CHAPTER IX.
THE HIDDEN DEATH OF ST. JOSEPH.
'The Son of Mary—the Carpenter.'
Joseph is not mentioned here, and from this Bossuet infers that he was already dead, and that Jesus supported His widowed Mother by His labour. Mary was alone at the marriage of Cana, and alone at the Cross, for He left her in the charge of John. Joseph must have died in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Joseph had waited long to see the accomplishment of the mystery confided to his keeping, and he died, like Abraham, without seeing it. Like Moses on Mount Abarim, he saw the promised land afar, but entered not in. We are told that the monks of Citeaux were a living image of the life and death of man. It is said in the life of St. Stephen Harding, that they went forth to labour in the fields, and returned each night, leaving their work unfinished, to lie down and sleep. So did Joseph, and so does the Christian who looks for his reward, not for his success, but his obedience.
As the life of Joseph was hidden, so was his death.
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St. Francis says that St. Joseph died like Mary, from the pure love of God; 'that intense desire of the soul to behold Him from whom she is an exile on earth; that desire which is the punishment of those who are separated from Him for ever.'
Our Blessed Lady and a few chosen saints, among whom is St. Joseph, died from love of God; not only with that love which 'is stronger than death,' nor even that love which so overflows the soul that, notwithstanding the agonies of that awful moment, the soul is so strong in the habit of love, that forgetting pain it quits the body in the act of love. But his was a love so intense that weak nature could no longer bear its violence, and the effort of love itself, tending towards its divine object, broke the bonds that confine the soul within the prison of this body, and set it free to plunge itself in the immensity of God. This was Joseph's death. Yet it had a resemblance to that of other men; so that they may look to him as an especial patron in the hour when they expect to pass through a space awful from its mysterious obscurity, where they must wait with a longing, which is its greatest torment, before they reach eternal bliss. Joseph knew that the gates of heaven, closed in chastisement of Adam's sin, were not yet opened; and that he must suffer long years of suspense before he could behold his Creator; nay, more; he must leave Jesus upon earth, and exchange His blessed presence for Abraham's bosom. But his soul, like that of David, was subject to God, and we may look on him as our model and patron, not only in his life, but in his death.
At first sight, the death of a saint absorbed in an ecstasy of love scarcely seems a model to us, who can only offer the natural horror of death as a sacrifice and a penance. But though Joseph had attained to a sanctity which might free him from that fear of the justice of God which torments the soul in death, yet he owed his graces to the merits of his Eedeemer as much, if not more than the greatest of sinners. He had only corresponded with them, not repaid them ; and he, with all his treasures of sanctity, died, trusting only in the mercies of God and the merits of Christ, saying, like the most imperfect among ourselves,
'Misericordias Domine in asternum cantabo.'
CHAPTER X.
HEROIC VIRTUES OF ST.' JOSEPH.
St. Francis De Sales, in his Conferences, writes on the virtues of St. Joseph, and this might seem enough. But he beholds him with the eyes of a saint; as when St. Thomas beheld St. Bonaventure in his cell, writing the life of St. Francis while in ecstasy; and he, though a saint himself, said, ' Leave a saint to write the life of a saint.' Yet others wrote, and with profit, the life of the Seraphic Father; and we, on whom the ends of the world are really come, may think, and read, and write of St. Joseph as we see him with human eyes, when he was a mere mortal like ourselves. St. Francis says, ' Some saints are great in charity, and some in austerity, there being as many different sanctities as there are saints;' and he illustrates the virginity, humility, and constancy of St. Joseph by the palm-tree; 'for the Holy Ghost makes us sing at the feast of a confessor
in delay' (p. 307). 'What must have been his humility, when he kept that dear Child in his workshop' (p. 301); 'his pure virginity, when he guarded that of the Queen of Virgins; and his perseverance against internal weakness, and against outward accidents V (p. 308.)
The same gifts of the Holy Ghost which descended upon the Apostles, to fill them with powers for their mission, imparted to Joseph gifts in proportion to the transcendent greatness of his office—angelic purity, singular prudence, heroic fortitude, unbounded patience, unshaken constancy, seraphic love of God, and intense affection for his Immaculate Spouse ; virtues becoming him who was appointed to relieve the 'famine in Egypt,' to preserve the Bread which came down from heaven to be the food of man. The dream of the Patriarch was fulfilled in the Saint. The stars adore him, that is, the blessed spirits reverence him, as it was revealed to St. Gertrude; and what wonder, since the sun and moon bowed down before him? Jesus, the Sun of justice, and Mary the Immaculate Mother of God, not only honoured, but obeyed him.
The faith of St. Joseph was simple, like his justice. He did not hesitate, says Bossuet, between reason and revelation—he acted in blind obedience. Abraham believed that the barren would bear a son; and Joseph that a Virgin should conceive, and bear a son. His faith was more tried, and more complete. In his own simplicity and uprightness he believed the word of an angel; in all simplicity he received the office of a father. The father's love was impossible by nature, but he had it by grace. His faith failed not when he saw the Christ in the weakness of an infancy which was left to all appearance destitute of help from His Heavenly Father. This was more trying to the faith than when at the crucifixion Mary beheld the human nature of our! Lord fail, because He was then visibly supported by the Divine nature; as when He said, ' Thou wouldst have no power if it were not given thee from above.' And his faith failed not when the Magi were saved from Herod by going another way; nor when the angel bade him fly by night, and then return, not because of God, but because his enemies were dead. And when he felt with Mary the grief of the three days' loss, his faith failed not in Christ, nor in God the Father, who had sent Him to redeem the world.
The Faith of St. Joseph.
Nazareth was perhaps a greater trial to tho faith of Joseph than Bethlehem, or Egypt, or Jerusalem. We naturally long for action; we count the moments of delay and suspense till the passive state becomes a positive agony. How would an ordinary man have borne to see so much evil going on around; the Jews worldly, the heathens proud and triumphant; to see the people for whom Christ was born, die without knowing Him; to see the Son of God as though He were deserted by His Heavenly Father, and given over to a poor carpenter, whose name it was a disgrace to bear? 'Nonne hie est faberfilius?' Yet he was patient, and left to the mercy of God the pending souls, the crimes of the heathen, the weary waiting of the Jews. The emperors went on with their wars and conquests; soldiers, officers, governors, war, peace, all going on with noise and public interest, such as it seemed would never pass away, while the Saviour of all was labouring in the carpenter's shop. And this trial of faith lasted through his life. He died without seeing any fulfilment of God's word. He left all in God's hands. He saw not the end of these things, but he lived and died in faith, in hope, and in love.
The Humility of St. Joseph.
If ever there was heroic humility, it was in Joseph. He saw Christ, and was silent. He rejoiced like Abrabam to see this day. Prophets and kings had desired to see it; he saw it, and concealed his joy. He knew it is the glory of God to conceal His word, and the glory of kings to search out his speech (Prov. xxv. 2). Joseph spoke to none but Jesus and Mary. He preferred to be hidden with them rather than to be known to the world. He preferred the portion of those who follow Christ, who are not of the world, though they are in the world. Bossuet says much on the humility of Joseph. Three great charges were intrusted to him: the Virginity of Mary, the Person of Christ, and the Secret of the Incarnation, which St. Bernard calls 'secretissimum et sacratissimum sui cordis arcanum.' Yet he concealed them all, not only in the obscurity of his hidden life, but in the daily intercourse with his countrymen, who despised him as a carpenter, and thought that 'no good thing could come out of Nazareth.'
The detachment of St. Joseph was perfect. Abraham left his country, St. Joseph left his home. He was detached from interest; he left his trade, and spent all he had in wandering homeless with Christ, and was persecuted for His sake and because he was with Him, knowing that he was truly rich and abounded, because in Him he possessed everything. He was detached from establishment, knowing that we have none here; for God has prepared us a city with foundations, and we leave Babylon for Zion. God gives us homes to rest in, but we are pilgrims; we pass through the desert, and use its pools for water. We honour our parents, yet if we hate them not for Christ's sake, when duty calls us from them, we are not worthy of Him; and whoever gives up relations for His sake will be doubly rewarded. The simplicity of St. Joseph was the same as his justice. He was upright with men, and also with God. He did not serve two masters. His obedience was simple, trusting, and fearless. If the master of the family had hesitated whether or not he should obey the decree of Augustus, on account of the danger it would be to his guardianship of Mary, what would have been the result? He went against reason and judgment, against everything but obedience, though the command was given by the mouth of a heathen; and, again, when they had performed all things according to the law of Moses, they returned to Nazareth.
And this is all that the Scriptures tell us of St. Joseph. Yet St. Ambrose, in his sermon on the third Sunday in Lent, has placed him among the saints whose life is a model for all. He says, ' We read of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and other just men, in order that we may, by imitating their footsteps, follow in the path of innocence laid open by their virtue. In the life of Joseph there are many kinds of virtues, and chiefly conspicuous is that of chastity. From Abraham we learn unflinching truth, from Isaac the simplicity of an honest mind, from Jacob we learn patience in labour. St. Joseph may be to us the mirror of chastity, for which he was loved by his parents above his brethren. The envy excited by this love is the point of his history from which we learn forgiveness of injuries. Joseph would not have been preferred to others if he had loved those only who loved him, and hated his enemies. He is chiefly remarkable for obeying what our Lord taught, though he lived before the gospel, for he loved his enemies, according to the command of our Lord.'
There is one important circumstance to be observed before considering the life of St. Joseph. It is that the knowledge of him and of his office, and the devotion towards him, has gone on increasing. The Holy Scriptures are almost silent about him, except so far as he took a part in the history of our Lord. Nor is his name mentioned in the age which followed that of the Apostles. And there is a natural reason why we should, as time goes on, know more about St. Joseph.
We understand things better when they are past. As those who had seen the Lord did not understand His words till long after, so, when we contemplate the history of Him and His saints, our eyes seem to be opened to understand the Scriptures, like the disciples at Emmaus when our Lord was leaving them. Not long after the apostolic age, the devotion to St. Joseph began to appear, and it has gone on increasing in extent though not in intensity; for nothing can be said of him now which exceeds the language of the early Saints and Fathers of the Church. Perhaps the veil which appears to hang over St. Joseph in early days is a part of that wisdom which makes the Church suit her form of devotion to. the character and requirements of the times, and which caused her to conceal from the multitude the excellences and sublime prerogatives of our Lady, lest they should in their ignorance forget that she was not only the Mother of Jesus, but the Mother of God, or lest their idolatrous habits should lead them to worship a creature of such surpassing excellence. But as time went on a new danger arose, and men in the pride of their intellect forgot that Jesus was not only true God, but true Man. Then the privileges of Mary were brought out in a stronger light, that it might be seen how our human nature can be elevated by a new creation; and the Church taught her faithful children to dwell on the rank she holds in the great mystery of the Redemption, in that God had chosen a woman to crush the serpent's head; and that she was Immaculate, because sin is so hateful to Him,. that if the least shadow of it had passed over her, she could not have been His Mother; nor could the propitiation of the Cross have atoned for its malice if the Sacrifice had not been of stainless descent as man, as well as perfect as God. All this was not brought before the minds of men till they could bear it, and till it was necessary to their belief in the doctrine of the Incarnation. The knowledge of St. Joseph's office and power naturally followed. Perhaps St. Jerome was the first, and St. Bernard the next, in explaining the full sense of the Scriptures on the subject of St. Joseph. And when the heresy which raised human reason above grace had carried away three parts of the world into revolt against the authority of the Church, St. Teresa, who was especially raised up to stem the torrent by her prayers, was taught by God the greatness of St. Joseph's power, and the place he holds in the economy of grace. St. Teresa learnt much of him in her own simple way, and tells us how she was led to be the instrument of increasing the devotion to St. Joseph, not only in her Order, but throughout the Church. And she bears witness to the power of his intercession, and to his patronage of those who endeavour like him to lead an interior life with Christ. And there has been a chain of holy writers on the subject. Gerson wrote the life of St. Joseph in twelve poems called Josephina; St. Francis de Sales enumerates his several virtues; and we have the panegyrics of Bossuet, and the meditations of St. Alphonso, on the supernatural virtues of the Saint; while year by year we listen to the teaching of the Church upon his festivals. Let us not say, then, that we know little of St. Joseph; but rather, with full trust in his powerful intercession, end our meditations as we began, with
Sancte Joseph, ora pro nobis.
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