“Joseph, rise, doubt no longer…” These words from the Maronite liturgy taken from the Qolo hymn sung on the Sunday of the Revelation to Joseph, invite us to contemplate the quiet greatness of St Joseph. They remind us that Joseph was a man who listened to God, trusted His word, and acted with courage.
We are inspired by the virtues of St Joseph. We turn to the Gospels to learn about him: how Joseph was a just man; how he was betrothed to marry Our Lady; and how, when he learned that she was pregnant, he resolved not to disgrace her, even though he did not yet understand the mystery before him. But when the angel appeared to him and told him not to fear, and to take Mary as his wife because of the miraculous child she was bearing, Joseph summoned his courage and obeyed.
The Gospel tells us that he then led Mary to Bethlehem to be registered as descendants of David. When the life of the child was threatened, he took them into Egypt. Later, when an angel announced to him the death of Herod, he brought the Holy Family back to the land of Israel.
We also know that St Joseph fulfilled all the duties of a good father. He took his family to Jerusalem for the feasts, and we see his concern when the child Jesus went missing in the Temple. St Luke records the words of Mary: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” (Luke 2:48)
St Joseph too must have shared in that concern. Yet perhaps there was also a deeper confidence in his heart, a quiet trust that although he needed to do everything possible to find the child entrusted to him, ultimately God’s providence would guide them.
Here we see a paradox of faith. At times we must “seek anxiously,” doing all that lies within our power. Yet we must seek with confidence, because our hope rests in God. St Joseph teaches us that we must do the best we can with the responsibilities entrusted to us, knowing that God works through ordinary people, not only through extraordinary saints.
This is why ordinary people like ourselves can grow in faith by following the example of St Joseph. In recent years many parishes have renewed their devotion to him, and it remains good, even necessary, to remember St Joseph and to ask his intercession in our daily lives.
Our world is passing through moments of uncertainty and hardship. Just as St Joseph once had to flee with the Holy Family into Egypt to protect them, many families today experience their own forms of displacement, fear and instability. Wars, persecution, and social upheaval continue to affect countless people across the world. Yet through faith we learn again that God remains close to us even in the most difficult moments.
It is often when life is hardest that we realise most deeply how much we need God, who alone has the power to change our lives and redeem us from our fears and doubts.
St Joseph’s life teaches us that trust in God does not remove difficulties, but it gives us the strength to face them with faith. Joseph did not know in advance the path that lay before him: the mystery of Mary’s motherhood, the journey to Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, and the hidden years in Nazareth. Yet at each moment he trusted God.
St Teresa of Ávila, who had a great devotion to St Joseph, wrote: “To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succour us in some of our necessities but of this glorious saint my experience is that he succours us in them all and that the Lord wishes to teach us that as He was Himself subject to him on earth (for, being His guardian and being called His father, he could command Him) just so in Heaven He still does all that he asks.” (The Life of Teresa of Jesus, Chapter 6)
Let us never cease to seek the intercession of St Joseph. On his feast we pray that he may remain close to us always, guiding us on our journey of faith, and leading us to the Holy Family, to the Son and Mother whom he loved and protected with such faithful devotion.
