A man, father, craftsman. Saint Joseph was someone many of us could relate to on paper but the way He lived this out is something we can all look to. He exemplified strength, humility, love, and fatherhood.
If we’re going to look to anyone for a model of what it means to be a man and a father, St. Joseph is hard to beat.
As we celebrate the “Year of Saint Joseph” we are looking at reasons why St. Joseph is so cool—and why we should turn to him as often as we can this year and beyond.
The Kind of Man We Desire To Be
It’s hard to find a more humble saint. I mean, imagine having a spouse and son who are—literally—perfect and without sin.
Even more, can you imagine putting aside your hopes and dreams for the sake of your family? Surely, St. Joseph must have had his own dreams for what his life might look like. But then God spoke to him through an angel in a dream, instructing him not to divorce Mary quietly but to take her as his wife in complete trust. And he did it! Then he did it again later when he was warned to depart to Egypt to avoid Herrod’s massacre and keep his family safe.
St. Joseph was willing to put aside his own dreams and say "yes" to the much larger dream of God’s will. We can imagine he might not have always understood what God was asking of him but he accepted it nevertheless. He humbly took on his role of husband and father, even when it looked different than most, and did what the Lord asked of him with a spirit of trust.
How much can we relate to that? Having expectations of our life but being so confident in God’s plan above our own.
These are some questions I’ve asked about my own life, especially this year: What areas am I struggling to accept God’s will in my life? Am I undergoing certain trials or difficulties that God might be asking us to embrace with trust? Or is He asking me to jump into something new and kind of scary for His sake?
By looking to St. Joseph we can find a model for accepting anything and everything with obedience and trust. Like his wife, the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph is a great example of saying “yes” to God’s will with humility.
The Purpose In Work We Strive For
St. Joseph was a humble carpenter who worked honestly and diligently to take care of his Holy Family but also to craft wood into objects that, even in small ways, served his neighbours.
I remember hearing once that we should see our desk or workbench as an altar, whereupon we offer the incense of our hard work to God. And St. Joseph, also known as the Patron Saint of Workers, is a great example for us.
What if we could adopt this mindset in everything? Like everything? To see every email sent, spreadsheet reformatted, customer helped, or brick laid—as a way of honouring, loving, and praying to God. And asking St. Joseph to help us in this way can be quite powerful. It can be just as important, maybe even more important, to approach everything we do with purpose. In other words, even if we don’t find every single task of our day jobs to be all that “purposeful,” by accomplishing them with a prayerful and devoted spirit, with St. Joseph as our model, they can still be offered up as meaningful acts of love and service to God.
Regardless of whether we love our jobs (or well, don’t really love it), a different perspective about work can help us grow in holiness if we let it. It can also give us more purpose in our work.
It can allow us to also participate in building a more just and fair world. In other words, in the building up of the Kingdom of Heaven. For, even in the temporal realm (as we read from St. John Paul II) our ordinary work, when fashioned to Christ, can help bring about His Kingdom.
Let’s not hesitate, then, to ask for his same spirit of discipline, steadfastness, and commitment at the start of each workday.
The Family Man We All Want To Be
Being the “best” parent is like chasing a shadow. We desire it, feel the pressure to be it, and yet, it’s impossible to actually get a grasp on it. But the path to holiness is just that, a path—a constant seeking and adventure and St. Joseph’s model as “the family man” is worth following after.
He was a loyal and devout father to the Blessed Mother, taking her into his home and protecting and providing for her as long as he lived. And he was also father to Jesus, the Son of God, fathering Him as He grew “in wisdom and stature.” How incredible to think that this man, Joseph, was tasked with helping Jesus learn to speak his first words or to learn an honest trade of working with his hands?
Love for his family was the heart of his vocation. How might we be called to do the same in our own families? Not just as a parent or spouse, but as a sibling, child, or grandchild?
Like St. Joseph, who took Mary into his home on God’s invitation, how might we be called to take others into our homes or lives, even those who might not be members of our biological family but members nonetheless of our spiritual family in Christ?
Perhaps a phone call or a rosary recited on behalf of a family member or friend is a good start. We can start with those closest to us, and by loving them, love Christ who dwells in them. While St. Joseph literally loved the person of Jesus in the flesh, we also can love Jesus by loving those in our family as he did: with humility, generosity, and a willingness to serve. As Christ reminds us, He is present in every person in our lives in a unique and wonderfully mysterious way.
There are many reasons more, of course, why St. Joseph is so cool. But as we celebrate St. Joseph’s Feast Day along with this entire year, let us turn to him as a model and guide—as someone we can look to for help in living more humbly, working more faithfully, and loving our families more joyfully.
St. Joseph, pray for us!
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