Glorious Saint Joseph,

our Model

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters, we are gathered here to celebrate the feast of glorious Saint Joseph. This year is a special one for us, because four hundred years ago, Canada was consecrated to Saint Joseph by Father Joseph Le Caron, accompanied by some Franciscans, in the presence of the governor, Samuel de Champlain, the representative of the King of France, and a few settlers and natives. The ceremony took place in great simplicity. We would be amazed at how much Heaven loves these little gestures, made under the eye of God for His glory, for Him alone. And these little acts – the humblest, simplest acts – are ratified by Heaven. The year 2020 marked the 150 th anniversary of the proclamation by Pope Pius IX of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. On this day dedicated to him, we would like to take this opportunity to honor him also by that great title. What, then, is this plan of Divine Providence which puts Canada under the patronage of Saint Joseph, even before the Church was officially placed under his protection? And what is this mysterious design of Providence which wills that the Church be renewed, here on Canadian soil, under the high patronage of Saint Joseph?

Representative of God the Father

After the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph is the greatest Saint that ever passed on the earth. It is generally believed that Saint Joseph was sanctified from his mother’s womb, in anticipation of the great mission for which he was destined: to be the visible father of the Son of God Himself, of the Incarnate Word. His association with the Work of the Holy Trinity is totally singular, unique, unparalleled. His close bonds with each one of the Persons of the Trinity are mysteries which are difficult to grasp. However, we do know that God the Father communicated His paternity to humble Joseph, a little nobody, a simple carpenter, totally unknown, lost over there in Galilee. By what mystery did He want to entrust His Divine Son to him and give him the official title of Father of Christ? What is this mysterious bond that God Himself communicated to Saint Joseph? In order to understand this, let us go back to the early centuries of the Church, when certain heretics wanted to divide the Person of Jesus. There are two natures in Our Lord: divine nature and human nature, but there is only one indivisible Person. According to these heretics, the Virgin Mary was only the mother of the human person of Jesus. Saint Cyril of Alexandria rose up to defend Mary, Mother of God. That title is a dogma of faith, proclaimed by the Church in the Council of Ephesus in the year 431. The Virgin Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Mother of the Son of God, and therefore the Mother of God. And as far as the paternity of Saint Joseph is concerned, we see in him a visible reflection of the Paternity of God Himself, a role that has never been seen in the history of Creation. He is the father of the Word of God Incarnate, not by the will of man, nor by the will of the flesh, but by the Will of God Himself. What a mystery! And so it is with the Holy Spirit and Saint Joseph. The Word of God having been produced in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit, She is therefore the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. But Saint Joseph is also the Spouse of the Virgin Mary. What mystery in this personage – totally humble, totally hidden – and yet so closely united to the Holy Trinity! God wants to make us realize with Saint Joseph how His greatest designs go unnoticed and unknown to human eyes. When Jesus, during His public life, manifested Himself in the synagogue at Nazareth, the Gospel records the words of those who listened to Him: “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Joseph the carpenter?” Jesus is considered to be nothing great because he is the son of Joseph, an insignificant man. That is what is understood by this comment. Let us draw a little parallel. When Saint Joseph was alive on earth, who could have imagined that the greatest events in Creation would gravitate around this little carpenter from Nazareth? Who could have suspected it, seeing this nobody, humanly speaking, performing the most obscure tasks? Again today, God is preparing unparalleled events, unique in the history of humanity. But then, take a look at the instruments that God has chosen for Himself... Let us look at ourselves, and we will see that what God went to seek is nothing great. As we contemplate these mysteries, it is as if Saint Joseph somehow becomes a patron for us, a more personal, intimate model. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was seen as a nobody. And yet!... except for the Holy Mother of God, no other creature has ever had a bond as close as Saint Joseph with the Most Holy Trinity. My God, how mistrustful we should be of our poor little mortal eyes! We evaluate our neighbor, our brother, a little like the inhabitants of Nazareth: “Oh, he is the son of the carpenter, how insignificant! He is not worth very much, it’s pathetic.” How wary we must be of the perception of our human senses, which understand nothing of the ways of God! This is why, in the last verse of the hymn to Saint Joseph composed by Saint Louis Mary de Montfort, we ask him to obtain for us a very great gift: Divine Wisdom. – Saint Joseph, obtain for us the gift of Divine Wisdom, that we may have a little understanding of the ways of God towards us, poor mortals. O Saint Joseph, you who were so intimately associated with Jesus, help us to understand, give us a little of this Divine Wisdom.

Preparation through fidelity

Saint Joseph was predestined for a unique and singular mission. How did God prepare him for the sublime role of being the Spouse of the Virgin Mary and the Father of Jesus? What trials, what sufferings must he have gone through? And what must have been his fidelity over the thirty-odd years of his life that preceded his engagement to the Virgin Mary? When God chooses a person and destines him to a high degree of sanctity, He puts him through trials and painful sufferings. We see this in the Lives of the Saints. We also see it personally in the holy people who are now at rest in our cemetery. There is God’s choice, but there is also a preparation in fidelity to answer His call. What was Saint Joseph’s journey in suffering, in humility, in silence? I like to imagine him as a young man seen through the eyes of other young people over in Galilee, in Palestine: modest, reserved, discreet, silent... People are hardly aware of his presence. He does everything he can to stay hidden, to avoid attracting attention, to go unnoticed. He succeeds so well that two thousand years after his lifetime, he remains a hidden Saint. How different we are from him! Creatures vitiated by original sin, scarcely do we begin to be aware of ourselves and already we want to show our little persona to the people around us. We are still very young, and we are already trying to prove our little talents; we display our physical strength, our agility, our bodily advantages, our intellectual capacities – which are, however, so mediocre! And parents favor this. How many sins – and some of the grossest ones – this vanity generates in us! Most Holy Trinity, we bless You, we adore You for the path that You wanted glorious Saint Joseph to follow in order to become the Spouse of the Virgin Mary. And you, glorious Saint Joseph, we praise you and we bless you for your fidelity in this preparation that God made in your soul, in your life, to become the Spouse of the Virgin Mary.

Trial of Saint Joseph

Predestined for a sublime mission, Joseph had to go through a trial. And what a trial! The Gospel presents it to us very briefly. When the Virgin Mary returned from visiting Her cousin Elizabeth, Joseph realized that his young Wife was carrying a child that was not his. What was the reaction of this Saint – so just, so perfect, so faithful to the precepts imposed by Mosaic Law and applied in following them to perfection under the eyes of God? What kind of silent, sorrowful, dumbfounded, stupefied prayer filled his soul? Joseph did not know where all this would lead him. He did not yet know the mission that was destined for him. But after the ordeal he found out. My brothers, my sisters, we have a little idea of our mission; we know that God wants us to work at saving His Church. But there is a lot that we do not know. On this solemnity of Saint Joseph, Joseph most faithful, let us invoke him: O good Saint Joseph, grant us your fidelity so that the designs of God upon His Church may be fulfilled. Imagine if Saint Joseph had started to get agitated, aggravated. His soul was suffering terribly, perhaps he was even distressed. What if he had externalized that distress? What if he had started talking while in the throes of emotion, of his extreme sorrow? What would have happened to God’s great plan? In the eyes of his compatriots, Saint Joseph was to be the guardian, protector and spouse of the Virgin Mary and the father of Jesus. What if he had said, “This is not my son!”... Imagine! There would have been no words more regrettable in all the history of humanity. What harm Joseph could have done with one word, whereas the most important event in history was unfolding before his very eyes! My God, very few souls know how to remain silent in times of trial! My God, my God! Our words come out so easily when we suffer, and we do not know the harm they can do! We say: “Oh, it is not the same thing. It is only Brother So-and-so. He is the one who made me suffer.” And we say all sorts of regrettable words about our neighbor. But how does God see that brother? My God, how do You see our words? Once again, I repeat with Saint Louis Mary de Montfort: Saint Joseph, grant us a great gift: Divine Wisdom. The wisdom of silence. The wisdom of suffering. To know how to suffer in silence. Today Saint Joseph is in the glory of Heaven. But the road to glory is suffering, silence, humility. Saint Joseph, teach us in our heart, in our soul. The message of the Angel put an end to this extreme ordeal: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary for your wife, for that which is conceived in Her is of the Holy Spirit. And She shall give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. For He is the One who shall save His people from their sins. He is the Messiah who will save the world. My brothers and sisters, Saint Joseph is our model. Look at how his mission was prepared. Contemplate his fidelity, his faithful suffering under the eye of God alone. God alone witnessed his fidelity. Everything took place in silence and extreme suffering.

The joys and sorrows of Saint Joseph

What a joy it was for Saint Joseph to learn of the Divine Maternity of his Spouse. The Son of God, promised from the beginning, was to be born of Mary; and he, Joseph, was to become the Father of the Child Jesus. The greater his trial had been, the more immense was his joy. This joy was mute, as his sorrow had been. Saint Joseph’s soul was charmed, overwhelmed with gladness under the eye of God. This was the joy – as much as a mortal can experience – of the paternity received from the Heavenly Father, far surpassing the joy of fathers in the order of nature. Saint Joseph was a descendant of Abraham. Like all his compatriots, he awaited the Messiah, the promised Redeemer. Initiated in the texts of Holy Scripture, he had some idea of what it meant to be the Redeemer. The Angel had said to him, He is the One who shall redeem men from their sins. God enlightened the prophets about the sufferings of the promised Redeemer – David and the prophet Isaiah among them – but how much more would He have instructed Joseph, who realized that little Jesus, his Son, was the Redeemer. The Holy Spirit enlightened him abundantly concerning His Passion that was to come, more than any other Saint except the Virgin Mary. By communicating His Paternity to him, God the Father placed an inconceivable love for the Child Jesus in his heart. Jesus became his Son, his child more than any other baby becomes the child of his parents by way of the flesh. Joseph possessed a sense of paternity that was unparalleled on earth. In the midst of the great joys he experienced in contemplating this Child as He grew and developed before his eyes, Saint Joseph, a man of silence and prayer, meditated on the Scriptures concerning the Redeemer. I am going to read you a few extracts from texts that Saint Joseph knew, beginning with Psalm 21 of David which precedes the prophet Isaiah. Put yourself in the context to imagine the immense sorrow that Saint Joseph experienced as he meditated on them. O God My God, look upon Me: why hast Thou forsaken Me? The words of My sins keep Me far from My salvation. – Jesus, his Child, comes to save men by bearing their sins. That is what John the Baptist would proclaim at the beginning of Jesus’ public life: Behold the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world. God enlightens Saint Joseph concerning all these great mysteries, He gives him the understanding of them. But the sorrow in his soul! This little Child comes to bear the sins of the world. When Joseph meditates on these words, how greatly he wants to live in perfection! How greatly he wants to be far from all sin, so that this Child – his Child! – may not suffer because of him. O My God, I shall cry by day, and Thou wilt not answer. – The Incarnate Word will become as a man forsaken by God. Clothed with our sins, He appears as an object of horror in the eyes of His Father. He is so rejected by God that His Father does not even seem to listen to His prayer. – I shall cry by day, and Thou wilt not answer; and by night, and I shall have no rest. But Thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel. In Thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and Thou hast delivered them. They cried to Thee, and they were saved: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. – As he reads this Psalm, Saint Joseph contemplates his God before him in visible form, in the humble little house in Nazareth. The greatest mysteries take place there, in silence, in prayer, in suffering. Saint Joseph’s suffering is all the greater because it is not selfish suffering. He suffers thinking about how much this God, who became his Child, will have to suffer for our Redemption. This extreme sorrow haunted Saint Joseph during all the years he lived in the world in the company of Jesus. If we could only see his soul in this sorrowful contemplation, made in reparation, compensation, consolation! Jesus said to us, “I am awaiting from you reparation, consolation, compensation.” We have the same mission as Saint Joseph. Throughout the childhood and adolescence of Jesus, and until his death shortly before Our Lord’s public life, that is what he did: reparation, compensation, consolation. In Thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them. They cried to Thee, and they were saved: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and not a man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. – Jesus, full of charm, grace and beauty, full of every virtue and every gift, will become like a worm: I am a worm. The adorable Child that Saint Joseph contemplates will be reduced to that point. This is how we, sinful men, will treat Him. This Child will become the reproach of men, the outcast of the people, the refuse of society, the refuse of humanity... All those who saw Me laughed Me to scorn: they spoke outrage with their lips, and wagged their heads. – They wagged their heads in contempt. – He hoped in the Lord, let Him deliver Him: let Him save Him, seeing that He delighteth in Him. For Thou art He that hast drawn Me out of the womb, Thou art My hope... From the womb, I was cast upon Thy lap. From My mother’s womb Thou art My God, depart not from Me. For tribulation is very near, and there is none to help Me. – Saint Joseph sees that his Child will come to this: no one is there to help Him. They have opened their mouths against Me, as a lion ravening and roaring. – This is what we contemplate on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. We see all the rabble who open their mouths like ravening lions, to destroy Our Lord. They defile Him in every way. I am poured out like water; and all My bones are dislocated. My heart hath become like wax melting in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue hath cleaved to My jaws; and Thou hast brought Me down into the dust of death. For many dogs have encompassed Me; the council of the malignant hath besieged Me. They have pierced My hands and feet, they have numbered all My bones. And they have looked upon and contemplated Me. – Mockingly, they destroyed Him. They tore Him apart with all sorts of tortures and torments, and then they looked upon Him and laughed. Vile scoundrels, they found their dirty work very amusing. That is what we humans do to the Son of God with our sins. They parted My garments amongst them, and upon My vesture they cast lots. But Thou, O Lord, remove not Thy help far from Me; look to My defense. Deliver, O God, My soul from the sword, and My One and Only from the power of the dog. Save Me from the lion’s mouth, and save My weakness from the horns of the unicorns. Isaiah follows the same idea. It is really striking to contemplate his words: There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness. And we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness, and we did not know Him... In quoting these prophecies, we penetrate a little into the mystery of Saint Joseph, who pondered these texts concerning the sufferings of his Child. Dear brothers and sisters, in this Holy Year, 2024, we would like to mention the two events that come together providentially: the 400 years of the Consecration of Canada to Saint Joseph and the 800 years of the stigmatization of Saint Francis. This is why We are making it a Holy Year of the contemplation of the Passion of Jesus. After the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph is the first great contemplator of the Passion. Throughout the years he spent in Jesus’ company, his main occupation was his work – in prayer, in contemplation, in suffering. Jesus revealed to Saint Brother André, as well as to other privileged souls: “What I love the most is when you contemplate My sufferings, My sorrows.” Brother André had this double devotion to Saint Joseph, and even more to the Passion of Jesus. It was like an entity in him, because he saw Saint Joseph as the first great contemplator of the sufferings of Jesus.

Decline and renewal

Monsignor Ignace Bourget, the Bishop of Montreal, observed a decline of fervor in his diocese. The faith was waning, religious practice diminishing. What did this holy bishop, enlightened by God, do? He issued a letter in which he asked all the parish priests to encourage devotion to Saint Joseph, in order to renew fervor in his diocese. And he obtained it. Multiplying his efforts, Bishop Bourget also used other means to revive the faith. Among other things, he summoned Monsignor Forbin-Janson, the Bishop of Nancy, inviting him to Canada several times to preach retreats in the parishes; this was of enormous benefit. But his first thought was to involve Saint Joseph. Young Alfred Bessette, the future Saint Brother André, grew up in this atmosphere. If Bishop Bourget observed a decline in the faith, a loss of religious fervour and practice, in the middle of the 19 th century, my goodness! what can be said about our times! We have gone far, very far, we are well advanced; we are falling into the bottom of the abyss. That holy bishop had found only one good formula: devotion to Saint Joseph. This remedy is still relevant today. We know that Jesus is coming to renew the face of the earth. For the Incarnation of the Word of God, the greatest event that ever took place on earth, Saint Joseph comes first, then the Virgin Mary, then comes the Messiah: the world is saved. Do you understand the parallel? That is why Divine Providence wanted a special celebration of the 400 th anniversary of the consecration of Canada to Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. Saint Mary of the Incarnation, who came from France to establish the Ursuline Sisters in Quebec City, had previously received a significant vision. Above an immense country – which she would later learn was Canada – she saw Saint Joseph, who was guarding the place. In the distance, lost deep in the forest, was a tiny little church, shining its light upon the whole world. God wants to save the world. He wants to manifest His Son to the world. Jesus is going to be known, loved and served as never before in all the history of humanity. The Virgin Mary has the paramount role of making us know, love and serve Jesus, but very close to Her, as a will of God, stands Saint Joseph. It is for this reason that we give him so much honor and glory today. We are invited by God to labor for this Work of salvation, and we owe Saint Joseph all devotion, respect, glory and praise, so that the Kingdom of Jesus, his Son, may come. Like Saint Joseph, let us contemplate the sorrows of Jesus. Like him, let us live our trials, small and great, beneath the eye of God, in fidelity and silence. Communicate to us, Saint Joseph, this great gift of Divine Wisdom which you possessed so abundantly.

Go to Joseph!

In Sacred History, we read how God prepared Joseph, the son of Jacob, to become salvation at the time of the tribulation that was to strike Egypt and all the surrounding area. When the calamity struck, during the years of drought and famine, the people flocked to the Pharaoh of Egypt asking for help. And he replied, Go to Joseph. He will solve your problems. He will give you food and everything you need. The earth is currently subject to immense, extreme calamities. The little calamities of Egypt were merely figures of these. And God gives us this great personage, glorious Saint Joseph. We repeat the words of Holy Scripture, Go to Joseph, he will settle your problems. Go to Joseph, contemplate him, imitate him, have his wisdom. Since he loves his Son Jesus, he is going to make Him loved. It is by loving and serving Jesus that all the problems will be solved. That is the grace I wish for you, my brothers and sisters. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.