Meditation on St Joseph´s Repentance & A Prayer before Confession
Meditation on St Joseph´s Repentance and Prayer for His Assistance in the Same
Matt 1:19-25 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.
Meditation: St Joseph, the First Penitent
I´ve always found it edifying to find points of identification with the Saints. Finding these points is like finding their weak spots, it´s how you can get them to help you. And the greater the saint, the more difficult it is to find a point of identification. Mary never even sinned. She did suffer, so we can look there. But, at least in some catholic circles, there has been open debate about whether St Joseph ever sinned.1 I beg his forgiveness if I am wrong here, but I tend to think he did, and he shows himself to be an all the more heroic member of the Holy Family for this reason: He is the only one who ontologically speaking doesn´t belong, yet, he still submits to God´s will. Of course, by God´s will he did belong, and was even called to steer the ship. But him taking the leading role of father, with a sinless wife and divine Son in tow makes him all the more remarkable. He is cruising for constant humiliation at the hands of these two, yet he still turns around. But the main reason I think he did sin is how he reacts to God´s plan. He runs, He abandons, He rejects it out of hand. We can all identify with St Joseph at this point.
Contrast this with the Sinless Virgin, she, upon the Annunciation of St Gabriel of the Divine Plan for her to bear the Messiah. She has one question, and a brilliant one: how is this possible? St Gabriel answers tercely but Our Lady apparently heard enough to offer her consent to the plan. She says, Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Basically she reacts perfectly, like no sinful human would. I would have a lot more questions at the very least. Contrast this with her spouse Joseph, there are two theories about why he decided to “put away quietly” Mary and Jesus. One was that he didn´t believe her and thought she had been unfaithful. The other was that he did believe but counted himself unworthy. Either way, he runs away from the good news. It´s his ship to command, and he plans to throw the sinless passengers overboard with his first step. This I can connect with, I think almost every sinful human responds to God´s call this way. No one captured this sort of fallen psychology better than W.H. Auden in his For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio with the following recitation preceeding the Annunciation in the play:
If the muscle can feel repugnance, there is still a false move to be made;
If the mind can imagine tomorrow, there is still a defeat to remember;
As long as the self can say "I," it is impossible not to rebel;
As long as there is an accidental virtue, there is a necessary vice:
And the garden cannot exist, the miracle cannot occur.
For the garden is the only place there is, but you will not find it
Until you have looked for it everywhere and found nowhere that is not a desert;
The miracle is the only thing that happens, but to you it will not be apparent,
Until all events have been studied and nothing happens that you cannot explain;
And life is the destiny you are bound to refuse until you have consented to die.
Therefore, see without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking:
The Inevitable is what will seem to happen to you purely by chance;
The Real is what will strike you as really absurd;
Unless you are certain you are dreaming, it is certainly a dream of your own;
Unless you exclaim -- "There must be some mistake" -- you must be mistaken.
St Joseph learned this the hard way. Though incomparably holy, we must believe he could still imagine a tomorrow apart from his Destiny. He could still say “I” and thus he hesitated, fled. It is no accident that the Blessed Virgin avoided “I” entirely, saying, “Be it done unto me.” But reflect on how great his contrition must have been after the coming of the angel! Whether he believed or doubted, after the angel corrects him, he basically has to come to terms both with the fact he has perhaps the greatest role of a non-divine male in human history, and also that his very first step as Father was to put the Mother and Child on the street. The Messiah! We lack the sort of nobility and honor common to more primitive peoples thus its hard to imagine the horror of St Joseph in this moment. If we could experience a taste of it, we´d dig our own graves and jump in to escape it, lacking the other virtues to hold us above ground and suffer it as St Joseph must have. Turning back to assume his role after such a terrible start, after demonstrating his total unworthyness, we must be thankful for St Joseph. Not merely for assuming the role but for his example. He did what most of us do, and thus we can call to him for the assistance we need. I imagine him asking the Blessed Virgin to tell her side of the story again, and marvelling with incredulity and envy, “oh you just said fiat, did you?” In any case, St Joseph was the first real penitent of the Church, he was the first person for whom the thought of his unjust treatment of the sweet Mother and omnipotent Child brought holy tears of contrition. Thus, its good to ask him for help when we are horrified in our own abandonment of the Blessed Mother and Divine Child. He knows our misery! So I have found meditating on his misstep here and his contrition after being corrected by the angel to be an edifying thing to do with my mind as I wait in the line for confession. After all, he´s the first penitant, perhaps the greatest penitent of all. So we can ask for a measure of his greatness in this regard. I usually pray something like this:
Prayer to St Joseph in Preparation for Confession
Dearest St Joseph, you were the first penitent of the Church. When greeted with the good news of the Gospel from the mouth of the Blessed Virgin, news of the coming of the Lord to save your people, also news of your great honor to be the Father of the Messiah, Father of the Incarnation of the Living God, you had the intention to run, to abandon duty, to thrown out your rightful wife and child. In doing so, you intended to betray the salvation of your people and even the hope of the whole world! You were only saved by the coming of the Angel. St Joseph, I have done the same and worse. With my sins, I´ve wished to put Our Lady and Lord out on the street, and have yet to recieve the correction of an angel, so I ask for your intercession instead. Help me turn around and to run back to your Blessed Wife and Divine Son. Please pray that I would see my sins clearly, confess them completely, and, with a share of that holy contrition, a contrition which crushes sin, which befell you after the correction of the angel, help me return with broken heart to embrace and serve the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and Divine Child. Amen.
I have a friend who read a book by Fr Donald Calloway “Consecration to St Joseph“ that makes this claim. I fear my contact with him and discussion with him made me think this was a more commonly held theological opinion amongst catholics. I have been unable to find any catholic Saint or Doctor of the Church to concurr with this opinion.
I could be wrong but I thought the bible said he abandoned them because she was suddenly pregnant and Jewish law was harsh on those who cheat on their spouse so out of mercy he quietly left them.
I don't think this is accurate description of St. Joseph. He was chosen to be the spouse of the Blessed Mother, you should give this more thought, because God doesn't choose like men. For fear of offending God, I had to write this comment, please think about St. Joseph mentioned in the Bible as a just man. He was also a king, as he was from the line of David, so he didn't behave like men behave today, that includes his thoughts. He too had an angel reveal the Incarnation to him, so like many saints believe, it's possible that he was justified in the womb like St. John the Baptist. He had to be sinless, because he was to be called father by the Son of God.
Everything about the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph has to be seen in relation to Christ, otherwise, we can make an inaccurate picture of these saints. St. Joseph is called the Terror of demons, because he was never under their slavery, he had nothing to be sorry for, (like St. John the Baptist,) because God willed for him to hold the high office of father to God, the Son.