiety of youth is no obstacle for noble love. Joseph had a young heart and a young body when he married Mary, when he learned of the mystery of her divine motherhood, when he lived in her company, respecting the integrity God wished to give the world as one more sign that he had come to share the life of his creatures. Anyone who cannot understand a love like that knows very little of true love and is a complete stranger to the Christian meaning of chastity.