The Subjection of Jesus

The Evangelist sums up in these few words, “He was subject to them,” the history of eighteen years of the life of the Savior. Of what He did or what He said during that long space of time we have no record save this—that He upon whose bidding the angels wait received and obeyed the commands of Mary and Joseph. St. Luke has devoted a large portion of his Gospel to relating details of the early Infancy of Jesus, and of the last hours which He spent on earth, but in regard to His occupation during eighteen entire years of His adorable life he has only this brief sentence. Is it because the Son of God did nothing either mysterious or marvelous during that time? It would be impious to entertain such a thought. Is it because the Evangelist knew no more than he told? This is scarcely credible in the case of one who must have learned from the lips of the Blessed Virgin herself all the particulars which he gives of the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Adoration of the Shepherds, and who has not omitted one word of the “Magnificat,” or of the “Canticle of Zachary,” or of that of the ancient Simeon. How is it, then, that he has no more to tell us? It must be because the whole employment of Jesus during those eighteen years was to obey in everything the most holy Virgin and St. Joseph; so that, although He performed innumerable heroic acts of piety, humility, patience, zeal, and all other virtues, nevertheless, to all appearance, His sole occupation during that whole period was the doing the will of His parents. St. John, the beloved disciple and the last of the Evangelists, who treats of those portions of the life of Jesus which the rest had omitted or only lightly touched upon, has added nothing to these few words of St. Luke concerning the Hidden Life of Jesus, the Man-God, although his intimate association with Mary during many years after our Lord’s Ascension furnished him with the opportunity of knowing as much or even more than may have been communicated to the other. We may, therefore, conclude that Jesus applied Himself in such wise to the practice of obedience during those years that His life is fully described in the short words of the Evangelist—that He was subject to Joseph and Mary. But how much is contained in these words! They well deserve that we should bestow some deep consideration upon them, and specially as regards the obedience paid to Joseph; for Jesus was subject, not only to the Mother who had borne Him, but to the father whom He had Himself elected and endowed with the authority which appertains to the paternal relationship; and such authority in the family is supreme. That of the two parents is joint as respects the child, but it is the father’s which is necessarily absolute, since the wife also is subject to him; nor was it otherwise in the Holy Family.

Two truths, then, present themselves for our acceptance. First, that Joseph was invested with the right of commanding Jesus Christ; secondly, that he in effect used that right, the right of being obeyed by Him whom all things obey. We may notice in the Gospels that the Savior subjected Himself in different modes to three different classes of persons: to His Heavenly Father, to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, and to ecclesiastical and secular rulers. When He obeyed His Eternal Father, He did so as matter of obligation, because, considered in His Human Nature, He depended upon God, and naturally owed Him homage and submission. When He executed the orders of secular and ecclesiastical rulers, it was without any obligation whatsoever on His part, for no king, emperor, or pontiff possessed jurisdiction over the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, united to the Word, infinitely raised above them, and incapable of inferiority in their regard. But when He submitted Himself to the rule of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, He recognized in them a certain authority to command Him, and a certain superiority which no one else possessed; although (as St. Ambrose points out) this authority was not communicated to them independently of His will, but only because He was pleased thus to subject Himself to their rule and take them for His superiors of His own free choice.

Cardinal Toleto teaches that we must judge of the Savior in His submission to the Blessed Virgin and Joseph in the same manner as we regard His obedience to the Law of Moses. The Incarnate Word was in no way subject to that Law; yet, from an excessive love of humiliation and of obedience, He willed to submit to the necessity of keeping it when He abased Himself to receive the rite of circumcision, by which, according to St. Paul, the recipient publicly contracted the debt or obligation to fulfill all the precepts of the Law.¹ Thus Jesus, according to the rigor of justice, was in no way subject to Mary and Joseph, who, so far from being His natural superiors, were themselves His legitimate subjects. And well He manifested this when He separated Himself from them to remain behind in Jerusalem without asking their permission, nay, without even apprizing them of His intention. Nevertheless, even as He abased Himself from the height of His throne in Heaven to the lowliness of the crib, so also, when He became man, He humbled Himself from the elevation to which the supreme dignity of His Sacred Humanity raised Him, to place Himself in the quality of an inferior at the feet of Mary and Joseph. Sons are not bound to follow the guidance of their parents and to obey them precisely because they are their sons; for, if this were so, a son would never be emancipated, but so long as his father lived would remain under his control and dominion. But this is not the case, since a son may even become his father’s superior, or be raised to the position of his prelate. Respect he would always continue to owe him as his father, but not obedience. Children are bound to obey their parents as well as to hold them in all respect, chiefly on account of the dependent state in which they are born. Nature thus places them in subjection to their parents, from whom they receive nurture and instruction in all that is necessary for attaining and developing the perfection of man’s estate; which perfection is only, as it were, in germ and potentiality within them. Jesus, then, on coming into the world, did not place Himself under the guidance of the Blessed Virgin solely because she had contributed a portion of her pure blood to form a body for Him; neither did He subject Himself to Joseph solely because he was Mary’s spouse; but because in His birth He willed to be weak and helpless like other children who need their parents’ care and assistance.

It was not without design that the Incarnation was announced to the Blessed Virgin before the coming of the Word, and to Joseph after the accomplishment of the mystery. This design was not solely that we might be given to understand that Joseph had no part in it, but (as St. Ambrose² says) because the Word would not become incarnate without the free consent of Mary, nor be born as a poor and abject child, almost forsaken of the whole world, before our saint had accepted the care of Him and the charge of bringing Him up as his son, and had thus been invested with the right, bestowed on him by Heaven, of exercising authority over Him. Joseph, thy wife shall bear a Son, who shall feel all the rigors of cold, the sufferings of hunger and thirst, and all the infirmities of this life; He will thus be obliged to have recourse to thee. In this wise the Holy Spirit declares (as St. Thomas shows when expounding this passage of the Gospel) the power of St. Joseph, manifesting to us the necessity Jesus was pleased to have of him for His nurture, and the offices which he was to render to Him. This was also the teaching of the Angelic Doctor’s master, Albert the Great, who addresses St. Joseph in like manner, telling him that, although he had in no wise contributed to the conception of the Savior, nevertheless it must be confessed that he had been in a certain way necessary for His bringing up, in consequence of the condition in which He willed to come into the world.³ So that this Divine Infant seems to place Himself in the arms of Joseph and implore his aid, as though He was incapable of defending or supporting Himself, and thereby puts him in possession of all the authority which other fathers have over their children, an authority which we may say comes of natural right as well as by divine institution.

It implies no derogation from the dignity and supereminence of the holy Mother of God to affirm that, as regards the authority to command Jesus and rule His actions exteriorly, Joseph had received higher powers than even Mary herself; for this is only according to the order appointed by God, to which the Holy Family entirely conformed. The Gospel clearly proves that such was the case, by relating how the angels did not bear the orders of Heaven to Mary, but to Joseph. And wherefore save that he was the lord of this Sacred Family, who was in everything to be the prime mover of its actions, and to whom it appertained to determine in particular all that was necessary for the care and preservation of Jesus, his Son? A learned interpreter of Scripture⁴ observes that, although the Virgin was the first to know that her Son should be named Jesus, nevertheless the angel did not send St. Joseph to learn it from this sovereign lady, but informed him of it in a special apparition, and explained to him the signification of this Name, even as if he alone had been concerned in the matter. For (as this same Doctor continues to show) Joseph, in the capacity of father of the family, ought not to receive his orders from his spouse, nor was it meet that the lord of a house should not dispose things except by the expressed will of those who were dependent on him. The angels made the same declaration in favor of Joseph’s authority by revealing to him the necessity of the flight into Egypt, leaving the Blessed Virgin to be informed of the will of Heaven from the lips of her spouse; and, again, it was to him that the message was addressed when the term of exile had arrived. Moreover, when Joseph was apprehensive of going into Judea for fear of Archelaus, it was from the angel that he sought and received light, although at his side was the Queen of angels, and even the Creator of the angels. The Mother of God and the Incarnate Word Himself honored his authority by their silence, as being the head of the Family, to whom perfect obedience was due.

Joseph, then, accepted and used the authority given to him over Jesus, but with fear and trepidation, to use Origen’s expression.⁵ He never gave Him a command in anything except in humble obedience to the command which he had himself received; and he did so with the same reverence as that with which the angels serve Him in Heaven; and with good reason, for it was, indeed, a fearful thing to be charged with directing the conduct of a God, and to be placed as superior over Him in whose presence the highest of creatures, the most exalted of the angelic hierarchies, the Seraphim and the Cherubim, prostrate and annihilate themselves, casting their crowns at His feet. Moses was raised to a high dignity when he was appointed ruler and legislator of the people of God, but here we have one who was exalted to be ruler and governor of the God of that people. Nay, as Scripture tells us that the Lord said to Moses, “Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharao,”⁶ we may also be allowed to say that Joseph was, in a manner, set to be the God of God Himself. Words which, taken literally, are exaggerations or paradoxes become needful, so to say, in order to enable our minds to grasp a fact which, from its very magnificence and startling nature, is liable to evade our full apprehension—namely, the obedience of God to a man. It is said in the Book of Josue, when “the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down the space of one day”⁷ at the voice of the leader of Israel, “there was not before nor after so long a day, the Lord obeying the voice of a man”; but not for twenty-four hours alone did the Lord obey the voice of Joseph, but for well-nigh thirty years. Moreover, it must be noted that Josue prayed first to the Lord, and then commanded the sun, which was only a material creature of His hand, but Joseph commanded the Sun of Justice Himself, who had called all things out of nothing.

Next to the unapproachable dignity of the great Mother of God there is none that can be compared to that of Joseph. The great Chancellor of the University of Paris, Gerson, says that, as the obedience of Jesus to Joseph was an inestimable act of humility, it implies, correspondingly, in Joseph an incomparable dignity.⁸ This authority of Joseph is, in fact, so singular that, not only has no man, however favored and exalted, whether by miraculous or prophetical or apostolic powers, but no angel has ever shared it even for a moment, nor ever will during the eternal ages; and, if this be so, we may well hold, with Gerson, that the having received the obedience of the Supreme Lord of all things belongs to Joseph as an exclusive and unexampled honor. In this glory he stands alone with Mary. God said to St. Bridget: “My Son was so obedient that when Joseph said do this or that immediately He did it.”⁹ The blessed spirits of Heaven must have contemplated such a spectacle with inconceivable amazement and admiration: the Very Son of God neither moving a step, nor speaking a word, nor taking food or repose, save under Joseph’s direction. They must have marveled to behold Him—and that at an age when other sons are emancipated—willingly prolonging for eighteen years the period of submission, making Himself a humble apprentice in Joseph’s workshop and laboring with him at his trade; for it was in this character, as the Gospel tells us, He was familiarly known to His countrymen, who, scandalized afterwards at the wisdom and power with which He spoke, querulously asked, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not this the carpenter?”¹⁰ Sight more admirable to the angelic hosts was this self-humiliation of the Eternal Word than the creation of the visible world, when God laid the corner-stone thereof, and the morning stars together praised Him, and all the sons of God burst forth in joyful melody.¹¹

The Son of God once declared that He came, “not to be ministered unto but to minister”; at another time He said, “I am in the midst of you as he that serveth”;¹² and of this He gave a striking example before the last supper which He ate with His Apostles, when He took a towel, and girded Himself, and washed their feet;¹³ but for eighteen years He had performed the lowliest offices in the House of Nazareth. St. Basil, in the 4th chapter of his “Monastic Constitutions,” says that the Savior worked indefatigably all the day to serve and obey Mary and Joseph, who thus received the continual ministrations of their God. St. Justin, in his “Dialogue with Tryphon,” affirms that the Incarnate Word helped St. Joseph in his workshop, relieving him in his toils as far as human strength permitted; for this beloved Son had the greatest respect for His foster-father, and, according to St. Jerome, could not fail in this obligation. Necessitous persons look for no help in their domestic work but such as their children can give them; and (as St. Laurence Justinian observes) the Son of God, desiring in nothing to distinguish Himself from common people, was as a servant in the house of Mary and Joseph, that He might one day say with truth that He came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Again, St. Bonaventura says that Mary and Joseph were too poor to have servants, but the Lord of the World by His ministrations stood in the place of servant to them.

Let us, then, with the learned and devout Gerson, contemplate this King of Glory, this God of Majesty, this Sovereign Lord of men and of angels, demeaning Himself in such wise as regards His parents that He might well be believed to be their servant rather than their son; often (he says) lighting the fire, preparing the meals, washing the dishes, or carrying water from the fountain.¹⁴ This adorable Savior passed the last three years of His life in His public ministry and in marvelous acts of charity towards all who needed help; but the time was short which He devoted to this display of His goodness to His people in comparison with that which He had devoted to Joseph, never leaving his side for so large a portion of the life He spent on earth, occupied with the one abiding solicitude to obey him and render him filial duty and submission. “We are not to suppose,” says St. Bernard, “that the Mother of God and her spouse bade Him only do such things as were agreeable, and never what was difficult or would have been contrary to His natural inclination. We may believe, for instance, that Jesus would not so soon have left the assembly of Doctors in the Temple, where He was occupying Himself about the interests of His Eternal Father, had Joseph and Mary, who had been seeking Him for three days, been willing that He should remain longer. But, as He knew they desired to take Him with them, docile to His Mother’s voice, He arose and returned with them to Nazareth.”¹⁵ But all this was in accordance with His divine purpose and will, which was that, while inwardly reverencing and adoring Him, His parents should outwardly treat Him as other children are treated, using their own discretion and prudence in His guidance.

As it is impossible to fathom or duly comprehend the humility of the Son of God, who was pleased to occupy for so many years the position of an inferior in a poor carpenter’s house, placing Himself entirely under his orders and at his disposal, so also is it beyond our power adequately to realize the grandeur of Joseph’s exaltation. But the power given to him over the Savior and His most holy Mother was united in him to a proportionate fund of prudence and rectitude to enable him to sustain such a charge with all the decorum and perfection that was needed. Above all, let us consider what must have been the rectitude of his will, which was so exact that a God was pleased to accept it as the rule of His exterior actions. Holy Scripture and all theology, nay, even natural reason, teaches us that the Supreme Will of God must be the regulator of all the movements of our will. And yet Jesus Christ, who had the Law of His Father deeply graven in the midst of His heart, and who Himself was the Living Law, had imparted such equity and rectitude to the will of our saint that He subjected His own will to his. Hence we may infer, with the learned Chancellor, that, since the Savior of the world was infinitely exalted above all men and angels, and all things created or possible to be created, and one moment of His divine life was more precious in the sight of God than a million of ages of the life of all creation, it is a legitimate consequence of this truth to hold that it was a greater glory for Joseph to command Jesus, not for thirty years, as in fact he did, but for a single moment, than to have had absolute power unto the end of time over the whole creation of God. God, after the creation of the world, was not richer than He was before, neither did He become more powerful after the Incarnation of the Word than He had been for all eternity. Nevertheless, had it been possible that the authority of God should receive any increment, the creation and government of all the spheres would have added far less to it than the Incarnation of His Son, because, having hitherto governed only creatures, He then began to command His Divine Word. Now, it was this power which He was pleased to share with Joseph; so that the authority of this great saint may be said to have been magnified to such a degree as in some wise to bear a resemblance to that of God Himself. Oh, the incomparable greatness and glory of Joseph! What have we as yet done for the honor of him whom the Eternal King so much desireth to honor?

The following beautiful passage from the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Nottingham, Advent, 1887, which fell under our notice after the above was written, will serve to illustrate much of what has gone before, and to quicken and deepen our perception, in detail, of the life which the Holy Family led at Nazareth, and of the obedience which, in His divine humility, Jesus paid His parents.

“In the Holy House of Nazareth the Child was the teacher of His parents, not taught by them.¹⁶ The Eternal Wisdom of God could learn nothing from any creature, even in His Human Nature. Divine light, and teaching, and grace poured forth from His every act and word into the souls of His father and mother. Yet, while He thus enlightened them—the two most perfect of His creatures—His every look and word were those of a docile and obedient child. He followed their directions and obeyed their commands, and also the commands of His Heavenly Father, sent, not to Him directly, but to them for Him. He sat at their feet, hearing them and asking them questions, as He did with the priests in the Temple, while they always hung upon His words, and pondered them in their hearts, and wondered at His wisdom and at His answers. How marvelous must have been that school of Heavenly Wisdom, in which Mary and Joseph were but pupils, where even the Virgin of Good Counsel, the Seat of Wisdom herself, and her dear Spouse Joseph, the just man, the Son of David, did not always comprehend the Word that was said, but had to ponder divine mysteries in their hearts, waiting for further illuminations of the Holy Spirit! What perfect and consummate wisdom was there breathed forth! What inconceivable perfection and holiness of life was there displayed! The angels who looked on in adoring admiration might have reversed the words of our prayer, and have besought God that His will might be done by them in Heaven, as it was done by Jesus, Mary, and Joseph upon earth. For thirty years was Jesus subject to His parents, and for thirty years did that Paradise of Delights, the Holy House of Nazareth, continue to offer to us a model of every Christian virtue, a type and pattern of what our homes should be, or which, at least according to their measure, they should imitate.

“Dear children in Christ, visit in spirit that Holy House. Consider its poverty, and the rudeness and simplicity of its furniture. Behold also the exquisite cleanliness, order, and neatness which is manifested in every detail. Though poor, it is bright and cheerful, made so by the looks and words of loving hearts, and the labors of loving hands. The Eternal God, and the Queen of Heaven and her Spouse, chose not to have earthly magnificence around them. Had they possessed it, they, being perfect, would have sold what they had, and given to the poor. They chose the better part of voluntary poverty, working with their hands that even so they might have wherewith to give to those who were in need. They knew how many of the houses of their children must be poor and destitute. Therefore they took their part in poverty and destitution, to show that the deepest poverty can be enriched and made happy by the love of God and man.

“How can we sufficiently admire the unremitting, uncomplaining, self-sacrificing toil of Joseph, who was honored by the Eternal Father with the office of governing and working for His Eternal Son and the Ever-Blessed Virgin Mother! How shall we wonder at the sweet, gentle, assiduous labors of Mary, watching over the comfort of her husband and her Child, never forgetting nor omitting anything which might cheer or alleviate their earthly lot, and brightening their home with her beautiful and loving smiles! How shall we adore the gracious Child, advancing daily in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and man, manifesting ever more and more to His parents’ wondering eyes the hidden perfections of His Godhead, and captivating their love by His reverent obedience, and sweet attentions, and gentle loving ways! What a school of love was there! Jesus the Ocean of created love and charity; Mary full of grace and love as much as was possible to a pure creature; Joseph, the Guardian-Father of Jesus, the Virgin-Husband of Mary, the Companion and Disciple of both, and filled by God with that supreme love which such offices required. Every kind of created tenderness was there, following upon charity, and unspeakably dear to the God of charity, who has known how to create so many varieties and sweetnesses of love in the heart of man. There was the ineffable mutual love of husband for wife and of wife for husband, intensified as well as purified by the virginity of both. There was the love of father and the love of mother for their Child; for He was the Child of both, pre-ordained to be the recompense and bond of their virginal union. There was the love of the Child for His parents, intense and perfect, as must have been every kind of love in the Sacred Heart of God. . . . There was the pattern of charity, piety, and mutual service and kindness, which should be imitated in every Catholic home. There was also a pattern of religious observance and of the worship of God. We read in the Holy Scriptures how perfectly our Lord and His parents observed the law of Moses, even when they might have justly claimed to be dispensed from it. We know He and His Blessed Mother and St. Joseph were ever engaged in unceasing love and contemplation of the Divinity. We can imagine, then, something of the assiduity, reverence, and devotion of the spiritual exercises of the Holy Family in their humble home. Prayer of the heart without ceasing, prayer in common many times a day, prayer undistracted, prayer made with adoring reverence in the visible presence of God, prayer enriched with the divine blessing of Him who prayed. There also was the virtue of temperance in its perfection. In Jesus and Mary it found no evil passion to restrain, and in Joseph a Saint already made perfect in self-denial. Yet it lost nothing of its perfection or of the fullness of its practice. Obedience, self-sacrifice, humility, mortification of the appetites, meekness, chastity, modesty, sobriety—all concurred to the holiness and happiness of that home.”