Joseph Prefigured in His Goodness, Clemency, and Generosity towards His Devout Clients, and Foreshadowed in Various Other Ways

Our compassionate Lord was pleased to ordain that the ancient Joseph should prefigure our glorious Patriarch not only in greatness and power, but also in his goodness, the gentleness of his soul, and the tenderness and magnanimity of his paternal heart. As long as the seven predicted years of plenty lasted few thought about Joseph; and possibly some may have scoffed at seeing him so intent on laying up so large a quantity of corn in the great storehouses of Egypt. But as soon as the years of terrible dearth had begun, then all remembered Joseph, and from all quarters men came to Egypt to buy for themselves their necessary food. And when the people cried out to Pharao for bread, the king told them to go to Joseph, and to do all that he should say to them; and Joseph opened in their behalf the vast granaries of Egypt.¹ Here we recognize the great readiness and benignity of our saint in assisting those who in prosperous times ungratefully forget him. As the ancient Joseph laid up such store of grain that he might hereafter provide for the famishing people, so also did our Joseph during his lifetime accumulate such great store of merit that he might hereafter powerfully aid his clients. For, in consideration of his great merits, when the people, afflicted by private or public calamities, raise their suppliant voices to Heaven for aid, God replies: “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he enjoins you”. Thus Joseph, after Mary, is appointed the perpetual dispenser of all heavenly favors; and, more generous in his gifts than the ancient Joseph, he opens to all the treasures of divine graces, not merely such as are earthly and temporal, but, what is much more, those which are spiritual and eternal. None need starve, knowing that Joseph holds open to them all the riches of Divine beneficence. And this would seem to be indicated in Holy Scripture, where it is said that in Egypt, that is, where Joseph was, there was bread; but everywhere else, that is, where he was not, universal death prevailed. How greatly, then, are the world and the Church indebted to St. Joseph; far more than was Egypt to the ancient patriarch! since, as St. Bernardine of Siena says, our saint has not merely provided for the Egyptians the bread which sustains the natural life, but has with the utmost solicitude nourished the elect with the Bread of Heaven; to wit, the most sweet Jesus, who infuses into us eternal life.² This, indeed, is distinctly stated and set forth in the solemn decree wherein St. Joseph was declared by our late holy Pontiff, Pius IX., Patron of the Universal Church.

Further, we may notice how the ancient Joseph treated his brethren, whom he recognized although they knew him not; how he filled their sacks with corn, and restored to them the price of it, besides giving them abundance of provision for their journey. They return, by his desire, with their youngest brother, Benjamin, in whom we see a figure of every innocent and dear client of St. Joseph. At the very sight of his young brother the patriarch is inwardly moved to tears, and says to him: “God be gracious to thee, my son”. But for all he orders a rich banquet to be prepared in his apartments, and finally, unable any longer to restrain the swelling tide of his love, he makes himself known to his brethren, saying: “I am Joseph, your brother. Be not afraid; it was God who sent me before you into Egypt for your preservation; it was God who made me as it were a father to Pharao; it was God who made me lord of his whole house, and governor in all the land of Egypt.”³ So saying, he presses them to his bosom, he sends immediately for his father, Jacob, that he may come and share in his joys and partake of his goods. He presents to Pharao the good old man, his father, together with his brethren and their families, and it is at Joseph’s recommendation that the king right willingly concedes to them the fairest and richest lands of Gessen. Who does not herein behold a picture of our Joseph’s conduct to those who are devout to him? He grants largely to them what they ask; nor does he need to be long entreated; he does not sell his benefits, but bountifully adds more than he is asked. As he receives with singular affection the innocent and implores for them a copious measure of Divine mercy, so also he does not drive away the guilty who, repentant, have recourse to him, but, after ingeniously causing them to recognize the ruin brought about by sin, he prepares for them a banquet of graces; and sometimes in the midst of their afflictions makes himself known to his clients by such an abundance of heavenly consolations as to move them to tears of tenderness. “Come,” he says, “come to my arms; I am Joseph, your brother; I will protect you; I will defend you. It is God who placed your salvation in my hands; He made me, as it were, father to the King of kings; He made me the reputed father of Jesus; He constituted me the patron of His whole House, that is, of the Universal Church, the sustaining arm of all the earth.” Thus, fulfilling his great office of loving protector, he presses all to his bosom; he presents them before the throne of God; he desires to save their entire families, and obtains for all by his powerful mediation the blessed land of saints, Paradise.

To obtain all these immense advantages by means of Joseph, the same condition must be observed which the king of Egypt required of those who came to ask for corn; namely, that they should strictly do what Joseph enjoins: “Go to Joseph; and do all that he shall say to you”.⁴ God imposes the same condition on those who would obtain graces from St. Joseph; they must promptly and faithfully do what he bids them. And what else does Joseph tell us, both by word and example, but that we should fulfill the Divine law, even as he fulfilled it? Without the fulfillment of God’s commandments it is vain to hope for favors. But whosoever fulfills them perfectly, to him appertain, no doubt, all those heavenly and earthly blessings which the good old man, Jacob, at the close of his days called down on his son Joseph: “The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren”.⁵ This prediction of Jacob was only partially fulfilled in the ancient Joseph, because he was not present, nor could he be present, at the coming of the Desire of the everlasting hills, the expected Messias. It was fully accomplished only in our Joseph, since in him alone, according to the Fathers, were summed up and epitomized all the blessings and all the virtues of the patriarchs who had preceded him; and Joseph alone had the exceptional privilege of being the first, after Mary, at the birth of the Desire of the everlasting hills, the first to see Him, to receive Him into his arms, to embrace Him, nurture Him, and possess Him as his dearest son. This is the reason why Jacob foretold that our Joseph would be blessed in preference to all his brethren; that is, that he would be privileged above all the other saints on earth and in Heaven. And it is, indeed, most consoling for us to behold this heavenly advocate of ours so clearly prefigured, not only in his wisdom, in his power, and in the high honor and esteem he enjoys in the presence of God, but also in the readiness and solicitude of the great charity he has for us, qualities which all combine to render his patronage most valuable and efficacious. Wherefore, if he undertakes to plead our cause with the Eternal Judge, we are safe, we have won our suit.

But it was not alone in the person of the ancient patriarch Joseph that our saint was prefigured. We may see him also in Abraham’s trusted servant, Eliezer, whom he sent to fetch a wife for his son Isaac from among his own kindred, and who escorted her in safety to her new and distant home.⁶ As Rebecca was a type of the Blessed Virgin, so was Eliezer a type of St. Joseph, whose office it was to watch over and protect his immaculate spouse during a large proportion of her stay on earth. Again, in Mardochai, the uncle and guardian of Queen Esther, herself also a figure of Mary, we cannot fail to recognize a typical resemblance to the holy Joseph, guardian and protector of the Queen of Saints and Virgin Mother of the Incarnate Son of God.⁷ Indeed the Fathers of the Church and other spiritual writers have seen him mystically represented under many forms and in many passages of Scripture. Thus, in the Canticles it is said, “My Beloved”—that is, Jesus—“feedeth among the lilies”;⁸ and what are these lilies? asks the Abbot Rupert. Certainly, after Jesus, there are none purer than Mary and Joseph, nor will there ever be. In Genesis⁹ we read that the patriarch Jacob beheld in a dream a ladder which reached from earth to Heaven; and on the last step of this ladder the Lord Himself was leaning. This ladder is Mary, and the last step of this ladder, says the same spiritual writer, is Joseph, on whom Jesus Himself in His childhood leaned.¹⁰ In Abraham, Sara, and Isaac the Fathers recognize the Holy Family; that is, in Abraham they see Joseph, in Sara Mary, in Isaac Jesus. Again, God willed that a veil of violet, purple, and scarlet, wrought with embroidery and goodly variety, should conceal the sacred ark from the profane, and divide the sanctuary from the holy of holies. This mysterious veil was a figure of Joseph, who was to hide from the profane the heavenly virginity of Mary and the Divine origin of Jesus. So also God commanded Moses to construct over the ark the propitiatory of purest gold, and to place two cherubim of gold at the sides, which, extending their wings, should guard and cover the propitiatory.¹¹ This propitiatory is Jesus, and the cherubim of gold are Mary and Joseph, who guard, protect, and have the care of Jesus. If we are to credit the writer on Jewish antiquities, Arias Montanus, one of these cherubim had the form of a beautiful young man, and the other of a lovely maiden. The prophet Isaias speaks of a sealed book placed in the hands of one who is learned, who, being bidden to read it, should answer, “I cannot, for it is sealed”.¹² St. John Chrysostom, commenting on this passage, says: “What can this sealed book be save the most immaculate Virgin? and into whose care should it be consigned? Certainly into that of the priests. And to whom should it be given? To the artisan Joseph.” Isaias, then, prophesied of Joseph. Further on also he points to Joseph, where he says: “The young man shall dwell with the virgin; and the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride”;¹³ with reference to which Gerson and others say, “This is Joseph with Mary”.¹⁴

I will conclude this chapter with a beautiful explanation which St. Francis de Sales has left us in his Spiritual Conferences of a passage in the Canticles which gives great honor to St. Joseph. In the said book¹⁵ the August Trinity, gathered, as it were, in council for the execution of the great mystery of the Incarnation, speak thus: “Our sister, that is, Mary, is little, that is to say, most humble, and she is an immaculate virgin. What shall We do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to for marriage? If she be a wall, let Us build upon it bulwarks of silver; if she be a door, let Us join it together with boards of cedar.” Thus the Mother of God, according to the Divine council, was to be a virgin and a spouse; and her spouse, supereminently chaste, so far from being in the least degree an impediment to her virginity, was to guard and protect it, rendering it freer and more secure, and sheltered from every external contradiction. So that, if Mary by her vow of virginity should have raised, as it were, before her a golden wall of defense, God, to tranquilize her still further, gave her as her spouse St. Joseph, who was to be to her on all occasions as a bulwark of silver; and, though this House of Gold was closed with an adamantine door, God, in giving her Joseph, strengthened it with an incorruptible defense. Hence St. Francis de Sales says: “What is the glorious St. Joseph but a strong bulwark for our Blessed Lady? Joseph was given to her as a companion in order that her purity might be more marvelously protected in its integrity under the veil and shadow of holy matrimony. If the Virgin be a door, said the Eternal Father, We do not choose that the door should be open, because it is the eastern door through which no one can enter or pass;¹⁶ therefore is it needful to fortify it with incorruptible wood, that is, give her a companion in purity, even the great Patriarch St. Joseph, who for this reason was to surpass all the saints and angels, and the very cherubim themselves, in that eminent virtue of virginity.”¹⁷