St. Joseph links human touch to work of God

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Today he might have been a car mechanic. Maybe a handyman. Certainly, someone who always had dirt under his fingernails, whose clothes smelled of glue or grease.

On May 1, we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Workman. It is one of three major feasts of the church related to the stepfather of Jesus, along with several lesser memorials.

Joseph, the husband of Mary, is patron of the universal church and the patron of many specific groups including workers, both virgins and married people, and even house hunters.

While Joseph has always been honored by the church, specific devotions to him do not date as far back as one might think. This is partly because the earliest feast days of the church - after the feasts of the Lord - revolved around the martyrs, who had died giving public witness to their faith. Since tradition has always said that Joseph died before Jesus began his public ministry - in the presence of Mary and Jesus, which also makes him the patron of a happy death - Joseph's feasts developed slowly.

The first feast of St. Joseph - what we now celebrate on March 19 - was first observed by the Coptic Church (Egypt) by the fourth century. The feast of Joseph corresponded to the Nativity - the celebration of the Christmas feast dates to about the same time - and with the flight to Egypt marked on Dec. 26.

Today, in the Eastern churches, the feast of St. Joseph is celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas; in the Western church, that Sunday is devoted to the Holy Family (which includes Joseph).

In the West, St. Joseph's feast day is celebrated on March 19 because of a tradition that says he died on that date. This devotion was brought from the East by the Carmelites. Celebrations in March can be traced back on the Dominican calendar as well and were especially advocated by such 15th century saints as Bernardine of Sienna and Vincent Ferrer.

However, it was not until 1621 that the Pope Gregory XV made Joseph's day a universal feast day. And much later, on Dec. 8, 1870, Pope Pius IX declared Joseph to be the universal patron of the church.

The feast we mark on May 1 arose in the face of rising secularism and the aftermath of World War II. It was in the face of the spread of Communism, that Pope Pius XII declared the feast to St. Joseph the Worker in 1955. The feast day, set on May 1, coincided with May Day in the USSR, a celebration of labor. It was also Labor Day in many European countries. (There is also a votive Mass of St. Joseph that may be celebrated on any country's Labor Day holiday.)

Besides the two main feasts of St. Joseph - March 19 and May 1 - there are other feast days associated with his memory. (Also, the month of March is traditionally a month of devotion to him, as are all Wednesdays.) These other feasts include:

• The Feast of the Holy Family, on the Sunday within the octave of Christmas, or Dec. 30;

• The Feast of the Espousal of Mary and Joseph - Jan. 23, which is the feast day of St. Joseph in the Eastern Church. In the Western church, it can be traced back to 1416.

• The Flight into Egypt - various sources, including the Oblates of St. Joseph, cite celebrations of this event on Feb. 17. It was in liturgical calendars until church revisions of the General Roman Calendar in 1962. (Further revised in 1979.)

• Feast of the Holy Name - traditionally on the Sunday between Jan. 1 and Epiphany.

• Feast of the Circumcision - traditionally on Jan. 2.

• Patronage of St. Joseph - this is an older feast that Pius XII transferred to May 1 in 1955 and renamed. It was, from 1847 to 1955, celebrated on the Wednesday after the second Sunday after Easter. (There are earlier records of it dating back to at least the 17th century.)

Why so much devotion to Joseph? First, there is his closeness to Jesus. As Pope Pius XII said, "If you wish to be close to Christ, we again today repeat, 'Go to Joseph.'"

However, it is not just Joseph's closeness to Jesus that endears him to us, but also his closeness to us.

Joseph was just like us - he was a family man, he had few words (there are no quotes from him in all the gospel accounts), he was devoted to God (Matthew called him a righteous man - which meant he followed the Law of Moses), and he worked.

And perhaps it is because Joseph worked hard, that our own hard work takes on special meaning. It was Joseph who taught Jesus - the carpenter's son -about both manual labor and the value of the work of others. Pope John Paul II, in writing about St. Joseph in 1989, said that it was Joseph who brought "human work closer to the mystery of redemption."

But it was more than work - it was Joseph's littleness that makes him great, in the eyes of God and humanity. As Pope Paul VI said on March 19, 1969: "St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies; ... he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things - it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic."

So when we celebrate the work of St. Joseph this week, we should also celebrate our own work, for he showed us the "common, simple and human" work can bring us to the side of Jesus.