The Indispensable Joseph

By Joseph Uujamhan

The Indispensable Joseph I Know from the Popes is a voyage into the pronouncements and actions of twenty-four Popes on St. Joseph, starting from Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) to Pope Francis (2013), a period of over six centuries, in order to identify the place and position of St. Joseph in Christendom. With three subsections; Biodata, Relationship with St. Joseph and Some Pontifical Highlights in each chapter, the book contains St. Joseph’s prayers composed by the popes, invoked for different circumstances of life. These reveal his saintly attributes as well as the great benefits in praying through his intercession. As patron Saints of fathers, families, workers, the dying and many more, the book is highly recommended to all who seek to have a deeper and contemplative relationship with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melrose Books
• Release date: Feb 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781911280200

Book preview

1

Introduction

My Journey to St. Joseph:

My journey to St Joseph – a personality seen to be dumb in the Bible accounts, but certainly not deaf – is a long, winding one, starting from near disapproval to approval, from dislike to love, from obedience to acceptance, from obscurity to obsession. It is a journey dating back more than fifty years, and now looking forward to a future of bliss and harmony.

As a young boy growing up in a village setting, I was called and addressed as Sunday by name, having been born on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There were many who bore the names Sunday, Saturday, or Friday, in my village. Apart from Thursday and Wednesday, quite a few bore the name of the weekdays, including Monday and Tuesday. As I grew up a little older to the age of nine, it became clear that I would not get baptized with the name Sunday. Those who bore such weekday names suddenly discarded them at baptism.

I chose various English names, the choice being dependent on the name of any of my varying mentors. I once chose to be called Matthew but, realizing that I already had an elder brother with that name, I took to Lawrence, then Philip. Nobody really called me by any of such names, except that I wrote them on the back of my exercise books any time I purchased a new one. This held sway for some time before the eve of my baptism in 1958. I had just passed the necessary tests preparatory to baptism the next day, when my immediate elder brother, Andrew – seventeen years my senior – brought me home on his bicycle at about 11.55pm from the school ground where we took the tests. He proudly announced to our father that I had passed the tests and asked him, an illiterate (by Western education standard) and un-baptized himself, to give me a name for my baptism.

It was against Church law then to eat late and receive communion the following day. This elicited some sympathy for me, as that meant I would not eat till midday the following day, after baptism. Our father had not even eaten that evening as he had been waiting for us till then. In any case, the joy of my success beclouded the hunger and I really felt strong.

His response to my brother’s request for my baptismal name was – what of Joseph? Shocking! I did not quite like the name at first because the man who bears the name living opposite our family house was not that impressive, though very neat. He was not that highly rated by his mates. My first reaction was: What? Joseph? My brother, seeing my disappointment, told me that our father had just given me a name and that was it. So that is how I came by the name – from the Lord’s Day, Sunday to Joseph.

My senior cousin, Patrick, once asked me which Joseph I was dealing with – Arimathaea or the husband of Mary. I did not know the difference. It took me years before I stuck to Joseph, husband of Mary, as my patron saint. We were taught what a patron saint meant, and all years thereafter I did pray to my patron saint. I also knew that the 19th of March every year was my patron saint’s feast day.

I did not pay any particular spiritual importance to the name, apart from my prayer to St. Joseph as my patron saint, until I was over forty years when someone directed me to a "prayer to Joseph" in the Pieta which had been very helpful to him. I tried it, but because I was also using other prayers at the same time, I could not immediately attribute any such successes to the intervention of any particular prayer or Saint.

My recourse to St. Joseph grew when I was frequently attacked by armed robbers on the road and even at home. On each of the four or five occasions, I was never harmed or physically assaulted – not a blow, or a cut or injury. I only lost property. Such victories I attributed to his particular intervention. These events brought me to a close study of my patron saint.

I was surprised that the Catholic salutation, Glory to Jesus, Honour to Mary, did not include Joseph. It was my thinking that as a salutation, a way of greeting, when one sees a friend or enters one’s house, one would not greet the mother and son and leave out the father of the house. This was more so when one considers the emphasis that we should imitate the Holy Family. While we are to model our lives after our Blessed Mother – and I believe we should because of her incomparable virtue – I thought, perhaps naively, that it would be easier and more appropriate for men to imitate a married man than a woman; more so, in a family setting. Would St. Joseph not be more attuned to understanding the pains and rigour of fatherhood than a woman? Should the Church not give any credit to St. Joseph who, in the marriage setting, was required not to have conjugal relations with his wife? What kind of man would that be that is not greeted by visitors who only greet the wife and son when they enter his house?

These and many more did not only look impractical, but constituted real puzzles to me. Should faith and reason be so far apart? That the name of Joseph does not feature in that salutation puzzled me further, when so many aspirations already approved by the Church like the following are of common usage:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for me at the hour of my death.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me at my last agony.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, bless me now and in death’s agony,

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you, save souls.

Holy Family of Nazareth, make our families like yours.

All these and more are found in many prayer books. Yet the slogan Glory to Jesus, honour to Mary is the beginning and end of any announcement in local churches in Nigeria. It is used by priests freely and repeatedly, to the extent that non-Catholics identified Catholics with it and with their attendant criticisms. For me, perhaps out of ignorance or jealousy, I was really bothered that the Glory to Jesus, Honour to Mary salutation was true but incomplete. I strongly felt that it should be "Glory to Jesus, Honour to Mary and Joseph", as there is convergence of these three in the mystery of Incarnation and in many existing and Church-approved aspirations.

I use the slogan in my private prayers and when others are saying the popular version. On one occasion, when I was asked to give a talk to the Knights of St Mulumba, I wrote a seventeen page document on St. Joseph, including some work by many saints on St. Joseph. I had so many converts who believed that it was more theologically correct to use my version of, "Glory to Jesus, Honour to Mary and Joseph".

A few years ago, my first son, whom I had named Anthony – the baptismal name of my late father at his death bed – chose to name his own first son, Joseph, after me. It was only then that I told him of how I had named him Anthony, after his own grandfather. I considered it a great honour for him to have named his son after me. Anthony and Joseph have their relationships, but I thought that our Lord wanted Josephs in my family, and this led me to a greater study of my patron saint.

I observed that the first Eucharistic prayer already honoured Joseph after our Blessed Mother. I found that in the divine praises, used during Benedictions, the only human names on that list, outside the Blessed Trinity, were those of Mary and Joseph. I was convinced I was on the right track but I also know that the Church does not operate that way. I had wanted immediate acceptance of my version but things need to be approved and ordered.

I always spoke about Glory to Jesus, Honour to Mary and Joseph, at the least opportunity, soliciting for understanding of my reasoning.

I came to find out that there was no specific theological approval for Glory to Jesus, Honour to Mary but a convention perpetrated by the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) who, rather than venerating and imitating our Blessed Mother Mary, are not able to draw the line between adoration and veneration. Whereas the honour due to our beloved Mother is hyperdulia, and that of our Creator, latria, our worshiping women community could not distinguish between them.

Since these are words of salutation, I still could not understand how a visitor can enter someone’s house and greet only the mother and son but leave out the father of the house. Such a visitor would not only be regarded as lacking good manners but could even be thrown out of the house. The Catholic Men Organisation (CMO) had in the past had a more contentious slogan, claiming to be the pillars of the Church until some of us intervened to correct the obvious anomaly. We all know who the pillars of the Church are. Christ is our Leader is now the CMO slogan, which is certainly more appropriate.

Incidentally, I do not hear or see many of the slogans being peddled in Nigeria used in other parts of the Catholic world. Perhaps it is a cultural issue but my recommended version is not imagined or intended to dishonour, diminish, reduce or dim the esteemed dignity of our Blessed Mother by the addition of Joseph. Rather, it is a recommendation for inclusiveness, not exclusiveness, just as it is meant to be for a married couple; one who is an example of a family recommended for imitation and emulation for all of humanity.

It is in the midst of this confusion that I chose to study Church pronouncements on St. Joseph of Nazareth. I found that so many people had done a lot of studies on St. Joseph and, of course, on our Blessed Mother Mary. There was no way the early Church fathers could be talking about Joseph and Mary in the first and second centuries when the main issue was how to get Christ accepted as our Lord and Saviour. The Divinity of Christ had to be established and that "He is the way, the truth and life, and no one goes to the father except through him". The scripture had to be put in place. The works of the Apostles who carried out the teachings of Jesus Christ had to be known. Selecting the canonical and apocryphal writings among the various books or writings in circulation at the time, took some time. Indeed, we find very little written about Mary and Joseph in the Holy Bible and in the case of the latter, he was not even associated with "one" word in the entire New Testament.

When Christianity then had its foot on the ground, for our faith is Christ-centred – Christocentric – devotion to Saints or those who people felt led good lives while on earth and could intercede for them, grew gradually.

It is difficult to talk about our Lord Jesus Christ without talking about how He came into the world. That He was born by a woman who was visibly carrying a baby for months, was incontrovertible. The motherhood of Jesus Christ was easy to establish; so devotion to the woman whose breast Christ sucked, was much easier to establish, develop, and advance. Above all, we saw a few places in the Bible where she talked – the discussion with Angel Gabriel; the Visitation and encounter with her cousin Elizabeth; the Magnificat or the Canticle of Mary; the statement when Christ at the age of twelve was found after three days in Jerusalem; the marriage in Cana where she intervened and solicited for wine for the new couple to avoid disgrace, etc. These were good grounds to study and associate with the mother of Our Lord early in the Christian world, coupled with the usual attachment or bonding of children to their mothers arising from conception and breast feeding. Even then, many Church pronouncements on Mary took some long time before their official proclamation. The dogma of Immaculate Conception was only established in 1854 (Pope Pius IX) and the dogma of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother was only proclaimed in 1950 (Pius XII).

On the other hand, there was no single statement attributed to St. Joseph in the New Testament. It was all action, emanating from his interaction with angels from God the father, or a clear dream in which instructions were given to him. Indeed, St. Joseph’s Way was Doing, his way was obedience and unquestionable faith, right from the marriage or his betrothal to Mary, up to the birth of Christ; the flight to and from Egypt, etc. In all the four reported encounters in dreams or angelic appearances to him, Joseph only listened and then acted. He did not utter one word. No wonder some writers label him, Joseph the Silent.

One can, therefore, understand why devotion to St. Joseph took much more time to develop than that of our Mother, but incidentally, it is impossible to study Josephology without Mariology. They are intrinsically tied to Our Lord in Christology. Every devotion must point to, and end in Christ. One may also add that honouring St. Joseph is also honouring our blessed Mother. St. Bernadette Soubirous, to whom our Blessed Mother revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception – also known as daughter of St. Joseph – was always found praying the Rosary at the chapel of St. Joseph. When confronted by her fellow nuns as to why she should be praying the Rosary in the chapel of St. Joseph, she replied that in Heaven there is no jealousy. Indeed after Jesus, Joseph is the next love of our Blessed Mother, a holy love of husband and wife. Joseph leads us to Mary. It is their life in Nazareth. They are inseparable. The Incarnation Mystery is the foundation of our salvation history, and when God chose to redeem man this way, he also chose the tools, the places and persons that would make this happen. Joseph was chosen to play the role assigned to him by the Blessed Trinity from eternity.

This book is a study of how St. Joseph, both in recognition and devotion, grew in the Church. It was originally thought that the book would contain the works of our Church Fathers, canonised saints, Doctors of the Church, pious writers on St. Joseph, and the actions or pronouncements of Popes on St. Joseph. I later found out that this would be a really big book and unwieldy. I therefore chose, as a first step, to write on the conclusions of Church actions or pronouncements which are the authoritative positions of the church, as coming from the Popes. The works of the saints and Church fathers really led to the actions or pronouncements of the Popes but the Popes have the final say, ex-cathedral. While leaving the works of the Saints, pious writers and Church fathers to a separate and future reflection, this book is on the actions or pronouncements of the Popes with respect to St. Joseph.

It will be misleading to think that all that a particular Pope did in his pontificate was to concentrate or focus only on St. Joseph. That is certainly not the case. It is in that respect that a relatively short account or review of each Pope is given, under the heading of "some pontifical highlights". There were so many other works done by each of the twenty-four Popes selected that are not discussed or included here, not only because of my incompetence to do justice to the subject, but because of the need to limit the size of the book and direct the focus on St. Joseph. Even then, the pontifical highlights presented bring out some clear pictures of the person and personality of each particular Pope.

The works here cover a period of over one thousand years of Church history but are concentrated more on the last six hundred years, which was the time Popes started responding to public yearnings for official devotion and liturgical recognition of St. Joseph. Like I said earlier, the Popes did not just act; they were prompted by writings, submissions, discussions and debates of a great number of pious writers, many of whom have been declared saints by the Church.

I have found my relationship with St. Joseph and his interventions in my life really indispensable. I think he talked to me audibly twice or thrice, at the critical moments when I was in danger. I was taken by gun-tottering, unmasked armed robbers from my bedroom in my well-fortified house at one o’clock in the morning; was driven away locked up in the boot of their small car to a forest forty kilometres away; was stripped totally naked, left bare-footed and dumped at 3am in a thick hideous forest, inhabited by dangerous animals like lions, tigers, snakes and even environmental hazards like quicksand, purpose-made fish ponds, cess-pools, palm tree plantations, thorny trees or shrubs, cut-down wooden stubs, stinging bees, and even animal hunters.

The tortuous journey started from Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria and ended in a danger-filled and lonely forest in the Delta State of Nigeria. I heard clear instructions from above on what to do to find safety and freedom. I attribute the clear, distinct and audible instructions I heard on this and other occasions to St. Joseph. The voice was soothing, cool, serious but reassuring, and the message descended on me like rainfall. I had no doubt it was divine. I couldn’t think of anyone else interceding for me. It had to be St. Joseph, my patron saint, through whom Christ our Lord acted.

I have come to know a bit of St. Joseph from the actions or pronouncements of the Popes. I have thus chosen the title of this book to be "The Indispensable Joseph I Know from the Popes". Actually he knows me well, all in all, but I want to emphasise here that, whatever is said or written in this book must not and does not deviate from the centre piece of our faith, which is Christ our Lord and Saviour. Christ is the way, the truth and the life and we can only reach God the Father through Him (Jn.14:6). Joseph helps us to reach Him. All devotions go to Him and He acts through saints as honour and recognition of their worth. Jesus is the answer!

2

St. Joseph’s Prefiguration

This indispensable Joseph I shall talk about has a long silent history. He had tagged along with Jesus and Mary in history. So many Christians have written essays, poems, meditations, prayers, and invoked him under various circumstances. He was sighted at apparition sites, alone or with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Fatima, France, Poland, Mexico, etc., and foreshadowed in many forms in the Old Testament without our knowing. The Old Testament – a history and testament of the people of God – predicted the coming of Christ, a Messiah that would come from the house of David. Our Lord Jesus finally came from the house of David by being the son of the carpenter, Joseph. It is in this context that one examines how the Old Testament predictions of Joseph were fulfilled in the New Testament.

This might be a surprise to many who regard Joseph as a mere mortal, a veil and a shadow. Yes, he was really a veil and a shadow, but even as a mere mortal he was assigned to do great things in our salvation history. God had a plan through him in the fulfilment of our salvation. Joseph looms large in the Incarnation history of our salvation by listening and then acting. Doing was his way.

This work will attempt to expose the areas of his biblical prefiguration and discuss who foreshadowed him or how he was foreshadowed or prefigured. It will attempt to bring out the hidden meanings of his actions and reveal that a man so obscure or withdrawn in reported accounts can illumine our thoughts and minds, expose his bare outlines of darkness, and replace it with radiant light. Further, we may have a lot to learn from the heroic portrait of his spirituality, as many have found great supernatural value in him. All husbands and priests should emulate him in the love of his Spouse and Jesus, in the defence of the virginity of our Lady and as the witness to the mystery of salvation. All workers, particularly tradesmen and professionals, will find him a reliable patron.

Are these characteristics easy to see of a man prefigured in the Old Testament? Was St. Joseph really prefigured in the Old Testament, since we know that the New Testament is indeed the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old? Popes and eminent Bible scholars have searched or gazed on the Old Testament Bible accounts and found some striking resemblances of St. Joseph. In particular:

A little far-fetched, I would think!

This comparison, I think is also a bit far-fetched, as finding a wife for a family member was common and it is done and still practised today with utmost trust.

"Joseph is truly the son of David, a son not unworthy of his father. He is the son of David in all the strength of that term, not by flesh so much as by his faith and holiness and loving reverence, for God looked upon him as another David, well able to guard his secrets".

Although this is a veiled foreshadowing or prefiguration, it’s more of a direct resemblance of character.

Like many writers, I think the person most likely to prefigure him is that man who bears the same name as him. Pope Pius IX, while proclaiming Joseph the patron of the Universal Church in 1870, Pope Leo XIII in his ground-breaking Encyclical Quamquam Pluries of 15th

August, 1889, many Church fathers and the liturgy point to this. They believe he was prefigured by Joseph, son of Jacob of the Old Testament.

Father Michael Gasner, O. P. in his book, Joseph the Silent, puts it this way:

"Not only do they bear the same name that merely points the way but in their virtues and in their lives are found to an astonishing degree, the same warp and woof of trial and joys. Each one both ‘just men’ in the full meaning of the word, each one devoted himself, soul and body to the mission assigned him, dreading only that any honour which belonged to his Master might be attributed to his servant."

Father Gasner’s argument is very instructive and clear on the similarities of the two Josephs. Let me, therefore, in no particular order, enumerate the basis of my alignment with these and many other eminent minds:

(i) Name Meaning:

The name of the Old Testament Joseph looms large in its pages – a name built around God, occurring over two hundred times and means "Yahweh increases" or "Yahweh adds". It was given by his mother, Rachael, as gratitude and appreciation that the Lord had opened her womb (Gen.30:22–24). The mother had no children for years. Joseph and his brother, Benjamin, were children of her old age. Joseph opened her womb and removed bareness from her. The name of the New Testament Joseph, Joseph of Nazareth, occurs about eight times in the New Testament, with the meaning "God grants him descendence". Basically the name means the same. Joseph generally means "increasing it".

(ii) Name of Father:

They both have Jacob as their fathers. Jacob’s son, Joseph, is found in Gen.37–50, 49:22, Deut.33:13 Ps.77:15, 105:17. That of Joseph of Nazareth as the son of Jacob is confirmed by the genealogy of Jesus (Mt.1:16). Explanation has been given by the Church for the possible reason why the listing by Luke’s Gospel is different from that of Matthew.

(iii) Name of Mother:

The name of their mothers is Rachael. It was specifically mentioned in the case of the Old Testament Joseph (Gen.30:29), but that of the New Testament Joseph was mentioned in (Matthew 2:18) as weeping when Herod’s soldiers were killing the innocent children while seeking for infant Jesus to kill. "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachael weeping for her children …" This quotation, though it had its origin (Jeremiah 31.15) in response to Rachael, mother of two great tribes of Israel weeping, following the desolation of Israel by King Nebuchadnezzar, would arguably appear to situate the New Testament Joseph’s mother weeping for the innocent babies being mercilessly murdered by King Herod’s soldiers as Joseph of Nazareth escaped with the child Jesus.

(iv) The African Country of Egypt: