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 One of the few (only?) Saints to explicitly argue for this is the august St Alphonsus of Luguori: “"We cannot doubt that St. Joseph was sanctified in his mother’s womb, at least in a certain degree, as was the case with the prophet Jeremiah and John the Baptist. And if Jesus Himself said of John the Baptist that 'among those born of women there has not risen one greater,' we may well believe that Joseph, who was destined to be the spouse of Mary and the foster-father of Jesus, was also sanctified in a very special manner." Yet there is no defined dogma on the matter. One must believe St Joseph was exceedingly holy, but it´s possible to believe that he sinned.

I beg the forgiveness of St Joseph if I am wrong here, but I tend to think Joseph had commited sin at some point in his life, and, if he did, 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 course. This takes immense courage! To be the foster Father of God Incarnate!

The main reason I think he did sin is how he reacts to God´s plan. He doubts, opposes God´s plan almost on instinct, he makes plans to abandon course. We can all identify with St Joseph at this point. Despite the fact this scripture refers to him as a just man, we can contrast his reaction with that of the Sinless Virgin: she, who—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 could or would. I would have a lot more questions at the very least.

There are three theories about why he decided to “put away quietly” Mary and Jesus. The first two are if Mary told him of her Conception and (1) he didn´t believe her and thought she had been unfaithful. The other was that he (2) did believe but counted himself unworthy. A third would be that Our Lady said nothing of the pregnancy, he noticed her carrying a child, and assumed the worst. This last option seems to put St Joseph in the best light, but its hard to imagine Our Lady not telling him the good news. In any case, he runs away from this good news. It´s his ship to command, and he plans to leave the sinless passengers behind with his first step. This I can connect with. I think almost every sinful human responds to God´s call this way, or at least feels this opposition in their chest. 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, it seems 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 resolve 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 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. In any case, if one considers the Church to have begun at the Annunciation rather than at Pentecost (pentecost is theoologically the most accurate so what I am saying here is a little off), but St Joseph was the first real penitent of the Church in this sense: St Joseph was the first person for whom the thought of his unjust treatment of the sweet Mother and omnipotent Child brought holy tears of contrition. Perhaps even to say “treatment” is to go too far as it says he was merely “minded” to put them away but did not. But, in any case, it´s 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 throw out your rightful wife and child, albeit quietly. 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 embrace your Blessed Wife and Divine Son. Please pray that I would see my sins clearly, confess them completely, with firm resolution to amend my life, and, with a share of that holy contrition, a contrition which crushes sin², 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.

---

LINK: Meditation on St Joseph´s Repentance & A Prayer before Confession

1. 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 than it actually is.

2. Tertia Pars. Suppliment q. 1 St Thomas: “Contrition is humility of the soul, crushing sin between hope and fear."