Sleeping St. Joseph

St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary loved each other, and like most young engaged couples, perhaps there is not a day that they did not look forward excitedly to their wedding day. This must have been their human experience before the supernatural entered the picture that would change the course of history.

Being a just man, St. Joseph must have first agonized with the prospect of exposing the Blessed Virgin to the pain and hardship of being an unwed mother. And as our early Fathers had written, the reality of taking a great sanctifying task in this divine adventure looms before St. Joseph as He [Christ] is now entrusted to his paternal care. However, Fr. Luis David S.J. in his homily said, St. Joseph did the best thing by taking a nap. The angel of God could then recalibrate his thoughts and activate his imagination enough to believe Mary’s story, and take her and the Child into his home, just so our Salvation History could proceed in keeping with God’s plan.

He woke up and did exactly what God wanted him to do; he became a provider, but most of all, gave Jesus, with the help of the Blessed Virgin, necessary lessons to form a man who will someday face the Cross to save us all.

May we seek solace to St. Joseph who had the opportunity to live and care for the Mother of God and the Word Incarnate.