Celebrating St. Joseph’s Patronage, Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19, 2019

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, New York, NY
Solemnity of St. Joseph
March 19, 2019
2 Sam 7:4-5.12-14.16, Ps 89, Rom 4:13.16-18.22, Mt 1:16.18-21.24

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• There are many ways to celebrate this great Solemnity of the man God the Father chose to raise his Son according to his humanity and to care for the Mother he chose for that Son and that Son chose for us. Generally I like, with him and with other saints, to focus on his virtues, since we’re ultimately called to seek to imitate him to the measure we can within our circumstances, to emulate, for example, his righteousness, faith, obedience, chaste love, humility, diligence and contemplation. These are what Christian piety have pondered for centuries about St. Joseph’s life on earth.
• Today, however, I think it would be worthwhile to focus in particular on how Christians throughout the centuries have turned to him in prayer, how they have pondered the type of life he has been living in heaven. St. Joseph is the patron of the Church and so many other important aspects of human life. Sometimes the unofficial patronage of saints for particular groups of people or situations can be a little comical: St. Clare is the patroness of television, because 700 years before TV she was granted while on her deathbed the ability to see the Mass broadcast on her wall; St. Joseph Cupertino is the patron saint of astronauts and air travel, centuries before the Wright brothers and NASA, because he was blessed with an extraordinary gift of levitation; St. Lawrence is the patron saint of comedians, chefs and firefighters because of his being martyred on a gridiron saying to his executioners, “Assum est, versa et manduca,” “This side is cooked, flip me over and eat.”
• There’s nothing ironic, however, about St. Joseph’s patronage. So many aspects of his life are summarized by how Christians have used him as an intercessor in these ways. It would be good, therefore, for us to learn from other Christians some of these ways to relate to him in the way he seeks to care for us from his place at his foster-son’s eternal right side. Let’s look at the 12 most common aspects of his patronage:
  • Patron of the Church — Pope Pius IX named him patron of the Church in 1870. His care for the domestic Church in Nazareth gives him a special solicitude for the Church as a whole, as he cares for Christ’s mystical body as we grow with the same patient guidance and vigilance with which he care for Jesus as he grew according to his humanity.
  • Patron of fathers — Joseph shows all men how to care for their families according, how to be responsible, just, men.
  • Patron of expectant mothers — Just as he protected Mary, he seeks to protect women who are pregnant. He was not going to expose her to stoning. He worked so hard to find her a place to give birth. We can ponder his tenderness.
  • Patron of the unborn — He defended Jesus against the homicidal wiles of Herod, obeying the angel to flee with him and Mary to Egypt. In a similar way, we turn to him and ask his protection on all young children whose lives are threatened, particularly those endangered by abortion.
  • Patron against doubt and hesitation — He clearly had his concerns when Mary returned from caring for her cousin Elizabeth very much pregnant. He pondered what this meant. He gets what it’s like to struggle with accepting aspects of the faith that surpass human understanding.
  • Patron of workers — Joseph shows us all how to work for and together with Jesus.
  • Patron of carpenters — He was a tekton, the combination today of a construction worker, a cabinet maker, an engineer and a carpenter. How many easily identify with him in these professions.
  • Patron of employment — When he left Nazareth to go to Bethlehem, he needed to find work. Likewise when he fled to Egypt, he was once again unemployed, and needed to find a job. When he returned to Nazareth, he needed to start his business all over again. That’s why he gives hope to all those looking for work.
  • Patron of immigrants — People on the move as migrants and refugees are often filled with various fears as to how they’ll be accepted, where they’ll live, what they’ll do. St. Joseph was an immigrant to Egypt and with Mary and Jesus experienced these transitions, making him someone who understands the pressures and fears.
  • Patron of pilgrims — He has been invoked as the patron of pilgrims to the Holy Land as they traveled from Nazareth, to Bethlehem, up to Jerusalem, and more. That has led to his becoming one of the patrons for all religious journeys.
  • Patron of house sellers and buyers — Because he was a house builder, for his own family and for others, he is invoked to help other families find or sell houses.
  • Patron of a happy death — His death was, Christian tradition presumes, surrounded by Jesus and Mary and for that reason he is the go-to saint to help us prepare for eternity surrounded by the one who died to open the gates of heaven and the one to whom we turn to pray for us at the hour of our death.
• If I were able to propose one more way that St. Joseph could serve as a patron it would be as the patron of chaste love, helping men, especially priests, learn how to look at others with purity and piety, and learn how to protect the chastity of others, as he did Mary’s virginity.
• Today as we celebrate with Mary, Jesus and the whole communion of saints the feast of this just man and our great patron under so many titles, we do so mindful of the ancient aphorism placed on so many statues and altars dedicated to him: Ite ad Ioseph (Gen 41:55) based on the words by Pharaoh to the Egyptians when they were in need because of the famine. We go to Joseph under each of the ways, asking him to assist the Church at this time of trial, to protect fathers, pregnant moms and unborn children, to help carpenters, workers and the unemployed, to guide immigrants and pilgrims, to help those moving out and moving into houses to build their lives on Christ, and to care for all those preparing for death to do so surrounded by Jesus and Mary. Since the 800s, St. Joseph has been called the “Nutritor Domini,” the nourisher of the Lord, because he was the one who put food on the table for the Holy Family. Today he leads us to the greatest nourishment of all. As we prepare to receive the same Son he used to hold in his arms, as we prepare to be nourished by the divine child who in his humanity was nourished by the work of St. Joseph’s hands, let us ask go to Joseph to ask him to intercede for us, so that as we adore and receive Jesus here at Mass with similar sentiments to how he adored him in the manger in Bethlehem and at the carpenter’s table in Nazareth, we may come through the grace of a happy death to adore that same Jesus with him, with Mary, and all of the members of God’s holy family in heaven!

The readings for today’s Mass were: