ST. JOSEPH, THE STEWARD OF THE NEW COVENANT

Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Blessed Virgin Mary.
Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Theme: St. Joseph, the Steward in the New Covenant

We celebrate the solemnity of St. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. From the readings before us, the Church prompts us to reflect on the faith of St. Joseph. Though the scriptures have little on him, the all-important role he played in the redemptive mission of our Lord says much about him. The central virtue of St. Joseph is his faith in God. If God found David faithful to be entrusted with the kingship of Israel while he was busy with his father’s flock in the bush, we judge Joseph’s faith similar or equal to none, for God to have found him worthy of being entrusted with his most treasured people. One can even say that he received the fulfilment of what God promised David as a reward for his faithfulness. “When your days are ended and you are laid to rest with your ancestors, I will preserve the offspring of your body after you and make his sovereignty secure. (It is he who shall build a house for my name, and I will make his royal throne secure forever.) I will be a father to him and he a son to me.” The son of David would build an eternal House for God, a people who would belong to God by their faith in God, was entrusted to the care of St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord. We are not wrong, therefore, to say that while David acted as a steward over the people of God—Israel that foreshadowed the Church of God—Joseph acted as a faithful steward of the real people of God by looking after the Holy Family of Nazareth. Because the House of God is an eternal reality, the stewardship of Joseph could be said to endure forever. 

The second reading prompts us to compare him to Abraham.  St. Paul presentation in his letter to the Romans brings out the faithfulness of Joseph. If Abraham inherited the world because of his faith in God and not because of any work he did, then how can we deny that the one who inherited heaven and the family of God here on earth was unique in his faith? “The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness which consists in faith.” St. Joseph must have excelled in this righteousness by faith for him to receive the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham. “Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised.” This righteousness from faith is what the scripture attested to concerning St. Jospeh in the gospel. “This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.” The angel God sent to reveal to him what God has done in Mary addressed him: ‘Joseph son of David.’ His role was truly Davidic in a real sense, for he was worthy to look after the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son Jesus Christ our Lord. We know of no other office more elevated than the office of the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Foster father of Jesus Christ on earth.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, that the prayer of St. Joseph may win for us the grace of faithfulness in our service to God, that we may be worthy to share his eternal happiness in heaven.

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