CHAPTER III: Joseph Prefigured In Holy Scripture As To His Name, His Life, And His Glory.
WE have undertaken to speak, not only of the life, but of the glories of St. Joseph; it behooves us, therefore, to exhibit the glory that accrued to him in having been prefigured in Holy Scripture. Nor is this a most signal glory only; it is also a manifest sign of that great love and especial regard which God had for him from all eternity. They are greatly mistaken who suppose, and indeed complain, that, considering how great a personage Joseph was, so little is said of him in Holy Writ. For, even in the literal and historical sense, there is sufficient mention of him in the Holy Gospels to make us apprehend his exalted dignity; while, prophetically speaking, he is so clearly foreshadowed in the Old Testament as to make it abundantly evident that it pleased God to present him to the world many centuries before he was born.
In the first place, there can be no manner of doubt that God designed to give an exact and elaborate figure of our saint in the person of the ancient patriarch Joseph, the son of Jacob. Nor let it be objected that, according to the Fathers, that ancient patriarch was a true type and figure of our Divine Redeemer, and therefore that he cannot be at the same time a type and figure of our saint; for in Holy Scripture, dictated as it was by the infinite wisdom of God and containing manifold meanings, it often happens that one and the same thing or person is a type or figure of several things or persons; or the same individual may, under one aspect or in one action, represent one person, and, under another aspect and in another action, represent a different person; or, again, under the one literal sense of a passage are often contained various mystical and spiritual senses: thus, for instance, Jerusalem in the literal sense is the capital city of the Hebrew people, where was the Holy Temple; allegorically it is the Holy Catholic Church; in a tropological and moral sense it is the soul of the Christian; in an anagogical sense it is Paradise. So it is very true that the ancient Joseph was in many events of his life a type and figure of Jesus, especially when he was sent by his father in search of his brethren, and they plotted his death; when he was sold for a sum of money to a band of barbarians; when he was falsely accused and made no defence, but suffered the punishment due to the accuser; when he was kept in bonds between two criminals, and foretold death to the one and glory to the other; when he supplied food to those who had sought to compass his death; and, finally, when he received the name of "saviour of the world".1 But it is also true that in other points this ancient patriarch most clearly prefigured our saint.
For this opinion we have the express authority of St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventura, St. Bernardine of Siena, and, to descend to more recent times, that of the two new Doctors of the Church, St. Francis de Sales and St. Alphonsus Liguori; and, again, of the solemn decree of the Holy See wherein Joseph was declared Patron of the Universal Church.2
The ancient Joseph, then, prefigured our Joseph in his very name. "Remember," says St. Bernard, "the ancient patriarch who was sold into Egypt, and know that that man (Joseph) not only inherited his name but possessed, moreover, his chastity, his innocency, and his grace;"3 nay, he inherited not only his name but the import and the substance of that name in a hundredfold greater measure. . Joseph in the Hebrew language signifies increase; hence the dying father of the ancient Joseph, when bestowing upon him the fulness of his benediction, said, "Joseph is a growing son; a growing son " ;4 meaning thereby, not only that his son Joseph himself increased in wisdom, in power, and glory, but that he increased for his brethren and his children, obtaining for them rich goods and possessions in the land of Gessen. But this double increase was far more verified in the second Joseph; first, by his own daily increase in the fulness of grace and in the Divine favour, and then by augmenting for us, his children and his brethren, the means of salvation, obtaining for us from God a continual increase of graces and benefits towards the attainment of our eternal inheritance.
The first Joseph was son of the patriarch Jacob, and the second Joseph was the son of another holy patriarch, Jacob, so that he resembled our saint not only in his own name but in that of his father; and the mother of the ancient Joseph, the beautiful Rachel, was buried near Bethlehem, whence sprang the second Joseph and where the Divine Redeemer was to be born. And even as at the birth of the first Joseph the servitude of Jacob to Laban was about to cease, and the way began to be opened for his return to his country, so at the birth of the second Joseph began to appear, as it were, the dawn of that day when the slavery of sin would be removed and the way re-opened to the blessed home of Paradise.
As the ancient Joseph grew in years he was of all his brethren the most gracious in manners, the most innocent and pure in his conduct. His father loved him with a special affection in preference to all his other sons, and, as a proof of his love, caused to be made for him a beautiful garment richly embroidered in various colours; by which it is signified that our Joseph should grow in grace and sanctity surpassing that of all the angels and saints, save Mary alone, and should be beloved above all by God, and by Him be clothed with habits of the most heroic virtues, so as to become an object of singular veneration and pre-eminently glorious among all the blessed who have attained to glory. This was shown to the ancient patriarch in a marvelous vision, wherein it seemed to him that he and his brethren at harvest-time were binding their sheaves, and his sheaf stood erect, while those of his brethren which surrounded it bowed themselves down as if to adore it. In the literal sense this vision was fulfilled when, during the seven years of famine, his brethren came to him for bread, signified by those sheaves of wheat, and did him homage as the Viceroy of Egypt; but in the mystical sense it was accomplished in the second Joseph. The field in which he is found with his brethren is the Church; the sheaves of wheat are the accumulated merits, the fruits of grace. The foremost in gathering and binding full sheaves of holy works and heroic virtues in this great field was, after Mary, to be Joseph. The first who should follow him would also collect their sheaves, but these would never equal Joseph's sheaf, which would stand rich and glorious above them all; and, recognising therein his superiority in merits and greatness, all would bow before him, beholding in him the reputed father of Jesus, the husband of Mary, the exalted patron of the Universal Church.
His glory and dignity were still more manifested in another admirable vision which the ancient patriarch saw, when he seemed to behold the sun, the moon, and eleven stars descend to adore him. This vision was fulfilled according to the letter when his father and his eleven brethren with their families came into Egypt to do homage to him on his throne; but more truly in a spiritual sense was it accomplished in our Joseph when, in Egypt, in Nazareth, in Jerusalem, he beheld Jesus, who is the Sun of Justice, "subject " 5 to him; his immaculate Spouse, Mary, who is fair as the moon, yielding him obedience; and now in Heaven beholds the Apostles and Saints all doing him homage and paying him the profoundest veneration. Now, if such bright stars do reverence to Joseph, what homage, what veneration, do not we owe to him, miserable little lamps as we are!
As the ancient Joseph became the victim of his brethren's envy and was led as a slave into Egypt, so our Joseph, through Herod's envy, was forced to become an exile in Egypt, flying thither with his greatest treasure, Jesus, and his most holy Spouse. And, as the former found grace with Putiphar, chief captain of Pharao's army, even to being made steward of his household, and set as governor over his whole family to order all things at his pleasure, even so the latter found grace with Jesus, his Lord, was constituted His minister-general, and promoted to the government, tutelage, and patronage both of the Holy Family and of the House of the Lord, which is His Church. The first Joseph in the house of Putiphar gave a signal proof of heroic chastity; and yet he was consigned for some time to the obscurity of a dungeon and was almost forgotten. The second Joseph gave a far more sublime example of angelic virginity, espoused as he was to the purest of all virgins; nevertheless, in order that the Divinity of Jesus and the Virginity of Mary might first be displayed in all their incomparable splendour, he chose to remain for some time hidden and almost forgotten in the Catholic Church.
While the first (says St. Bernard) receives from God intelligence in the interpretation of dreams, to the second He gives both the knowledge and the participation of heavenly mysteries. The former passed from the obscurity of a prison to the splendours of a court; the latter passed from the sorrows of exile to the celestial mansions, with the truly regal dignity of reputed father of the King of kings, spouse of the Queen of Heaven, and most powerful patron of the Universal Church. The exaltation of the ancient Joseph to the highest rank in the court of the king of Egypt could not more perfectly figure the elevation of our Joseph to the loftiest seats in the House of the Lord and the Court of Heaven. See how Pharao, having recognised the wisdom of Joseph in the true interpretation of his dreams, joyfully exclaims: "Can I find one wiser and one like unto thee? Thou shalt be over my house, and at the commandment of thy mouth all the people shall obey. Behold I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt." 6 Then he took his ring from his own hand and placed it on Joseph's, and arrayed him in a robe of silk, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made him go up into his second chariot, while a crier proclaimed that all should bow the knee before him, and acknowledge him as Governor of Egypt. Here, then, is an express figure of the second Joseph, when he was constituted by God head of the Holy Family and Patron of the Catholic Church. To our saint God in like manner said: "Whom shall I find wiser and more fitting than thou art to preside over My Family, and to be the Patron and Protector of My Church? Behold I set thee as the master and governor of My house, and all My children must do thy bidding." So it is: as the ancient Joseph, according to the saying of holy king David,7 was made by Pharao lord of all his house and ruler over all his possessions, so, as Holy Church teaches us, the second Joseph was appointed by God lord of all His House and ruler over all His possessions; and so much the more powerful, the richer, and the more exalted as the House of Nazareth and the Catholic Church are more noble and more sublime than the perishable palace of Memphis, and his sway the more extensive in as much as the possessions of God in the whole earth are vaster than were those of the first Joseph in the land of Egypt.
So also the ring placed by Pharao on Joseph's finger was the sign of the great authority conferred on our Joseph by God; the silken robe typified the glorious gifts with which his pure soul would one day be invested; the chain of gold was the symbol of that intense charity with which his heart was ever burning. And thus, again, was Joseph elevated above the other saints, and raised, as it were, on a glorious chariot, to receive, especially in these our days, the praises of the whole earth; the supreme lawgiver of the Vatican, the immortal Pius IX., having proclaimed to the world that all are to bow down to Joseph, for that God has exalted him to the patronage and guardianship of the Universal Church.
CHAPTER IV: Joseph Prefigured In His Goodness, Clemency, And Generosity Towards His Devout Clients, And Foreshadowed In Various Other Ways.
OUR compassionate Lord was pleased to ordain that the ancient Joseph should prefigure our glorious Patriarch not only in greatness and power, but also in his goodness, the gentleness of his soul, and the tenderness and magnanimity of his paternal heart. As long as the seven predicted years of plenty lasted few thought about Joseph; and possibly some may have scoffed at seeing him so intent on laying up so large a quantity of corn in the great storehouses of Egypt. But as soon as the years of terrible dearth had begun, then all remembered Joseph, and from all quarters men came to Egypt to buy for themselves their necessary food. And when the people cried out to Pharao for bread, the king told them to go to Joseph, and to do all that he should say to them; and Joseph opened in their behalf the vast granaries of Egypt.8 Here we recognise the great facility and benignity of our saint in assisting those who in prosperous times ungratefully forget him. As the ancient Joseph laid up such store of grain that he might hereafter provide for the famishing people, so also did our Joseph during his lifetime accumulate such great store of merit that he might hereafter powerfully aid his clients. For, in consideration of his great merits, when the people, afflicted by private or public calamities, raise their suppliant voices to Heaven for aid, God replies . "Go to Joseph, and do whatever he enjoins you ". Thus Joseph, after Mary, is appointed the perpetual dispenser of all heavenly favours; and, more generous in his gifts than the ancient Joseph, he opens to all the treasures of divine graces, not merely such as are earthly and temporal, but, what is much more, those which are spiritual and eternal. None need starve, knowing that Joseph holds open to them all the riches of Divine beneficence. And this would seem to be indicated in Holy Scripture, where it is said that in Egypt, that is, where Joseph was, there was bread; but everywhere else, that is, where he was not, universal dearth prevailed. How greatly, then, are the world and the Church indebted to St. Joseph; far more than was Egypt to the ancient patriarch ! since, as St. Bernardine of Siena says, our saint has not merely provided for the Egyptians the bread which sustains the natural life, but has with the utmost solicitude nourished the elect with the Bread of Heaven; to wit, the most sweet Jesus, who infuses into us eternal life.9 This, indeed, is distinctly stated and set forth in the solemn decree wherein St. Joseph was declared by our late holy Pontiff, Pius IX., Patron of the Universal Church.
Further, we may notice how the ancient Joseph treated his brethren, whom he recognised although they knew him not; how he filled their sacks with corn, and restored to them the price of it, besides giving them abundance of provision for their journey. They return, by his desire, with their youngest brother, Benjamin, in whom we see a figure of every innocent and dear client of St. Joseph. At the very sight of his young brother the patriarch is inwardly moved to tears, and says to him: "God be gracious to thee, my son ". But for all he orders a rich banquet to be prepared in his apartments, and finally, unable any longer to restrain the swelling tide of his love, he makes himself known to his brethren, saying: "I am Joseph, your brother. Fear not; it was God who sent me before you for your preservation; it was God who made me as it were a father to the king; it was God who constituted me lord over all his house, and governor over the whole land of Egypt." 10 So saying, he presses them to his bosom, he sends immediately for his father, Jacob, that he may come and share in his joys and partake of his goods. He presents to Pharao the good old man, his father, together with his brethren and their families, and it is at Joseph's recommendation that the king right willingly concedes to them the fairest and richest lands of Gessen. Who does not herein behold a picture of our Joseph's conduct to those who are devout to him? He grants largely to them what they ask; nor does he need to be long entreated; he does not sell his benefits, but bountifully adds more than he is asked. As he receives with singular affection the innocent and implores for them a copious measure of Divine mercy, so also he does not drive away the guilty who, repentant, have recourse to him, but, after ingeniously causing them to recognise the ruin brought about by sin, he prepares for them a banquet of graces; and sometimes in the midst of their afflictions makes himself known to his clients by such an abundance of heavenly consolations as to move them to tears of tenderness. "Come," he says, "come to my arms; I am Joseph, your brother; I will protect you; I will defend you. It is God who placed your salvation in my hands ; He made me, as it were, father to the King of kings; He made me the reputed father of Jesus; He constituted me the patron of His whole House, that is, of the Universal Church, the sustaining arm of all the earth." Thus, fulfilling his great office of loving protector, he presses all to his bosom; he presents them before the throne of God; he desires to save their entire families, and obtains for all by his powerful mediation the blessed land of saints, Paradise.
To obtain all these immense advantages by means of Joseph, the same condition must be observed which the king of Egypt required of those who came to ask for corn; namely, that they should strictly do what Joseph enjoins: "Go to Joseph; and do all that he shall say to you".11 God imposes the same condition on those who would obtain graces from St. Joseph; they must promptly and faithfully do what he bids them. And what else does Joseph tell us, both by word and example, but that we should fulfil the Divine law, even as he fulfilled it? Without the fulfilment of God's commandments it is vain to hope for favours. But whosoever fulfils them perfectly, to him appertain, no doubt, all those heavenly and earthly blessings which the good old man, Jacob, at the close of his days called down on his son Joseph .. "The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren".12 This prediction of Jacob was only partially fulfilled in the ancient Joseph, because he was not present, nor could he be present, at the coming of the Desire of the everlasting hills, the expected Messias. It was fully accomplished only in our Joseph, since in him alone, according to the Fathers, were summed up and epitomised all the blessings and all the virtues of the patriarchs who had preceded him; and Joseph alone -had the exceptional privilege of being the first, after Mary, at the birth of the Desire of the everlasting hills, the first to see Him, to receive Him into his arms, to embrace Him, nurture Him, and possess Him as his dearest son. This is the reason why Jacob foretold that our Joseph would be blessed in preference to all his brethren; that is, that he would be privileged above all the other saints on earth and in Heaven. And it is, indeed, most consoling for us to behold this heavenly advocate of ours so clearly prefigured, not only in his wisdom, in his power, and in the high honour and esteem he enjoys in the presence of God, but also in the readiness and solicitude of the great charity he has for us, qualities which all combine to render his patronage most valuable and efficacious. Wherefore, if he undertakes to plead our cause with the Eternal Judge, we are safe, we have won our suit.
But it was not alone in the person of the ancient patriarch Joseph that our saint was prefigured. We may see him also in Abraham's trusted servant, Eliezer, whom he sent to fetch a wife for his son Isaac from among his own kindred, and who escorted her in safety to her new and distant home.13 As Rebecca was a type of the Blessed Virgin, so was Eliezer a type of St. Joseph, whose office it was to watch over and protect his immaculate spouse during a large proportion of her stay on earth. Again, in Mardochai, the uncle and guardian of Queen Esther, herself also a figure of Mary, we cannot fail to recognise a typical resemblance to the holy Joseph, guardian and protector of the Queen of Saints and Virgin Mother of the Incarnate Son of God.14 Indeed the Fathers of the Church and other spiritual writers have seen him mystically represented under many forms and in many passages of Scripture. Thus, in the Canticles it is said, "My Beloved "—that is, Jesus—" feedeth among the lilies " ;15 and what are these lilies? asks the Abbot Rupert. Certainly, after Jesus, there are none purer than Mary and Joseph, nor will there ever be. In Genesis16 we read that the patriarch Jacob beheld in a dream a ladder which reached from earth to Heaven; and on the last step of this ladder the Lord Himself was leaning. This ladder is Mary, and the last step of this ladder, says the same spiritual writer, is Joseph, on whom Jesus Himself in His childhood leaned.17 In Abraham, Sara, and Isaac the Fathers recognise the Holy Family; that is, in Abraham they see Joseph, in Sara Mary, in Isaac Jesus. Again, God willed that a veil of violet, purple, and scarlet, wrought with embroidery and goodly variety, should conceal the sacred ark from the profane, and divide the sanctuary from the holy of holies. This mysterious veil was a figure of Joseph, who was to hide from the profane the heavenly virginity of Mary and the Divine origin of Jesus. So also God commanded Moses to construct over the ark the propitiatory of purest gold, and to place two cherubim of gold at the sides, which, extending their wings, should guard and cover the propitiatory.18 This propitiatory is Jesus, and the cherubim of gold are Mary and Joseph, who guard, protect, and have the care of Jesus. If we are to credit the writer on Jewish antiquities, Arias Mentanus, one of these cherubim had the form of a beautiful young man, and the other of a lovely maiden. The prophet Isaias speaks of a sealed book placed in the hands of one who is learned, who, being bidden to read it, should answer, " I cannot, for it is sealed ".19 St. John Chrysostom, commenting on this passage, says: "What can this sealed book be save the most immaculate Virgin? and into whose care should it be consigned? Certainly into that of the priests. And to whom should it be given? To the artisan Joseph." Isaias, then, prophesied of Joseph. Further on also ho points to Joseph, where he says: "The young man shall dwell with the virgin; and the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride" :x with reference to which Gerson and others say, " This is Joseph with Mary ".20
I will conclude this chapter with a beautiful explanation which St. Francis de Sales has left us in his Spiritual Conferences of a passage in the Canticles which gives great honour to St. Joseph. In the said book" the August Trinity, gathered, as it were, in council for the execution of the great mystery of the Incarnation, speak thus: "Our sister, that is, Mary, is little, that is to say, most humble, and she is an immaculate virgin. What shall We do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to for marriage? If she be a wall, let Us build upon it bulwarks of silver; if she be a door, let Us join it together with boards of cedar." Thus the Mother of God, according to the Divine council, was to be a virgin and a spouse; and her spouse, supereminently chaste, so far from being in the least degree an impediment to her virginity, was to guard and protect it, rendering it freer and more secure, and sheltered from every external contradiction. So that, if Mary by her vow of virginity should have raised, as it were, before her a golden wall of defence, God, to tranquillise her still further, gave her as her spouse St. Joseph, who was to be to her on all occasions as a bulwark of silver; and, though this House of Gold was closed with an adamantine door, God, in giving her Joseph, strengthened it with an incorruptible defence. Hence St. Francis de Sales says: "What is the glorious St. Joseph but a strong bulwark for our Blessed Lady? Joseph was given to her as a companion in order that her purity might be more marvellously protected in its integrity under the veil and shadow of holy matrimony. If the Virgin be a door, said the Eternal Father, We do not choose that the door should be open, because it is the eastern door through which no one can enter or pass;21 therefore is it needful to fortify it with incorruptible wood, that is, give her a companion in purity, even the great Patriarch St. Joseph, who for this reason was to surpass all the saints and angels, and the very cherubim themselves, in that eminent virtue of virginity."22
1 Gen. xli. 45.
2 " Quemadmodum Deus Josephum ilium a Jacob Patriarcha progenitum prapositum oonstituerat universse terne iEgypti . . . ita temporum plenitudine adventante, alium selegit Josephum, oujus ille primus typum gesserat."—Veer. S. Hit. die 8. Dec., 1870.
3 Super Missus est. Horn ii.
4 Gen. xlix. 22.
5 St. Luke ii. 51.
6 Gen. xli. 39-41.
7 Psalm civ. 21.
8 Gen. xli. 55, 56.
9 Senno i. dc S. Joseph.
10 Gen. xliv. 4-8.
11 Gen. xli. 55.
12 Ibid. xlix. 26.
13 Gen. xxiv.
14 For the last two illustrations we are indebted to P. Coleridge's admirable chapter on "The Spouse of Mary " in his Preparation of t/ic Incantation, a work of which we cannot speak in too high terms of commendation.
15 Chap. Ii. 16.
16 Chap. Xxviii. 12,13.
17 In Matthaeum, cap. i.
18 Exod. Xxx. 18-20.; xxvi. 31-34; xxxvii. 6-9.
19. Isaias xxix. 11
20 Chap. lxii. 5.
21 Ezek. xliv. 1, 2.
22 Entrelien, xix.
