Solemnity of St. Joseph (2026)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel intercede for me.

The season of Lent is interrupted by the solemnity of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary. With the exception of Our Lady, there is no greater saint in heaven than St. Joseph. This feast originated in the 15th century and was then extended to the whole church in 1621. In 1847, Pope Pius IX named St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. Pope John XXIII had St. Joseph’s name included in the Roman Canon.

We are told in the entrance antiphon that the Lord has put his faithful servant in charge of his household. The household referred to in today’s entrance antiphon is none other than the Holy Family of Nazareth. God entrusted this treasure to St. Joseph, his faithful servant, who dedicated his entire life to their care. The Lord’s household can also be understood as the Church, which likewise looks to St. Joseph as a guardian and patron.

The first reading brings to mind the ancient promises made by God to his chosen people, which were then passed down from generation to generation. The coming of a just and powerful king. A good shepherd who will lead his flock to verdant pastures. The Redeemer who will save his people.

In this passage from the second book of Samuel, God announces to David that the Messiah will arise from his descendants. The Messiah will found an everlasting kingdom. It is through Joseph, we are told in the second reading from St. Paul to the Romans, that Jesus is the son of David. Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecies made from the time of Abraham.

With the incarnation, the promises and figures of the Old Testament become reality. Places, persons, events, and rites interrelate according to precise divine commands, communicated by angels and received by creatures who are particularly sensitive to the voice of God.

Our Lady is the Lord’s humble servant, prepared from eternity for the task of being the Mother of God. Joseph is the one who has the responsibility of looking after the Son of God’s ordained entry into the world in accordance with the divine dispositions and human laws. All of the so-called private or hidden life of Jesus, says St. John Paul, is entrusted to Joseph’s guardianship.

The Gospel of today’s mass places especial emphasis on the fact that Joseph was a member of the House of David. “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Matt. 1:16). Joseph is the patriarch of the New Testament. Here was an ordinary man to whom God granted extraordinary graces. Joseph was to fulfill the most singular mission in the salvific design of God.

He experienced indescribable joys along with the trials of doubt and suffering. We recall his perplexity at the mystery of Mary’s conception, at the extreme of material poverty in Bethlehem, at the prophecies of Simeon in the temple, at the hurried flight into Egypt, at the difficulties of having to live in a foreign land, at the return from Egypt and the threat posed by Archelaus. Joseph proved himself always faithful to the will of God.

He showed himself always ready to set aside his own human plans and considerations. The explanation for this remarkable fidelity is that Jesus and Mary were at the center of Joseph’s life. His self-giving is an interweaving of faithful love, loving faith, and confident hope.

His feast is a good opportunity for us to renew our commitment to the Christian calling that God has given to each one of us. In Christ is Passing By, St. Josemaría says, “When you sincerely desire to live by faith, hope, and love, the renewal of your commitment is not a matter of picking up again something neglected. When there really is faith, hope, and love, renewal means staying in God’s hands despite our personal faults, mistakes, and defects. It’s a confirmation of our faithfulness. Renewing our commitment means receiving our fidelity to what God wants of us; it means expressing our love in deeds.”

Let us ask the Holy Patriarch to help us to fulfill the will of God in everything. We pray that he will show us how to live out our commitments joyfully and without reservations. Our example will enlighten many others as to the true pathway to heaven.

In the communion antiphon, we are told, “Come, good and faithful servant, share the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25:21). St. Joseph would have heard these words upon his arrival in heaven. Hopefully, one day Our Lord will say those blessed words to each one of us if we persevere in our Christian vocation. This will happen in spite of our many stumbles and falls because we’ve had the humility and the courage to begin again. Fidelity to Our Lord is what gives meaning to our lives, no matter what our age or personal circumstances may be. We know that our earthly happiness depends upon our faith.

St. Joseph had his share of difficulties, but he always relied upon the help of God. He refused to deviate from his vocation. What else was his life if not a total dedication to the service for which he had been called? Husband of Our Lady, legal father of Jesus, he devoted his life to the attention he paid them, dedicated to fulfilling his vocation, the mission to which he had been called.

As a dedicated man is one who does not belong to himself, Joseph ceased to be concerned for himself from the moment when, enlightened by an angel in that first dream, he fully accepted God’s designs for him. One writer says, receiving Mary as his spouse, he began to live for those who had been placed in his care. God had entrusted him with his family, and Joseph did not disappoint him. God sought support in him, and he stood firm in every instance.

Fathers of families can learn from St. Joseph how to live for those who have been placed in their care, particularly to care for their souls and also their human well-being materially. God also counts on us, each one of us, for many things. We can’t let him down. We have to tell Our Lord that we want to be unswervingly loyal to what he wants of us, just as Joseph was in his life. We should examine ourselves as to how we can be more faithful in our personal conduct, in our apostolate, in our professional work.

In the prayer over the gifts we say, “Father, with unselfish love, St. Joseph cared for your Son, born of the Virgin Mary. May we also serve you at your altar with pure hearts.”

We have been preparing for this solemnity by means of the devotion of the Seven Sundays of St. Joseph. It is a good time for us to reflect on the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas concerning divine vocation. To those whom God calls for his work, he says, God provides the necessary preparation and graces so that they will be the ideal instruments for that work.

God’s fidelity is made manifest in an infinite variety of ways to help us fulfill our commitments. St. Joseph responded immediately to the countless graces that he received from God. We ought often to reflect in our prayer on the certainty that Our Lord will never let us down. He awaits our mature response, whether it be in youth, in adulthood, in old age, in good times or in bad. It is possible that we may not feel God’s presence at times, perhaps for a lengthy period. We may not feel drawn to God because we are full of ourselves.

In this kind of situation, fidelity to God requires interior recollection. Fidelity requires personal effort to overcome egoism and to begin again a life of prayer. God wants us to be full of love, alert, brimming over with initiatives. The heart of the Holy Patriarch was always alive with joy, even in the most difficult trials. We ought to ensure that our journey to God is as new and original as love itself.

We can ask St. Joseph today to give us a share in his youthful spirit. We can ask of him for the sake of those around us who might find thereby their road to Jesus.

Justice in the Old Testament was fidelity to the covenant. We read that Noah, Abraham, and Job were just men. In the book of Ezekiel, it says, “If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right, if he does not lift up his eyes to the idols, does not oppress anyone, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, he is righteous and just, says the Lord God” (Ezek. 18:5–9).

In the New Testament, St. Joseph is described as a just man. To be a just man means fidelity to God. God’s word made flesh. It includes all that God has commanded and wanted. It implies an attitude of total identification with God’s will. We are told in St. Matthew, but Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15).

Righteousness or justice has a very deep meaning in the Bible. It refers to the plan which God, in his infinite goodness and wisdom, has marked out for man’s salvation. Consequently, to fulfill all righteousness should be understood as fulfilling God’s will and designs. It could be translated as to fulfill everything laid down by God.

St. Joseph’s justice is manifested in readiness to do God’s will always. The supernatural instinct of doing things God’s way, a fruit of the sense of divine filiation.

Joseph considered Mary to be holy despite the signs that she was going to have a child. He was faced with a situation he could not explain. Precisely because he was trying to do God’s will, he felt obliged to put her away. But to shield her from public shame, he decided to send her away quietly. If he accused her to the religious authorities, she would have been stoned to death. If he had decided to give her a writ of separation, people, especially in that small village, would have wondered: what could she have done that her husband sent her away in such an abrupt manner so soon after being betrothed?

To take this step, said one writer, would amount to make her into a branded woman. He decided to send her away quietly. She would not be a rejected wife, but an abandoned wife. Not a woman marked by sin, but one marked by misfortune. Joseph would appear as the only guilty party. Being a just man, he took the decision that did the least harm to Our Lady, even if it was not the most suitable for himself.

Joseph’s justice is manifested in his doing things God’s way, despite the hardship involved for himself. Our Lady’s silence is admirable. Her surrender to God even leads her to the extent of not defending her honor and innocence. She prefers to suffer suspicion and shame rather than reveal the work of grace in her. What an example of discretion is given by the Mother of God. Not even to St. Joseph does she communicate the mystery. Ask Our Lady for the discretion that you lack.

To be just is not simply a matter of obeying rules. Goodness should grow from the inside. It should be deep and vital. Because “the just man lives by faith” (Hab. 2:4). These words, which later became a frequent subject of St. Paul’s meditation, really did apply in the case of St. Joseph. He didn’t fulfill the will of God in a routine or perfunctory way. He did it spontaneously and wholeheartedly. For him the law which every practicing Jew lived by was not a code or a cold list of precepts, but an expression of the will of the living God.

He knew how to recognize the Lord’s voice when it came to him so unexpectedly and so surprisingly. St. Joseph’s life was simple, but it wasn’t easy. After considerable soul searching, he learned that the son of Mary had been conceived through the Holy Spirit. This child, the Son of God, the descendant of David according to the flesh, was born in a cave. Angels celebrated his birth and distinguished people from different countries came to adore him.

But the king of Judea wanted to kill him and they had to flee. The Son of God was, it appeared, a defenseless child who would live in Egypt.

When relating these events in his Gospel, St. Matthew continually emphasizes Joseph’s faithfulness. He kept the commandments of God without wavering, even though the meaning of those commandments was sometimes obscure while the relation to the rest of the divine plan was hidden from him.

The Fathers of the Church and other spiritual writers frequently emphasize the firmness of Joseph’s faith. Referring to the angel’s command to flee from Herod and take refuge in Egypt, St. John Chrysostom comments: “On hearing this, Joseph was not shocked, nor did he say, ‘This is strange. You yourself made it known not long ago that he would save his people, and now you are incapable even of saving him. We have to flee, to set out on a long journey and spend a long while in a strange place; that contradicts your promise.’”

Joseph did not think in this way because he was a man who trusted God. Nor did he ask when he would return, even though the angel left it so vague: “Remain there until I tell you” (Matt. 2:13). Joseph does not object; he obeys and believes and joyfully accepts all the trials.

Joseph’s faith does not falter; he obeys quickly and to the letter. To understand this lesson better, we should remember that Joseph’s faith is active, that his docility is not passive. It is not a passive submission to the course of events. For the Christian’s faith has nothing whatever to do with conformity, inertia, or lack of initiative.

Joseph entrusted himself unreservedly to the care of God, but he always reflected on events, and so was able to reach that level of understanding of the works of God which is true wisdom. In this way, he learned little by little that supernatural plans have a logic which at times upsets human plans.

In the different circumstances of his life, St. Joseph never refuses to think, never neglects his responsibilities. On the contrary, he puts his human experience at the service of faith. When he returned from Egypt, learning that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. In other words, he had learned to work within the divine plan, and to confirm that he was doing the right thing, Joseph received an instruction to return to Galilee.

We can turn to the Holy Patriarch and ask him for all the virtues that we need to imitate him a little more in our family, in our commitment to our Christian vocation, in our apostolate, and in fulfilling all the plans that God has for our life.

I thank you my God for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW