Praised be Jesus Christ, blessed be the Virgin Mary, our Mother. Saint Joseph pray for us. Amen.
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. When the
Holy Family fled to Egypt, they had to make a long and dangerous journey through the desert for about
20 days. According to an ancient tradition, they settled in Matarieh, on the outskirts of Cairo,
near Heliopolis, which is about 310 miles or 500 kilometers from Bethlehem. Saint Joseph,
taking the Child Jesus to Egypt, thus becomes the first missionary. Perhaps, for this reason,
it was not by coincidence because coincidence doesn't exist that Christianity flourished in
Egypt in the first centuries, giving rise to great theologians and holy monks such as Origen
of Alexandria, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Anthony the Great also known as Saint Anthony the Abbot
and so many thousands of monks, who lived in the desert of the Thebaid, giving their lives totally
to prayer and to the service of God. Perhaps, for this reason, it is not by coincidence also
that the faith in Saint Joseph developed in Egypt much earlier than in other places.
The Holy Family was the perfect family, where there was love, union, understanding and where
God was present in the person of Jesus. It has always been said that, to form a true marriage,
three are needed: the husband, the wife and God. If God is missing, the marriage will not be happy,
because it will lack the love of God, which is essential for marital happiness.
In the Holy Family, Jesus was the center of the life of Joseph and Mary.
Saint Joseph and the blessed Mary's entire existence was aimed at serving Him,
loving Him, and making Him happy. How beautiful, if all parents did the same!
But, in addition to being a united and happy family, the Holy Family was at the center of
the history of the world. It had a universal mission. The future of humanity depended on it.
For this reason, the figure of Saint Joseph is essential in this vision on a universal level. His
participation in the mystery of the Incarnation places Saint Joseph, together with the Virgin
Mary, at the center of human history. For this reason, Saint Joseph cannot be just any man or
any saint, because in order to fulfill his mission well, God granted him the graces that he needed.
Saint Joseph needed physical strength to take care of his family and to provide food for the Family
with his daily work. The Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, says that when Saint Joseph got married,
he was about 30 years old. Saint Joseph had the fullness of his human strength and the
maturity to face all his responsibilities. Before his marriage to the Virgin Mary,
Saint Joseph was a just man, as the Sacred Scriptures say in Matthew chapter 1 verse 19.
He perhaps was a holy man, but, after marrying the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph
began his unstoppable race toward sanctification. The daily contact with Jesus and the Virgin Mary
made him reach heights never imagined by him and that only God can give to those who have given
their entire life to His service. No man will ever be able to reach Saint Joseph in holiness,
because no one has been able to love as he did his two great loves: Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
That is why we say, with complete confidence, that Saint Joseph is the most saintly of the Saints.
It is beautiful to think of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph in the late afternoon, after a day
of work or on Saturdays, days of rest, praying together, holding hands or talking about Jesus,
who was the center of their lives. Let's imagine Saint Joseph making some wooden toy for the Child
Jesus. How lovingly would he do it! Let's imagine Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, playing with
Jesus as two parents in love with their child. And His son, expressing all His love with kisses
and hugs to those happy parents. Of course there were no shortage of difficult days, when there was
no work and there was not enough money for food. How Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary would suffer
because they could not give Jesus everything they wanted to give! But they suffered in silence
and offered everything with love and everything seemed small as long as they had Jesus with them.
According to tradition, Saint Joseph was a carpenter.
This is how Saint Justin Martyr, who was from Palestine, says in the second century:
When Jesus arrived at Jordan, they believed Him to be the son of Joseph the carpenter
and he did not make a pretense of what He was, because he was considered a carpenter. Indeed,
during Jesus' stay among men, He exercised a trade, made chariots and yokes,
thus setting an example of justice and work. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem states that in his time,
around the 4th century, visitors to Jerusalem were still shown a tile-shaped piece of wood,
carved, that as Saint Cyril of Jerusalem said, was made by Saint Joseph and Jesus.
When Jesus began His public life, Saint Joseph was not mentioned, who seems to have died, since
he did not attend the wedding at Cana. Saint Mark the Evangelist himself, when he speaks of Jesus,
names Him as the son of Mary, since surely she was already a widow; since, otherwise, Saint Mark the
Evangelist would have said that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary. The people of Nazareth,
speaking of Jesus, say: This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary? Mark chapter 6 verse 3.
The Holy Family was so united that they were three in one. Someone has called them the trinity
on earth. The three Hearts were one. We imagine them like this: A great heart, the divine Heart
of Jesus, and within it, the immaculate Heart of Mary; and within the Heart of Mary, the most
chaste Heart of Joseph. Three hearts in ONE. Why? Because the best way to get to the Virgin Mary
is through Saint Joseph and the best way to get to Jesus is through the Virgin Mary. The fastest
way to get to Jesus is through Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary: Joseph, Mary and Jesus.
Saint John Eudes says: After God, Saint Joseph has the first place in the Heart of the Virgin Mary,
because the Virgin Mary fully belongs to Saint Joseph as the wife fully belongs to her husband;
thus the Heart of Mary belongs to Joseph.
On the other hand, it is clear that Jesus is one Heart with Mary, and as Mary is one Heart
with Joseph, it turns out that Joseph has only one Heart with Jesus and with Mary.
Saint Leonard of Port Maurice says: The staircase, which leads to heaven, has three steps:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Your prayers are entrusted, first of all, to Saint Joseph,
Joseph gives them to Mary, and Mary gives them to Jesus. Going down, the answers pass from Jesus
to Mary, and Mary offers them to Joseph. Jesus does everything for Mary, because He is her son.
And Joseph gets it all by being the husband of Mary and the father of Jesus.
Let us consecrate ourselves to the three Hearts, that is the heart of Jesus,
the heart of the Virgin Mary and the heart of Saint Joseph;
and live within them to be well protected and defended from all adversity.
After the death of Joseph; Jesus and Mary and some of Joseph's relatives remained in Nazareth.
Until the second century there were relatives of Saint Joseph in Nazareth;
relatives, therefore, of Jesus too, who had a very important role in preserving
the Christian memory of the place and who included references to Saint Joseph.
In the fourth century, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Jerome already
spoke a lot about the virginity of Saint Joseph, about his spiritual paternity of Jesus Christ
and about his true marriage to the Virgin Mary, presenting Saint Joseph as a model of Christian
virtues. In this same 4th century, the feast of Saint Joseph already existed that was celebrated
on July 20th. In the great basilica built by Saint Helena, Constantine the great's mother,
in the 4th century, there was a chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph.
Praised be Jesus Christ, blessed be the Virgin Mary, our Mother. Saint Joseph pray for us. Amen.