Fr. Clever: St. Joseph gave himself completely to his family
The Solemnity of St. Joseph — husband of Mary, protector of the Holy Family, patron saint of the Universal Church and of a peaceful death — is March 19.
It’s one of only a few days that the “Gloria” is recited or sung during Lent.
St. Joseph is often depicted with a white lily and holding the infant Jesus, or while working as a carpenter, or on his deathbed, with Mary and Jesus at his side.
“Joseph is someone I like to pray with and think about,” said Father Gregory Clever, associate pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Columbia. “I think we should give more attention to Joseph than we do.”
Fr. Clever briefly spoke of St. Joseph during a Feb. 11 discussion of the Stations of the Cross.
A parishioner asked Fr. Clever about why Joseph died before Jesus’s suffering and death.
“I wonder if as a man who protects his family, it would have been hard to be quiet and stand by like Mary had to,” the parishioner stated, inquiring about why St. Joseph passed away before the crucifixion.
Fr. Clever agreed that that’s a very possible reason.
“Keep in mind that St. Joseph had to protect the Holy Family,” he said. “When they had to move through the desert to Egypt and spend however many years there, and then went back through the desert to Nazareth, and then went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, there were often bandits and highwaymen who would rob you. It is possible that Jesus even learned how to make a whip of chords from his father during this time to protect them.”
He asserted that those travels probably contributed to Joseph’s untimely death.
“Matthew described Joseph with a word that means ‘a man in his prime,’ a man who had it together when he and Mary get married,” said Fr. Clever.
He was probably about 30 years old, at the peak of his strength and stamina, when Mary entrusted him to take care of her and her Son.
“So, if that was Joseph’s age at the time of Jesus’s birth and that he died by the time Jesus starts his ministry, that makes him a maximum of 60 when Jesus dies — perhaps younger,” the priest said.
Joseph weathered traveling through brutal landscapes, finding work and taking care of his family in a foreign country, and then moving back.
“If they don’t have enough food, who’s going without?” the priest proposed. “The Son of God, his mother, or St. Joseph, who God entrusted with taking care with them?”
“If they’re going without water, who’s going without? It’s Joseph every time,” the priest continued.
“Think about the stress he was under,” he said. “Think about the loss of Jesus in the Temple, in a city owned by the son of King Herod, who wanted to kill him. That Joseph has a fear of that is confirmed in Scripture.”
That was a well-founded fear, because Jesus was the crown-prince of Israel, and powerful people were threatened by his existence.
“I would imagine that all those times that Joseph went without in order to take care of Jesus and Mary, eventually caught up with him,” said Fr. Clever.
“He died for his family,” the priest asserted. “You could make an argument that Joseph is a martyr for the Holy Family. I think that would be a good title to give to him, as St. Joseph very likely died of a stroke or a heart attack from all he did to protect Jesus and Mary who he loved so dearly. A model of fatherhood on Earth.”
