The Creative Courage of St. Joseph

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, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

We’re told in the Book of Genesis, “But when all Egypt too began to feel the famine and the people appealed to Pharaoh for food, Pharaoh told the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you’” (Gen. 41:55).

There was famine all over the world, and Joseph opened all the granaries and rationed out grain to the Egyptians as the famine grew even worse in Egypt. People came to Egypt from all over the world to get supplies from Joseph, for the famine had grown severe throughout the world.

Jacob, seeing that there were supplies to be had in Egypt, said to his sons, “Why do you keep staring at one another? I hear,” he said, “that there are supplies in Egypt. Go down and procure some for us there, so that we may survive and not die” (Gen. 42:1-3). So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to procure grain in Egypt.

We're halfway through this Year of St. Joseph, a special year given to us, possibly the only year in the whole of our life that will be dedicated to St. Joseph, a special fruit of the Pontificate of Pope Francis, now recovering in hospital.

And we're halfway through this special year. It's a good moment for us to take stock and see how we are living this year of St. Joseph and to begin again in our devotion to him.

The Holy Father, in his letter for this year, ‘With the Father's Heart,’ Patris Corde, (8^th^ December 2020) about the Year of St. Joseph, has said that popular trust in St. Joseph is seen in the expression, ‘Go to Joseph,’ which evokes the famine in Egypt when the Egyptians begged Pharaoh for food.

In return, Pharaoh replied, “Go to Joseph and what he says to you, do” (Gen. 41:55). Pharaoh was referring to Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was sold into slavery because of the jealousy of his brothers. We've been reading this story in the Mass in the past few weeks, a very beautiful story. Joseph, according to the biblical account, subsequently became the Viceroy of Egypt.

“As a descendant of David (Matt. 1:20), from whom stock Jesus was to spring according to the promise made to David by the prophet Nathan (cf. 2 Sam. 7), and as the spouse of Mary of Nazareth, St. Joseph stands at the crossroads between the Old and the New Testaments” (Patris Corde, para. 1).

We can look again at Joseph, a model of so many virtues.

The Holy Father in his letter ‘With the Father's Heart’ talks about the creative courage of Joseph. A rather beautiful phrase; “he was a creatively courageous father.”

And, he says, “If the first stage of all true interior healing is to accept our personal history and embrace even the things in life that we did not choose, we must now add another important element: creative courage” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

We all need courage, we need creative courage. We could ask St. Joseph if we might be able to show the same ‘creative courage’ by facing with initiative, the challenges of our apostolic tasks—the same ‘creative courage’ that he showed on so many occasions.

And this creativity and this courage, emerge particularly when we're faced with difficulties, when we have to think out of the box, relying a little more on supernatural means than humans, when we've used all the human.

“In the face of difficulty, we can either give up and walk away, or we can somehow engage with it” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

When Joseph was faced with all the doors in Bethlehem closed in his face, he didn't walk away, didn't give up, didn't throw his hat on the ground, and said, “Well, I'm going home.” He knew there must be a solution. God must have some other plan here.

St. Josemaría says in his homily, In Joseph's Workshop, “he showed initiative and responsibility in all that he was asked to do” (Point 40). Faced with difficult problems, he solved difficult situations.

Joseph began to look for a solution. And because he looked for a solution, he found the stable in Bethlehem, and that was where it was the will of God for the Christ Child to be born.

“At times,” says the Holy Father, “difficulties bring out resources we did not even think we had” We grow in the face of difficulties. Maybe that's sometimes why Our Lord permits the difficulties” (Patris Corde, para. 5). We need to be stretched to develop our talents.

“As we read the infancy narratives,” he says, “we might often wonder, why God did not act more directly and clearly. And yet God acts through events and people. One of those persons at the beginning of the incarnation was Joseph. Joseph was the man chosen by God to guide the beginnings of the history of redemption. Chosen from the foundation of the world. He was the true ‘miracle’ by which God saved the Child and His mother. God acted by trusting in Joseph's creative courage” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

He knew he had the talents. Maybe they were hidden, but He wanted to draw them out.

“Arriving in Bethlehem and finding no lodging where Mary could give birth, he took a stable and as best he could, turned it into a welcoming home for the Son of God to come into the world” (Patris Corde, para. 5) as best he could.

I've just been reading a book about the first Archbishop of Nairobi, J. G. McCarthy. He used to say to his missionary priests, “Do the best you can” as he sent them out to start a new parish someplace. We're all asked ‘to do the best we can.’

Joseph did as best he could to turn that cold, inhuman place into a focal point of warmth and family life for the whole of eternity.

“Faced with imminent danger from Herod, who wanted to kill the Child, Joseph was once again warned in a dream to protect the Child. And he rose in the middle of the night to prepare the flight into Egypt.”

Pope Francis says, “A superficial reading of these stories can often give the impression that the world is at the mercy of the strong and mighty. But the ‘Good News’ of the Gospel consists in showing that for all the arrogance and violence of worldly powers, God always finds a way to carry out His saving plan” (Patris Corde, para. 5)

As we try to think with creative courage of the tasks that God has placed in front of us, not unlike the tasks He placed in front of St. Joseph, we could ask him that we might have that same faith, that same hope, daring, fortitude, courage to bring things forward. Our lives at times might seem to be at the mercy of the powerful, but the Gospel shows us what counts.

Another reason why the daily reading of a few words or a few lines from the Gospel can nourish our soul to a great degree. God always finds a way to save us, provided that we show the same ‘creative courage’ as the carpenter of Nazareth, who was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting always in divine providence.

We could ask Joseph for that entrepreneurial spirit to turn problems into possibilities, to create apostolic opportunities, to spread the Good News, to spread ideas, to meet people, to influence society, and to Christianize it.

Because that's the vocation of the layperson, to be immersed in the middle of the world, to make a splash, to have an influence.

We need all the creativity we can get and we need all the courage we can get also. If at times it seems that God hasn't helped us, it doesn't mean that we've been abandoned, but rather we're being trusted to plan, to be creative, to find solutions ourselves, to work at things, to hang in there, to persevere. God wants us to use the human means, wants us to find the answers, that possibly He hides from us in the beginning, but when we earn them, He will give them to us.

That sort of creative courage was also shown by the friends of the paralytic. They tried to bring their friend close to Jesus, as we try to do with all our friends, but they found there were too many people there. They couldn't get close to the Master.

What did they do? Well, with the enthusiasm of youth, they climbed up onto the roof and they vandalized the roof. They took off a couple of tiles, presumably they put them back afterwards. They looked for another solution, and then they lowered their friend down in front of Our Lord (cf. Luke 5:17-26).

Difficulties did not stand in the way of those friends. There was boldness and persistence there. They were convinced that they had to get their friend to Christ. They were convinced that Jesus could heal the man.

We’re told, “…finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles, into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. And when he saw their faith,” Jesus said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you” (Luke 5:19-21). Christ saw the faith of these friends, the faith of this man. It was faith shown in deeds, that produced the results.

“The Gospel doesn't tell us how long Our Lady and St. Joseph remained in Egypt, but we can imagine that they needed to eat, they needed to find a home and employment.”

God sent them there, but He didn't give them a credit card. “It doesn't take too much imagination to fill the details. The Holy Family had to face concrete problems like every other family, particularly like so many of the migrants in the world today, refugees, risk their lives to escape misfortune and hunger” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

The Holy Father wants us to have a special antenna for these people, these brothers of ours, show them Christian charity, and help our families to think about these people.

There but for the grace of God, so go I. And how much in need these people are of a helping hand—somebody to help them to get going again, to show them a little bit of human hospitality.

The Holy Family in Egypt could be like the patron saint of these sorts of people. “We can consider St. Joseph,” he says, “the special patron of all those forced to leave their native lands because of war or hatred, or persecution, poverty” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

“At the end of every gospel account where Joseph plays a role,” we're told “that he gets up and takes the child and His mother and does whatever God commanded him”. It's as though he knows that “Jesus and Mary, His mother, are the most precious treasures of our faith (Patris Corde, para. 5). And Our Lord is inseparable from Our Lady.

Jesus was to advance in wisdom and age and grace (cf. Luke 2:52) under the care of Joseph. And Our Lady was also to advance in what John Paul II called ‘her pilgrimage of faith’, journeying forward in faith throughout the course of her life. And “she faithfully persevered in her union with her Son, even until she stood at the cross” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

Like Joseph, we could “always consider how are we protecting Our Lord and Our Lady, because “they also are mysteriously entrusted to our own responsibility, care and safekeeping” (Patris Corde, para. 5); Blessed Sacrament, our parish church, our outstation church, the domestic Church of our home.

The Son of God made man, “came into our world in a state of great vulnerability”. Vulnerability is a word that comes from the Latin word vulnera, which means a wound; vulnerability, able to be wounded.

“He needed to be defended, protected, cared for” (Patris Corde, para. 5), embraced by Joseph. He must have learned many, many things, possibly many that came out later in His preaching, from the mouth of Joseph. God trusted Joseph, as did Our Lady. “She found in him someone who would not only save her life but would always provide for her and her Child” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

We can also think of St. Joseph as the guardian of the Church, because the Church is the continuation of the Body of Christ in history, the Mystical Body of Christ. In the same way as Our Lady's motherhood is reflected in the motherhood of the Church. “Joseph carried out a continuous protection of the Church. He continues to protect the Child and His mother” (Patris Corde, para. 5). And we too, by our love for the Church, continue to love the Child and His mother.

“That Child,” says Pope Francis, “would go on to say, ‘as you did it to one of these, least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me’” (Matt. 25:40). Every poor person, needy person, the person who may be suffering or dying, or every stranger or prisoner, every sick child, is the ‘child’ whom Joseph continues to protect. We could try to take on our shoulders the responsibility of Joseph, how we must feel for the whole of mankind!

Joseph can be “invoked as the protector of the unfortunate, the needy, exiles, the afflicted, the poor and the dying. The Church,” says Pope Francis, “cannot fail to show a special love for the least of our brothers and sisters, because Jesus showed a particular concern for them, and personally identified with them” (Patris Corde, para. 5). “From St. Joseph we learn that same care and responsibility. We can learn to love the Child and His mother, to love the sacraments and charity, to love the Church and to love the poor,” because “each of these realities is always the Child and His mother” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

Pope Francis entitled his Exhortation, With the Father's Heart. “St. Joseph did everything with the Father's heart; caring, protecting, reaching out, being vigilant.

“Each of us,” he says, “can discover in Joseph the man who goes unnoticed. A daily discreet and hidden presence. An intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble” (cf. Patris Corde, para. 7). “Joseph,” he says, “reminds us that those who appear hidden are in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation” (Patris Corde, para. 5).

In the Oscar Awards, sometimes it's not the main actor that receives the Oscar. There's an Oscar for the best supporting role. And sometimes it's the main actor who receives the Oscar. There's an Oscar for the best supporting role. When the curtain goes down at the end of the play, it doesn't matter who has played the part of the king and who has played the part of the servant. The important thing is how they've played their part.

When Joseph truly won an Oscar, he was a beloved father. The spouse of Our Lady, the foster father of Jesus. he placed himself, as St. John of Chrysostom says, “at the service of the entire plan of salvation, he was open to everything. Here I am because you have called me” (Patris Corde, para. 1).

St. Paul VI says “he made his life a sacrificial service to the mystery of the Incarnation and its redemptive purpose. He made his life a sacrificial service to the mystery of the Incarnation and its redemptive purpose. He devoted himself completely to the Holy Family in his life and in his work” (Patris Corde, para. 1).

“He turned his human vocation to domestic love,” says Pope Francis, “into a superhuman sacrifice of himself, of his heart and all his abilities. A love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home” (Patris Corde, para. 1).

We can turn frequently to St. Joseph in these coming days and months, asking him that we might be closer to him, seeing aspects of his life and virtue that we might not have seen before.

Pope Francis refers to him as “a tender and loving father” because he oversaw the growth of Jesus “who grew in wisdom and age and grace before God and men” (Patris Corde, para. 2).

The Book of Hosea talks about how Our Lord God had done with Israel, so Joseph did with Jesus. He taught him to walk, taking by the hand. He was for Him like a father who raises an infant to his cheeks, bending down to him and feeding him. And in Joseph Our Lord saw the tender love of God (cf. Hos. 11:3-4).

We're told in the Psalms: “As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him” (Ps. 103:13).

“In the synagogue, during the praying of the Psalms, (Ps. 145:9) Joseph must have heard again and again that the God of Israel is a God of tender love, who is good to all, compassionate over all that he has made” (Patris Corde, para. 2).

We have many things to learn from the Holy Patriarch. He was an obedient father, he was a good father. As he had done with Our Lady, God revealed His saving plan to Joseph using the dreams, which were spoken of in Scripture. This was the way He made His will well known (cf. Matt. 1:20; 2:13, 19, 22).

Joseph was deeply troubled by Mary's mysterious pregnancy. She disappears without a word. He's left high and dry. She comes back and she says nothing. But then with the revelation of the angel, Joseph comes to know the full story (Matt. 1:20).

How often when we don't know the full story, we could easily be mistaken in our judgment. And those could be big mistakes. The importance is always waiting for that bigger picture.

We are told he was a just man, who did not want to expose her to public disgrace. And he decided to put her away privately (Matt. 1:19). He's forgetting about himself, his future, his family, and his good name.

He's thinking all the time about Our Lady. How can she be more comfortable, happy, taken care of? But then the angel appears to him and says, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.1:20).

That must have been the joy of his life, those words. “And she will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 2:21).

And as always, Joseph reacted immediately. “He did what the angel of the Lord had commanded” (Matt. 1:25).

The Holy Father says that Joseph was also an accepting father. He accepts Mary unconditionally. He's very noble. We're told that “the nobility of Joseph's heart is such that what he learned from the law he made dependent on charity” (Patris Corde, para. 4).

Even though Joseph doesn't understand the bigger picture, he makes a decision to protect Mary's good name, her dignity and her life. This was real love put into practice. He couldn't have done better.

We can ask St. Joseph in these coming weeks and months to help us to work a little bit on our creative courage so that we can walk a little more in his footsteps and bring the great fruit in our life as came from his life.

And as always, Our Lady and the Child Jesus, when they see us taking out of the background of our interior life that person who went so far, that person who meant so much to them in their earthly life, they will also be very happy.

Mary, help us to get to know your spouse a little better.

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, Saint 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.

BWM