Franciscan University Presents: St. Joseph and the Holy Family

although he never speaks a word in Sacred Scripture st. Joseph nevertheless shows husbands fathers priests and all Christians how to live our vocations more fully join us today as we talk about what we can learn from the life and witness of st. Joseph with our special guest father Boniface Hicks OSB associate director of spiritual formation at st. Vincent's Seminary and the host of we are one body Catholic radio I'm Michael Hernon vice president of advancement at Franciscan University in Steubenville Ohio and you're watching Franciscan University presents stay with us welcome to Franciscan University presents I'm your host Michael Hernon vice-president of advancement at Franciscan University in Steubenville Ohio and we'll be talking about st. Joseph the most chaste spouse of our Blessed Virgin Mary I'm joined in our studios today by our regular panelists father Sean Sheridan president of Franciscan University and also a theology professor and dr. Scott Hahn who holds the father Michael Scanlon chair in biblical theology in the New Evangelization and our special guest today father Boniface Hicks Benedictine monk here and priest you are attained in 2004 you completed your doctorate in computer science at Penn State and you served in campus ministry I think there as well you now serve as the Associate Director of spiritual formation at st. Vincent's seminary and you're the general manager programming manager on-air host of we are one body Catholic radio so welcome to the program thanks Mike it's great to be with you it is it is a joy to have you we'll be talking about st. Joseph's but you you know I think there's a little bit of an interesting personal thing that I just want to ask you about knowing that you know Scott is a convert father Sean and I are cradle Catholics but you're also a convert but you didn't come through a Protestant Church necessarily give me a little bit of your story very briefly and maybe there's some connection to st. Joseph I don't know that's right I've come to know about st. Joseph from nothing I was really a poster child for the the Enlightenment a believer in science and self-sufficiency and came to know through Scripture and through encountering Catholics at Penn State University about faith which is far more exciting even than a science and self-sufficiency for your atheist I was an atheist yeah yeah unbelievable amazing and studied or science fully in that's right the science world so so when you when you think about coming you came with a blank slate to st. Joseph you didn't have any preconceived notions one way or the other but st. Joseph is a man who we know very little about in a certain sense that scripture has him as being silent he doesn't have any attribute of words to him I has many actions but what can we glean from some of the basics if you will about the graphical sketch of st. Joseph from from Scripture yeah at first when we look at Scripture we think there's not much there about st. Joseph but really there's not much there about any person in a biographical sense and when we start looking a little more deeply we realize actually compared to other figures in Scripture there's quite a bit about st. Joseph his relationship with Our Lady we can start to imagine what his life was like in Nazareth and then scripture also drops these pregnant words like a just man indicating a profound holiness in Saint Joseph that we can start to then extrapolate what was his life like as a man who is holy he's also a carpenter he's living in Nazareth we hear about his obedience his openness to the Lord in dreams and of course his marriage to Our Lady which we can imagine is a source of profound love for her and for him and of course he is the one who God has entrusted his own son to God the Father recedes in a certain sense and places the humanity of his son into the human care of Saint Joseph to be his father so we start to as we start to peel away the layers and look a little bit deeper we see actually there's a lot in Scripture that we can discern about st. Joseph and not just in the Gospels but when you look at the new in light of the old the way that Pope Leo the 13th did you know he points out these convergences between the other Joseph who's also described as the son of Jacob just as Joseph isn't in matthew's genealogy and they're both described as a just man and they're both most chaste in Joseph's case back in Genesis Pharaoh's wife chased him everywhere he got away and remained pure chaste me they don't think of that conduct but you know the fact that they both have dreams as well and they make provisions of bread you know and they Bethlehem of course means the house of bread and just as Jacob made provisions for the Holy Family of Israel in Egypt so st. Joseph makes provisions of bread you know and takes the Holy Family to safety in Egypt and there are many more parallels but it just shows that this is no accident that is a providential design is part of God's fatherly plan to have a figure in the old and won in the new who fulfills that as long as you're leading us in that direction I think also the carrying of the bones of Joseph into the Promised Land is a nice insight into the carrying of Saint Joseph into heaven and as we know him is the the patron of a happy death and as some of the Saints and even john xxiii has promoted the assumption of st. Joseph it's writing and being taken out to be bodily with Our Lady in heaven that's beautiful yeah yeah there's there so much there that we may just quickly overlook because he doesn't have that much attributed to him but there's so much that God attributes to him just by choosing him by sending an angel that he would listen that all of those things that happen but for many of us are are there other other gaps that get filled in outside of Scripture from tradition because as we as Catholics really see the validity of our sacred tradition as well what what gaps are filled in if you will by tradition on st. Joseph well the Fathers of the Church do take up st. Joseph's in working out some of the scriptural questions that surround him was his marriage with Mary a legitimate marriage why is st. Joseph listed in the genealogy as the one through whom Jesus Jesus as the Joseph is yeah coming coming through Joseph why is he listed in the genealogy why is he the son of two different fathers in the genealogy who are these brothers and sisters of Jesus these are all questions that the fathers of the church take up and begin to discuss and and open up more insights for us about st. Joseph in discerning for example that it is a real marriage between Mary and Joseph and it was already a marriage when Jesus was conceived it's not that Jesus was born out of wedlock it's the first stage of a Jewish marriage but already a legal reality so Jesus is son of David through the genealogy through st. Joseph st. Joseph's marriage to Our Lady is so important that John Paul the second in his apostolic exhortation ritum Torres Cousteau says that the marriage of Joseph and Mary is as important as the virginity of Mary in looking at the conception The Verge no conception of Jesus some of those points receded a little bit in the early church because there was such an emphasis on the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus that Mary is a virgin before during and after that birth and to protect the theological and the understanding of Mary's virginity the tradition has backed off from the marriage a little bit of st. Joseph but actually the fact that they are really married is is very important for us and then when we start to wonder what's that marriage like and what was the love like between them father Gary guru Grande says that the beauty of the entire universe is as nothing compared to the union between Joseph and Mary and so then we start to get a window into something that's so important I think in our own time and looking at marriage looking at the fatherhood of st. Joseph the way that he raised Jesus his protection of the Holy Family which is carried out in a different way than st. Michael for example who also protects the Holy Family in the book of Revelation but through sword and shield st. Joseph protects the holy family through his humility and obedience he disappears when the angel directs him in a dream they disappear into Egypt when he's directed to come back he lives in the hiddenness of Nazareth and we learned this beautiful quality of masculinity which has to do with veiling what is beautiful he is able to reverence and veil what is beautiful in Mary and Jesus so that the people of Nazareth at the Immaculate Conception and the Incarnate Word are living in their midst Joseph and living this very ordinary life in great humility he never brags to his friends apparently that he's married to the Immaculate Conception and that he has the Incarnate Word in his home but through tremendous humility he lives out a very ordinary life a working man caring for his family as you speak about all of these wonderful qualities of Saint Joseph that we've come to embrace in the tradition and certainly as a set forth in Scripture it just brings back to me the importance of how we identify Joseph as being a man of faith he couldn't do all of these things if he didn't have great love great faith in the father who created him and the son who came to be as part of his life in to say of all of us through these the things that he engaged in throughout his life but that principle of being the man of faith the leader of the household of the Holy Family the one who was able to make all those sacrifices traveling back and forth to Egypt to protect the child to protect his family and so much of what we have and know today cries out for more men of faith like st. Joseph ya know the very fact that Joseph gives consent to naming Jesus in Jewish culture that is really what fatherhood would entail and why he fits in the legal genealogy you know there's an interesting development I think in Catholic theology in the last century or more you know I think we always assumed that Mary ology was with us for 2,000 years but Marian devotion a great love for our lady was but Mary ology is a separate discipline in theology is actually a 19th century development through Schaben and through others but it hasn't affected America so much but the fact is devotion to st. Joseph from st. Teresa of ávila on has cultivated a branch of theology of which I know you're aware and that is Joseph ology over in Spain and Italy and France there are people you would ask them what's your specialization I'm a Joseph ologist in America apart from father feeis back in the 50s really we don't have much of that and so when I talk to my colleagues they're like what did you say you know but it really is a rich vein that is just getting started to discover the in Scripture and tradition both the old and the New Testaments but all of these things are converging so that we can discover just one of them what would a not only an amazing man he is what but what a model he is for us as men yeah yeah one of the things that I it troubled me when I was younger and I even heard it in some homilies and I think you reference it in your article I think was john paul ii who called them the masters of suspicion that led to the idea that here's joseph trying to divorce mary put her out and not wanting to you know get her to shame it seems so contrary to this great saint you know he was so saintly so chaste but he didn't want have anything to do with mary like there was this this at least potential conflict how does the church and has the traditions really respond to what you know that conflict if you will or at least a parent conflict it's a great question we have a lot of images of st. Joseph as as an old man and we have a lot of images of st. Joseph and doubting what's happening with Mary there are a couple of ways we can approach it and Pope's and doctors of the Church Fathers of the Church have approached it in essentially three ways that one is that st. Joseph believes that Mary had conceived through someone else and that's what we often pick up another is that st. Joseph knows exactly what's going on and he is so humbled that he doesn't feel that he's worthy to be a part of it and that's a strong tradition in the West st. Bernhard picks it up and says all of the fathers testify to that and the other is that st. Joseph did know exactly what was going on he supposed it was holy and he wanted to back out not to interfere with God John Paul the second Benedict Francis Pope Francis really attribute apply that one but to go back to the first question I often hear you know of the idea that Mary s conceived through someone else the spiritual director of st. Teresa of Avila Geronimo Gration understood that in saying that Joseph was the protector of Mary and that if she had conceived it would have only been because she had been raped and then Joseph feeling he had been a failure at his role would want to back away and think that she's more she's in better care for with her family should be more protected by her own family than he could provide for so out of shame at his own failure he would back away from her but I think it would be hard to find any saint or a doctor or Pope who would think that Joseph actually suspected Mary of adultery right right so that's something that's beautiful because I think almost everybody outside of the Catholic tradition takes that would what we call the suspicion theory right that he suspected her of infidelity and you don't find that anywhere in our tradition even though there are Catholic biblical scholars who also just sort of take that matter-of-factly for granted in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible notes we have those three the suspicion theory but also the reverence theory and then the perplexity that you just outlined so well I sort of go towards Aquinas and Bernhard and that is the reverence theory because the phraseology in Matthew she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit is awkward not only in the English but in the Greek found by whom if she wasn't found by Mary she wasn't found by the angel but she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit for st. Joseph and so when the angel speaks to him you know the angel doesn't say don't be so suspicious the angel says don't be afraid but even before that it's Joseph son of David no well you got the genealogy wrong angel no and that is not your legal genealogical link that is your Davidic dynastic heritage so you might think you're unworthy as so many righteous men have felt to do something so massive so holy but you're the son of David not just the son of Jacob so don't be afraid nothing about suspicions so I think the reverence theory and the perplexity theory you know there's much greater support within the text itself along with the tradition yeah to me that that is so beautiful to set it in kind of proper context that we oftentimes get we misunderstand scripture the words don't necessarily mean what we interpret in today's language and the fathers give us some great insights to that stay with us for our next segment of Franciscan University presents st. Teresa of ávila gave a tremendous gift to the whole church but in a special way to all of us Carmelites in the devotion that she promoted to st. Joseph and she actually gives three reasons why we should be devoted to st. Joseph first of all that he will rectify any of our petitions so we bring a petition to God and it's not quite in line with God's will st. Joseph will rectify it and align it with God's well the second reason she gives is that many of us are looking for a spiritual guide for our prayer life or spiritual life and she says no one could have a better guide than Saint Joseph and the third reason she gives is that anyone who is devoted to Joseph will make great progress in the life of virtue people recognize Franciscan University as being academically excellent and passionately Catholic we have a unique opportunity through our faculty members through our students to proclaim that academic excellence by reaching out in many different ways we also remain passionately Catholic in the way in which we are able to worship the way in which we are able to bring that love of Christ to others on a daily basis it's important for us to be able to embrace both welcome back to Franciscan University presents we've been talking with father Boniface Hicks about st. Joseph's we just talked a little bit about kind of the the may be misunderstanding or suspicion theory if you will but it was about how Joseph has adjustment was going to divorce her quietly but you bring up in an article about really how chastity is really is protecting her but also it the idea of unveiling could you share a little bit more on that idea well I think there's a wonderful interpretation of that passage by a Jesuit scripture scholar father Ignacio pottery and he looks at some of the Greek words and what we've translated in even our liturgical reading is that Joseph being a just man was unwilling to expose her to shame and that exposure to shame is actually one word in the Greek one verb that can also speak of he's unwilling to unveil her he's unwilling to expose her mystery we can understand Joseph as having an insight as dr. Hahn mentioned the the reverence theory that st. Joseph knows exactly what's going on that this is God's plan to bring his own son into the world that Joseph feels unworthy to be personally a part of it but he doesn't want to expose this mystery he understands it but he's not going to expose it to others and this is also a beautiful understanding of what he comes to understand is the importance of marriage that he will protect her chastity and we can go into a discussion about doing this from old age or from virtue I would say from virtue as does the Western tradition but that he will protect her chastity he will protect her mystery not by distancing himself but rather by drawing close to her and living out this marriage that he's already entered into that the marriage itself provides the veil and origin actually identifies this that it's precisely the marriage that protects Our Lady's mystery from the devil who's looking for a virgin and is not looking for a married woman and so this role of a husband in general really comes to light through st. Joseph's decision not to back off which he wants to do through Millie and unworthiness but rather to draw in under obedience to the command of God and thus to protect Our Lady to protect her mystery which he does amazingly for thirty years they lived this entirely ordinary entirely human existence in Nazareth and nobody knows any better until the time comes that the mystery is unveiled and in that way also by Our Lady at her invitation at the wedding feast at Cana Paz actually saying how that supports the saintliness of Joseph himself and being willing to be responsive to what God is asking of him and I think when we step back so often we impose our own human values and traditions and the culture of our time in trying to explain this situation that the suspicion theory rather than really trying to see joseph has the saintly man that he is ya know no matter no matter how many times we say lord i am not worthy but only say the word the fact is you know just and righteous men understand how unworthy they are but once the Lord has spoken the word then Joseph knows that he has to follow through on this don't be afraid not don't be suspicious and that that treatment of appoleo by Dale a pottery in that book that amazing book Mary in the mystery of the Covenant you cite this in your article on page 39 of that book where you know it really is a penetrating insight into how st. Joseph I mean if he was suspicious he would have brought charges against her according to the law of Moses in the Book of Numbers but if he's reverent then he needs to have the word in order to proceed to overcome his own sense of unworthiness and then there's that sense of mystery you know and he doesn't want to kind of expose that when in fact it has been entrusted to him he doesn't want to advertise it he doesn't want to walk away from it once the Lord calls him to to do that you know and I think these reasons you know end up reinforcing the sense that a number of Joseph's ologists are saying he's not simply what we would call the foster father he really is the virginal father just as she is the virginal mother so he is a virginal husband and a virginal father a lot like God the Father who generates a son apart from any physical you know our sexual activity so st. Joe's really enters into the mystery of divine fatherhood by giving that word of consent from his heart not only to the marriage but also to the fruit of that union too that comes from the Holy Spirit I mean again layer after layer after layer for us to learn from its deep its deep to see that mystery that he provides that veil for that he finds that protection for that this is the secret weapon of God that he is in charge of protecting while our lady and and Christ is vulnerable he's there protecting keeping them secret keeping it safe you know I just think of that that those those words and what he has a saintly figure really is offering for us a great model that maybe we'll never get noticed you know and even in Scripture there's there's some notice but there's not a lot of tension there and that's for so much of us as Christians particularly for some men you know as we look at our lives it's that hidden life that simple things that day-to-day things that keep that mysteries safe and that's what a beautiful image of a husband would be for st. Joseph to his wife to have that protection of her that's right oh no there's just something very profound and beautiful about that you're using that word protection over and over and it's precisely the aspect of st. Joseph that Pope Francis brought out in his inaugural homily he was inaugurated as Pope on the feast of Saint Joseph Pope Francis also carries in his coat of arms a symbol of Saint Joseph this nard as a symbol of Saint Joseph Pope Francis has spoken quite a bit about Saint Joseph but he focuses specifically on that aspect of protection how we need to protect our own spiritual lives our interior lives as you're also speaking about our hidden life with the Lord as st. Joseph protects his marriage his wife his child and then Pope Francis also leads us already in that inaugural homily to protecting the environment and and having that dimension but I even the word protection I think brings back to this image of the veil which I find to be so beautiful protection a tech dose is a roof and a protecto sis is a roof in front of like a veil and a veil is something that hides but also reveals when we see a veil on a tabernacle or a veil on a chalice or a veil on a nun or a veil on a bride if you don't know what you're looking at you're tempted to just look away that's what a veil does it protects from harm those who don't know what they're looking at but if you do know what you're looking at it actually helps us to look through the physical reality to the supernatural the mystical reality and we see something even more beautiful there we're able to see the essence of that beauty which might not be fully revealed by the physical so veils lead us into that deeper insight into that deeper understanding of what they're covering and that's really what st. Joseph does for us in the Holy Family those who don't know what they're looking at they walk right on by so they don't desecrate they don't damage the Holy Family but those who do know what they're looking for and looking at Joseph leads us even more deeply into that mystery he is the one who really guards the mystery once again you said something that I think wants that he cries out to be reinforced the idea of veiling is so often misunderstood in our culture because of other traditions that use veiling to kind of symbolize you know property for women our property when they're veiled but in fact in Judaism that which is veiled is that which is holy as you indicate you know the temple was veiled the bride was veiled our Tabernacles are veiled and so it is meant to conceal and at the same time reveal that which is holy you know and so even the word apocalypsis literally means the unveiling and we see the climax of the apocalypsis as the unveiling of the Bride of Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb and so when I when I think about Joseph in relationship to Mary I can't help but wonder if we are called to recognize you know I'm thinking of you Mike and as well as me we're both entrusted with women who are much more virtuous that is very very June and and we could sit back and just compare ourselves and say oh she makes me look bad or we could say God you've entrusted Kimberly to me Wow yeah and and I and I realized what a what a sacred gift a life is in general but in my case specifically in yours as their case as well or so yeah and in Joseph's case I mean it's off the charts okay well if something went wrong and a whole a family who's going to get blamed that's right I mean you got the immaculate version you got the son of God who's the fault of individual growth and humility what we mentioned something too about the age of Saint Joseph which is typically portrayed in my lifetime as the old st. Joseph the the the older man what where does that tradition come from and are there different opinions if you will on that well Sean brought something out a little bit earlier about the way that we are tempted to map our own weaknesses on the figures in the Bible on the saints that we imagine somehow it protects the virginity of Mary that she is entrusted to a guardian who is an old widower and is beyond the capability capacity to lust and so therefore we can imagine she remained a virgin her whole life more easily because she's with this old man which seems a little creepy to me actually that there's this marriage between this young girl and this old man but that's the tradition that developed especially in the in the Eastern Church because there was such an emphasis and again a desire a good desire to protect the virginity of Mary in the West under st. Jerome first of all and then carried on by st. Agustin an area that they agreed on wonderfully the image of st. Joseph as a young man who was also a virgin and entered into this marriage and through the greatness of his virtue a virtue of chastity was able to reverence and protect the virginity of Mary in an even more beautiful way than simply an old man would who was a kind of caretaker right and so this insight is dr. Hahn mentioned a little bit earlier of the virginal fatherhood of st. Joseph is I think a more beautiful way to say that even foster father carries the the connotation of an accident there's a foster father when something has gone wrong when a father has been lost or as missing or as abandoned then a foster father wonderfully and beautifully but not intentionally steps in but there's nothing accidental about st. Joseph's fatherhood a real fatherhood as st. Augusta makes the distinction in the order of grace rather than just in the order of nature through a conjugal fatherhood not just a natural fatherhood and John Paul speaks of Mary's motherhood according to the spirit and so likewise st. Joseph's fatherhood is not according to the flesh but according to the spirit and when we look at that I think we recognize that you know fatherhood even in our natural families is not reducible to the biological you know the the greatest part of fatherhood is instilling life and values and truth and love and if that's true with the natural level according to flesh how much truer is it for st. Joseph as well yeah so if we look at some of the virtues prudence that comes to mind when we think of st. Joseph you know how we're looking at husbands and fathers right you know thinking of different models that st. Joseph he's a model of virtue for us either prudence or other virtues that you see really drawn out in the life of st. Joseph and how that might apply to husbands and fathers in particular certainly st. Joseph is a model of humility and obedience as we've discussed certainly a model of prudence and prudence has a quality of veiling as well to veil the mystery to be able to see things as they are and to choose the good in a situation and clearly he was interested in choosing the good his righteousness his justice is also mentioned by Scripture and so he's also obedient to the law we see opening up in st. Joseph and these are some of the qualities that st. John Paul the second brings out in his beautiful exhortation on st. Joseph that his interior life his sensitivity to the mysteries his his prayer and also his life as a worker he's a laborer and he understands the the value of of labor he has the the virtue of industriousness and he's able to impart some of these things also in the and the human level to his son that's so true essentially you know in Joseph's peepers treatment of prudence in his book the four cardinal virtues he shows Aquinas and how he explains prudence prudence EA as an aspect of providencia that to be providential means to provide and to be sort of aware of all of the relevant circumstances so that you're providing for all of the needs and so st. Joseph is prudent he's chased he's prayerful he's a protector but I think that provision that he makes not only for the material well-being of the Holy Family in Egypt or in Bethlehem you know but across the board you know the the spiritual as well as the physical he's providing the role model he is mentoring his son you know who's the son of the carpenter even that term carpenter TEKT ona's is you know some have suggested that you could almost translate that engineer because it wasn't just wood work you know Nazareth was so close to Sephora swear the massive construction project was going on for decades and so it's most likely the case that his Mason skills his woodworking his engineering abilities were all being tapped in that kind of work as well yeah yeah the strong silent Saint Joseph who's a industrious worker right technical stay with us for the third segment of Franciscan University presents I am the coordinator of the household at Franciscan University known as the apprentices of st. Joseph's next to people as as awesome as Jesus and Mary Joseph his is the little guy in the Holy Family and no one really considers the fact that that he was chosen just as specifically by God for this task for being part of the Holy Family as was Mary while I was drawn to this household was because my father always you know told me that's you know st. Joseph is the model of manhood and if I'm ever having trouble to turn to Saint Joseph and I really took that to heart and once when I read that part of the Covenant that just that that struck deep within me and there wasn't really any other choices after that I was I wanted to become an apprentice of st. Joseph to increase spiritually and in my manhood welcome back to Franciscan University presents this entire program springs forth from the very heart of Franciscan University in Steubenville Ohio we're taping the show in our studio in Steubenville Ohio the students are running the cameras and the equipment our panelists our professors here at the university father we've been we've been talking about st. Joseph and we've talked about a couple different layers from Scripture and tradition about how he is really a model for poor Christians in general but husbands and fathers particularly in kind of unveiling even the mystery of st. Joseph if you will but how is Saint Joseph a model for priests as a priest what would you say to that the founder of saints of peace who inaugurated the seminary movement in response to the Council of Trent Monsignor olier entrusted the seminarians at cents apiece to st. Joseph because he said the the seminarians future priests will be like st. Joseph's involved in the virginal begetting of Christ in souls and I think that's a beautiful perspective for us to take dr. Hahn mentioned the spiritual fatherhood of st. Joseph a little bit earlier and that's what we as priests do we don't have physical children but we do become spiritual fathers of so many and learning that from st. Joseph is so important likewise st. Joseph had to model had fatherhood had to teach Jesus about being a man not based on his own example so much as based on the example of God the Father st. Joseph had to be for Jesus a model of God the Father and that's what we're also called to do as priests as priests were sinners were failures were a weak were limited in so many ways and yet were entrusted with the mysteries to preach the gospel and to administer the Eucharist the forgiveness of the sacrament of confession really to make God the Father present to his people in a way that st. Joseph also had to do that's beautiful about the vision of the seminary the soul patients who were interested with so many seminaries because you know a seminaries not a monastery it's not a university it is a seminar ium it's a seedbed where men are taught to inseminate spiritually and supernaturally and what a model for that sort of you know I was just reminded a moment ago of what we were saying a in a previous segment that Jerome back in the fourth century came against how videos you know who was questioning the perpetual virginity of Mary and positing that Joseph was an old man who you know and and he debunked all of this you know and it's interesting as Jerome is going against hell videos railing as he does you know it's taken three and a half centuries for somebody to come up with you know everybody speaks against this and in the process you know Jerome is also pointing out that the brothers and sisters of Jesus are as near as kinsmen what we would call cousins but if that's all you have they would call you would call them brothers and sisters but Jerome also just goes through all of the criticisms all of the theology and goes right to how Mary and Joseph are a model for us and I think that's something we have to remember for seminarians and priests but also for husbands and fathers you know st. Francis DeSales describes the the Holy Family as the earthly Trinity you know every other family was broken from Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel on salvation history is a survey of wreckage in ohms especially but the Holy Family is where family succeeds and it really is a living image of the Holy Trinity but not just in some speculative abstract way but in the concrete virtues you know and when you go down the litany of Saint Joseph you realize wow they're like rungs in the ladder by which we can ascend as men and overcome lusts and anger and all of these weaknesses as well and every father yeah I was going to say as priests as religious both of you and I are encouraged to foster a devotion to Mary the Marian devotion which is so important to help us to live out our lives and certainly seminarians would be encouraged to do that as well but I don't think you can foster that devotion to Mary without considering the role that Joseph played in all of her life and enabling by his actions her to be able to live out her devotion as well her dedication her yes so Joseph's yes is just as important to us in encouraging us to be those spiritual fathers to embrace that humility that all of our lives are about as priests as religious and in responding to what God is asking of each and every one of us every day of our lives his Marian consecration was first yeah yeah that's right yeah that's better than any of us that's Billy st. Joseph was profoundly devoted to our lady and our lady also as the type and figure of the church as the Second Vatican Council says as the church's perfection in heaven st. Joseph is profoundly devoted to the church and it's why blessed Pius the 9th declared him the patron of the universal Church we have lots of patrons for lots of different things but Saint Joseph is the only patron for the universal Church and they're also he's a great example for priests and for all Christians to have a great love for the church as Joseph loved Our Lady we should also learn to love the church with that same devotion and trust and dedication and the route of patron is Potter you know so it really is a an exercise of a spiritual fatherhood as paternity that's beautiful we often hear of st. Joseph we've kind of alluded to it already as the patron of happy death you know it's often seen with the the lily or the the tulip I don't know what though the flower but what does that mean for us where does that devotion spring and how do we kind of play into that if you will their sins wrong devotion some beautiful images of st. Joseph accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus at the moment of his death she on one side and Jesus on the other side and as Father Shawn was indicating about Saint Joseph and his devotion for Our Lady as a model for us it's looking and trying to live out the example of st. Joseph that we also want to do in this regard we want to be like st. Joseph dying between Mary and Jesus and she is the one whose intercession can lead us to that st. Joseph well a happy death is also one of the signs of the transforming union as we develop that union with Jesus which pervades our whole life that really the will of God becomes our will and we're living this out moment by moment then death becomes not such a wrenching from this life what becomes a more natural step yet one more step of obedience to the will of God and Saint Joseph who is so obedient to the will of God was then able to enter into death as one more step walking from life to eternal life over the threshold entrusting his life into the arms of God accompanied again by the presence of Jesus by the prayers of Mary that is beautiful well we've talked about Our Lady and the devotion to Our Lady has been you know we've documented and seen evidence of it going back to the first century of the church when we look at the devotion of st. Joseph obviously as you kind of alluded to before there was obviously an emphasis on our lady here Immaculate Conception and so forth that would really protecting the divinity and humanity of Christ with st. Joseph it's the devotion do we have evidence of when that began or how that kind of unfolded in the life of the church well as I mentioned already the at the beginnings of the church church fathers were writing about st. Joseph and so he was certainly on their minds and part of their discussions and reflections the feast of st. Joseph as a liturgical celebration really started first emerging about the end of the first millennium that around a thousand ad the the church the the Feast began to spread in some different places it wasn't until following the Council of Trent that that feast became universalized in the Missal of pius v and then st. joseph seems to do well with councils at the beginning of the first Vatican Council was when blessed Pius the 9th declared him patron of the universal church and then at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council we could actually say it's the first concrete act of the Second Vatican Council Saint John the 23rd added him to the Roman canon which had not been changed in a thousand years and placed him above all of the other Saints listed in the Roman canon right after Our Lady right and so we have in st. Joseph the greatest man Oh purely man not man God purse a human person who ever lived next to the greatest saint Our Lady yes who ever lived and that marriage then is placed in front of us and now we have starting with Pope Benedict whose baptismal name is Joseph and then that process concluded under Pope Francis the incorporation of Joseph's name and the other three Eucharistic prayers as well so he's really risen in prominence dr. Han mentioned a little bit earlier that Teresa of ávila was a real instrument by which she raised and rose in prominence as well and she gives us a model of how we can turn to Joseph because she turned to him when she lost her father and she had such a love for her human father and when her human father went to God she turned to Saint Joseph to be a father for her and I think that's a very practical takeaway for us to look to st. Joseph as a father we live in a time where there are absentee fathers whether everybody's father is a sinner everybody has a broken father in one way or another even those of us who with wonderful fathers as I can say I have myself don't have a perfect father Saint Joseph is a perfect father and so the wherever our own fathers left holes bigger little st. Joseph's can really fill in those holes for us he can reef honor us even in our experiences our history and and also continuing in our present so when you think about devotion to st. Joseph you know too many come to mind about selling your home and what you might do with a statue of st. Joseph is that a licit devotion or what would you propose as more appropriate devotions to st. Joseph why think turning to st. Joseph as a father who provides as dr. Hahn mentioned earlier that he provides for all of our needs st. Joseph's did a bit of moving I don't know if that's where the devotion to selling was through st. Joseph he left by night in obedience to the angel and had to find a new home in Egypt and relocated several times but we can really turn to him with all of our needs that's what we see in him being the patron of the universal church he can provide for anything that the church needs spiritual and material needs spiritual and material needs certainly in addition to all we've talked about with Joseph being a protector and a model for fatherhood and being able to care for the Holy Family in a very special way we also have Joseph as the model the the patron of workers as well yes and and so much is developing in later years of a whole theology of work looking to Joseph as that perfect example of being a faithful son of the there but also being able to be out there in the world embracing the work as a way of giving glory to God through the things that we do in the world today yeah he's got a great devotion or elevates the dignity of work as a profound way but gives us a model of holiness mister that you know as a supernumerary an Opus Dei I hear a lot about st. Joseph from the writings of st. Jose Maria but there's one teaching in particular in st. Joseph's workshop where the work of st. Joseph was excellent but it was hidden nobody noticed you know and yet God did and that's enough and so as we apply ourselves and are attentive to details and pursuit of excellence it isn't for the applause of others it really is for the pleasure of God and I I think st. Joseph is a great model in that respect as well yeah yeah and I think there's there's always the need to separate any superstition of burying the Saint I just want to be very plain that is that is really superstition right of burying is that without a firm but the two house two houses have sold against all odds I won't say whether or not I did it but as you were saying in the break you know st. Francis it's not just for pet st. Anthony is not just for lost things you know yes st. Joseph's is not just to sell houses as come on but you know st. Anthony I go to him when I feel like I've lost my temper or when I've lost my patience or when I've lost my first love and I think the Saints are you know you know to provide for your family and especially in financial crisis or in between jobs st. Joseph understands those sorts of things in ways that aren't superstitious that's right that's a there's beauty to that and we need to realize that God does care about all those other details and those Saints are there for us to be our intercessors and they usually help us get our mind right and then maybe other practical things as well but usually it's getting our heart and mind in union with the Almighty I think another very important role for st. Joseph in our time is in regard to his chastity he lived with the most beautiful woman in the world who ever existed and he was perfectly chaste which didn't make him cold and distant in prudent he didn't have to be an old man he could see her beauty and reverence her beauty and protect her beauty and not use her and not defile her in not intimidate her threaten her he was able to truly reverence her femininity and so chastity is something that didn't shut down his heart but brought it even more fully alive which cultivated and even more intense and bright love between them the love between virgins remained that first love that captivates and sweeps so many off their feet could be said to be the love that was existing for their entire marriage so st. Joseph has a lot to teach us and help us in intercede for us in terms of chastity is not the lot the the lack of attraction you know it's this capacity to love so st. Joseph was attracted to her but he loved her even more because it was chastity not less yeah a virginal lover that I mean it's not just the full of passion full of control full of all of that when you think of it I mean our lady is full of grace would she not be passionate and loving towards her husband let alone our child I mean all of that coming through again as a father talked about earlier just we too many times pre or impose our own view our own fallen nature but at our best moments that that probably gives the glimpse of what that love must have been like stay with us for the final segment of Franciscan University presents as a member of the apprentices of st. Joseph I wear this cord to symbolize the Seven Sorrows and seven joys of st. Joseph's as he was protecting the Holy Family and as he was helping them throughout their lives and it also symbolizes my own seven sorrows and seven joys as I went through my own intent process to become a member and also throughout my life I do a daily devotion prior to Saint Joseph and in the prayer I ask him while he's holding baby Jesus to press him in my name and ask him to return to kiss when I draw my dying breath explore the treasures of your Catholic heritage on a Franciscan University pilgrimage led by inspiring spiritual directors you'll walk in the footsteps of saints and martyrs in the Holy Land Poland France and Italy and you'll deepen your love for Jesus Christ through daily mass confession prayer and the joy of christian fellowship led Franciscan University lead you on a pilgrimage of faith find out more at Franciscan edu slash pilgrimages welcome to the final segment of Franciscan University presents we've been talking about st. Joseph's father Sean could you start us off sure as we've been sitting here today I've been thinking about the role of st. Joseph in my own life and goes all the way back to when I was a child probably once before that time my mother actually grew up in a parish under the protection of st. Joseph and as a child she was so much fostered in that devotion in love for st. Joseph she was actually married in that same church to my father by a Benedictine monk it's coincidentally on what it says about me being a Franciscan resident Benedictine but as a child that devotion continued in my home to be fostered amongst our my older brothers and sisters and myself the statue of st. Joseph the the picture of st. Joseph with the Holy Family certainly and it was a very important part of the spirituality that I had growing up and then when I was or being formed to be a priest a religious my first parish assignment was actually in a church under the protection again of st. Joseph a different one so st. Joseph keeps coming up in my own life and really trying to help me to understand and appreciate as we talked about today the various different roles that st. Joseph has in the life of a priest the life of every person who is a Christian who is a follower of his foster son of Jesus himself and the need that we have to continue to emulate st. Joseph to look to him as one who is an example for us but also one who continues to lead others closer to Christ through our own actions who our own humility through our own willingness to be obedient to whatever is asked of us all of those things we don't do for ourselves but we do that to draw ourselves but also others closer to Christ and I think that's a beautiful thing that we need to continue to foster amongst ourselves and all those people that God sends into our lives thank you for Scott yeah well I mean I'm in the middle of a novena to st. Joseph but not just for nine days it became a 54 day novena and I think it's about 200 days now I just keep recycling this as I have all of the concerns that I have personally and privately but I entrust as a father and as a father-in-law and as a grandfather and as a godfather all of my kids all of my in-laws all of our grandkids and all of our god children to st. Joseph every day and since that time so many graces I mean there's a conspicuous before and after picture that heaven sees that no one else you know can see but it reminds me too of in the late 90s when my oldest son had reached the mid-teens and we had a crisis in our family and it was between him and mom but it was even between him and me and he had always been close and then communication break down just shut down altogether and I could tell he was mad at me for various and sundry reasons and then he went to pick me up at the airport right after he'd gotten his driver's license and we got to talking and in a drive home I shared with him the kind of thing that he needed to hear me say and then suddenly he got quiet which is not typical for Hon males he just said you know it was so bad dad you know I'm like I know no you don't you know any he mentioned that about a week and a half before it had gotten so hard for him he was so ticked off at me then he went to confession I'm like well thank God you know what to do do that that's not the point dad you know the priest tried to assure me that you love me that you respect well I do I didn't feel it I didn't feel the love you know so he asked me for penance if I would do a novena I'm sure you've done novenas before you know my parents do I'm not so he gave me a novena to st. Joseph to pray for you especially you know look well that's beautifully so that's not the point that he pulled it out today's the ninth day and the reconciliation that we experienced that evening has I mean we've had we've had issues but we've never looked back I mean it just fostered a friendship a father and son that we still share more deeply and I blame st. Joe's novena and I just say keep recycling it yeah yeah that is great father we've done a lot of discussing about st. Joseph's and theological perspectives and these theological statements I think are very important that we can say st. Joseph's is the greatest Saint next to Our Lady that he's tender that he's understanding that he's a great father that he's a great husband those things are important for us to understand and thrash out some of the theological territory but then it's so important for us to take that into our prayer and to come to know st. Joseph personally and that's been a great transformation in my own life coming from nothing into the church I first of all had to develop a devotion to Our Lady I remember praying very explicitly as I was coming into the church Mary I know that you're really important for Catholics and I don't really know you can you help me to know you nine months later I was making the 33 day de Montfort consecration she answers those prayers and I had a similar experience with Saint Joseph actually while I was making my diaconate retreat I was praying in a chapel where there was a statue of Saint Joseph holding the the Child Jesus and I realized I don't really know you st. Joseph and so I began praying at that time I worked for Our Lady I figured it probably will work for Saint Joseph just asking him Saint Joseph can you help me to know you I want to know you more and thus began began a process that I started meeting people and receiving different graces and insights and reading more texts actually had a nice conversation with dr. Hahn at that time and he's the one that told me about Joseph's ology as a matter of fact and gave me an impetus to look into those things but I think that's would be a good takeaway for our listeners as our viewers as well as just to ask st. Joseph to have a deeper relationship with him one of the things that I like about that proposed doctrine of st. Joseph's bodily presence in heaven is that he does have a body and so he's also one that can hold us we can bring him into our past hurts we can look to him for his fatherhood we can ask him to teach us a deeper reverence for femininity we can ask him to teach us how to care better for our own families st. Joseph's has so much to teach us and deform in us if we're willing to develop a more personal relationship with him and that's great thank you Father if you've enjoyed today's program we have a handout for you that father Boniface wrote here blessed be st. Joseph her most chaste spouse you can get this at faith and reason com or just for asking we'll send it off to you as we look at st. Joseph's I first I just want to call out to the men and challenge you as husbands as fathers as grandfathers to look to st. Joseph and the first virtue in my mind that comes up is his humility maybe you feel weak maybe you feel inept maybe you feel like I do that my wifeís has so many more great gifts and talents and even holiness than I but take that humility and recognize it and recognize that st. Joseph like the Centurion said Lord I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof and in that humility recognize that you aren't worthy but to embrace that and to recognize that you're not worthy of your wife or your child you're not worthy of these great gifts but Saint Joseph wasn't either in his weakness and his apparent you know fragility he turned to God and the second virtue that I think he had that we need to instill is confidence in the Almighty he knew his weakness better than maybe we fully understand ours because I believe he had a special grace to understand his own weakness and he relied on God the moment the angel spoke he went he followed because he knew God's God's grace was greater than any of his weaknesses and so if we start with that as all Christians start with that sense of humility that Lord I'm not worthy but then fall right on the great confidence in God because he can do all things in us and that those two great gifts st. Joseph will lead you on your path well I want to invite you right now to join Franciscan University's mission which is educating and evangelizing and sending forth joyful disciples could you join us here on our campus maybe to get an education and a degree maybe through our online program maybe it's coming to one of our dynamic summer conferences or joining us on our pilgrimages to holy shrines around the world and visit the home of st. Joseph whatever it might be or go into faith and reason and being equipped for the new evangelization great videos and talks at faith and reason comm that you can listen and grow deeper in your faith and be more equipped to share the good news with your friends and and father Boniface could you close us with your blessing through the intercession of Our Lady and st. Joseph may Almighty God bless you the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit download the free handout on today's topic go to faith and reason com email your request for the handout to presents at Franciscan ddu at faith in reason com you can also purchase past episodes of Franciscan University presents or request today's free hand out and purchase past programs by calling 888 three three three zero three eight one that's eight eight eight three three three zero three eight one or call seven four zero two eight three six three five seven you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 63,162

Rating: 4.9183674 out of 5

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franciscan University of Steubenville (College / University), Franciscan University Presents, Presents, EWTN, Eternal Word Television Network, Michael Hernon, Fr. Sean O. Sheridan TOR, Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Boniface Hicks OSB, St. Vincent Seminary, WAOB, We Are One Body Radio, St. Joseph, Holy Family, josephology

Id: ysPHlMCKikM

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 02 2016