Joseph's Love and Life of Bliss

Heaven is the birthplace and home of love. Its blessed inhabitants love much, love for ever, and love only what is worthy of love. Joseph, however, was blessed by anticipation, for he passed all his days in the exercise of divine love, and lived a life of love upon earth. The Evangelists do not record a single word of this great saint; he observed, indeed, a marvelous silence. Not, however, an ungracious silence. The silence of ordinary men, as well as their irrepressible flow of words, is often merely selfish. But Joseph’s silence and his speech were alike prompted and regulated by the law of charity, a law which excludes both garrulity, on the one hand, and, on the other, a reserve which might offend. We may, therefore, say with truth that Joseph never uttered a superfluous word without thereby attributing to him a taciturnity which would have rendered him unwelcome and distasteful to his neighbors. His words, indeed, were never superfluous, for they had their source in love, but they were also ruled by his will, not forced from him as the expression of his feelings. Hence, we repeat, Joseph’s silence was marvelous. How, indeed, would he whose heart was burning with the sacred love of Jesus pour itself forth in converse with men? But even as regards that one absorbing occupation of his heart, his words were few. True love is not talkative; even in the interior of his holy home Joseph spoke little; and it was the same with Mary, his spouse. Their hearts met and were united in this one love, and few words were needed to express mutually what they inwardly felt and lived upon. But we shall have more to say later on of Joseph’s silence as well as of his habitual state of contemplation.

When God elects any one to fill a high office or undertake a great work, He gives him, not only a corresponding elevation of mind, but, above all, much largeness of heart. We see how He dealt with Solomon to fit him to rule a great kingdom: “God gave to Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart as the sand that is on the sea-shore”.¹ So, when He prepared Joseph to hold the place of father to the Savior, He must have bestowed on him a heart larger beyond measure than what He gave to the King of Israel, that he might be able to love as a father the Son of God Himself; and this, according to the Abbot Rupert,² is what the Eternal Father did when He called Joseph to a participation, not only of His dignity, but of His love as a father. He either formed in him an entirely new heart or infused an exceeding increase of tenderness into the heart which he already possessed. Certain it is that He filled him with a love surpassing in generosity and fervor that of any other father; for it was needful that Joseph’s paternal love should be in a measure proportioned to the perfections of this Adorable Son. Natural love is sufficient for earthly parents, but the love which our saint bore to Jesus, as His appointed father, was not a mere human love, it was also a supereminently divine love; for, in loving his Son he was exercising the most perfect love of God; since He whom he called his Son was at the same time his God.

As in creatures all is finite, so all is capable of increase. What, then, may we imagine, must have been the growth of this ardent love in the heart of our saint during the long period which he spent with Jesus! Those things which tend naturally to add to human love, in him ministered fresh fuel to the divine flame within him. The constant association with the Son of God made Man and given to him as his own Son, the serving Him and being served by Him for thirty years, and, we must add, their marvelous resemblance created a bond between them which was unequaled of its kind. This resemblance, we are told, by that devout client of St. Joseph, the Chancellor Gerson, in his magnificent panegyric of the Saint before the Council of Constance, was most remarkable in his countenance and even in all his outward demeanor. This likeness would be to a certain extent natural, inasmuch as Joseph was nearly related to Mary, but it was, moreover, the expression and result of that extraordinary similarity of temperament and disposition which bound together Jesus and Joseph by a greater natural sympathy than had ever existed between two individuals. And, as nature thus tends through consanguinity to produce a resemblance which fosters love, and as its power in their case had been peculiarly enhanced, so may it also be piously believed (as has been already suggested) that the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of the Incarnate Word heightened this similarity and conformity in such a manner as to add a supernatural character to the relationship which was to unite Jesus with Joseph by a closer bond than ever united a son to his human father.

Another powerful source of love is mutual knowledge. Without some kind of knowledge there can, properly, be no love; and, generally speaking, those love our Lord best who have the greatest knowledge of His perfections. But to whom were those adorable perfections made known so fully as to Joseph; to whom first—with the exception of Mary—was revealed His Name of Savior, which contains them all in compendium? How exalted must have been Joseph’s perception of the majesty of the Incarnate Word, enclosed in the sacred womb of the Virgin, even previously to this revelation, since it was needful for an angel to descend from Heaven to prevent his withdrawing from his august spouse, as in his humility he was about to do! Such is the opinion, at least, of many holy doctors, as being the most probable, and, at the same time, the most honorable to Joseph and to our Blessed Lady. It was given to Joseph to be the first to know and become enamored of the riches of the Savior in the poverty of the crib, and lovingly to adore the splendor of His glory in the obscurity of the stable. The familiarity to which he was admitted with the Divine Babe, and all the mysteries of the Infancy, must have inundated his soul with ineffable sweetness. Mary pondered them in her heart, and so did Joseph likewise; and all were food for love. And what shall we say of the thirty years? Who, save the Blessed Mother herself, ever enjoyed so close and prolonged an intimacy with Jesus as did Joseph? Who, then, can have equaled him in love? Holy souls have dwelt on the thought that for many long miles during the flight into Egypt Joseph carried Him in his arms, partly to shield Him from the wintry blast in the folds of his cloak, and partly—especially during the early part of the journey—to conceal Him; and all that time he felt the beatings of the Sacred Heart against his own, and learned secrets which had never been confided even to the blessed spirits in Heaven.

Again, how much does suffering nourish love, and endear the beloved one for whom the suffering is undergone! We see this constantly in the case of fond parents. But what parent ever suffered so much for his son as did Joseph for Jesus? All his sufferings were on His account, and were brought upon him because he was father to the Messias. He was the first to suffer persecution for Him. The martyrs suffered because they were disciples of the Son of God, but Joseph paid the penalty of having been made father to the Incarnate Word. All, however, that he endured was joy unutterable to his soul, because it was for Jesus, and gladly would he have welcomed tenfold more cruel sufferings, that he might give the Savior fresh proofs of the tender love of his heart. And what father ever toiled for his son as did Joseph for Jesus? Other fathers, it is true, concern themselves much for their children’s interests, still those children are not their exclusive thought or occupation. But Joseph was so entirely occupied with the interests of Jesus that everything else may be said to have had no place in his thoughts, or to have been perceived and valued only as subservient to that one object.

And not his external actions alone were given to this dear Son, whatever labor, trouble, fatigue, or privation might thus be involved; but, as the Incarnate Word, like His Eternal Father, desires to be served in spirit,³ thus also did Joseph serve Him, never permitting his mind to form a thought, or his heart to entertain an affection, which did not tend to the service of Jesus. The inordinate fondness which not a few parents feel for their children is the unhappy source of many of the sins into which they are themselves betrayed; but Joseph’s love for his Son could be only a source of sanctity to him, and the zeal which he evinced to consecrate his whole being to His service is an incontestable proof of that sanctity, as well as the fruit of the love which he bore Him. For this love and this sanctity were, in fact, one and the same thing. Jesus was his God, and, in loving Him, he was loving the Supreme Good as the blessed love Him in Heaven. We must ever bear in mind that there was this singular character in all the acts of Joseph, whether external or internal, which gave them (as Suarez observes) an eminent value. They were performed immediately towards the person of Christ, so that, just as the sin of those who crucified our Lord was increased in magnitude by the dignity of His person, so with much fuller reason were Joseph’s acts of piety and love towards the Person of Jesus beyond measure enhanced, since he performed them with perfect knowledge and love of Him who was their object; a knowledge and a love surpassing that of the very angels themselves and of beatified spirits.

Joseph’s life on earth was, indeed (as we have said), an anticipation of the bliss of those glorified spirits. Bliss implies the full satisfaction of all the desires of the soul, which, having obtained what it sought, and possessing what it longed for, without possibility of losing it, has ceased from all solicitude and is in perfect peace. The soul in a state of bliss is like a body which has found the center which attracted it, and where it remains undisturbed. Men are continually hoping to find this repose in such earthly objects as allure them, but, when they have obtained them, their hearts are still restless and dissatisfied, because man was made for God, the Supreme and Infinite Good, and without Him cannot know true bliss. But in Jesus Joseph possessed his God, he possessed Him who forms the joy of the blessed in Heaven; and hence he enjoyed that perfect peace which results from the fulfillment of all the heart’s desires. Jesus and Mary were his; what else could he desire? If anxiety for his precious charge troubled at times the surface, so to say, of his soul, it never ruffled the depths below—the inner man. All was tranquility there. His heart was always replete with satisfaction. No man (says a learned writer) was ever so blessed on earth as Joseph.⁴

Perfect bliss implies, besides the possession of the desired object, the soul’s full appreciation and taste of it. In order that this spiritual taste should be intense and penetrating, the soul must be very pure and joined in closest union with God; for, even as food most agreeable to the taste can impart no sweetness to the palate if not in contact with it, so, in order that the soul may taste God, it must be united to Him perfectly. Both these conditions were found, in a supereminent degree, in Joseph. He had ever led a most pure and innocent life, and had merited (as we have seen) the title of “just”. His obedience to God was so entire that (according to St. John Damascene⁵) he never failed during his whole life to observe all the precepts of the Law with an exactness worthy of the father of Him who came, not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. This, however, would have been little had he not also embraced all the truths of the Christian faith; nay, before the Gospel was published he observed all the Evangelical counsels with an unequaled perfection, so that an illustrious Doctor of these later times describes him as uniting in one an excellent disciple of Moses, an incomparable Christian, and a spiritual man of the highest perfection.⁶ The ancient Joseph, who in his purity, as in other things, was a type of our saint, spoke, when tempted to evil, as if he enjoyed a holy impossibility of sinning: “How can I do this wicked thing, and sin against my God?”⁷ In how much higher a degree must this have been true of our Joseph, penetrated as he was by such great lights of faith, revealing to him the claims of God upon our fidelity and love with far greater clearness than the Joseph of Genesis could have possessed. And, in effect, how could he have been judged worthy of the honor of ruling and guiding two persons who were impeccable, the one by nature, the other by grace, unless he, too, had been in a certain sense incapable of sinning? For it would have been neither reasonable nor becoming that a wandering star should direct the movement of those heavenly lights, in which there was nothing either defective or irregular. St. John Chrysostom invites us to witness the purity of his soul, never stained by the corruption of sin;⁸ and the learned Nicetas ascribes to him “a soul irreprehensible in all things”.⁹ The United Greeks also honor him in their hymns and prayers as a man altogether holy. Such a one, as exempt from sin as it was possible for a creature to be, was marvelously disposed and fitted to taste of heavenly sweetness. We have already alluded more than once to the close union of the soul of Joseph with Jesus, a union so close that it may be characterized as a complete transformation; that to which the highest contemplatives aspire in this life, and in which, in proportion as it is attained, the soul loses itself blissfully in God, to lead henceforth a life altogether heavenly.

It would be superfluous to add more; particularly as no accumulation of words or of comparisons could adequately explain or illustrate a state so singular and exceptional as that to which Joseph was exalted. Sufficient has been said to prove that the soul of our saint must have been immersed in a bliss which was, in a way, similar to that of the saints in Heaven. St. Irenæus affirms that he served Jesus with a continual joy;¹⁰ and a Doctor of later times has declared his belief that Joseph died because unable any longer to sustain the excess of joy caused him by the presence of the Savior.¹¹

But one main difference, a difference to his advantage, existed between the bliss of Joseph and that of the saints in Heaven. Great as is their joy it bears no fruit. Nothing can add to the measure of their essential beatitude, because nothing can now increase their sanctity. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, is no holier now than when first he was admitted centuries ago to behold the Face of God in Heaven, and receive his everlasting reward. But Joseph, plunged in an ocean of joy while yet on earth, was meriting every moment its further increase, even by his very joys themselves, which were the fruit of love; and that love, while he was still “in the way,” was a merit as well as a reward. The measure of the saints’ merits who have arrived at the goal was closed at the instant of their death, and their recompense was determined, which could henceforth receive no addition save what was accidental. Joseph, while he lived on earth, merited its increase continually by his practice of the most excellent virtues; we cannot wonder, then, if his joy increased to such a degree as to consume his mortal life, as the Doctor just quoted maintains. Another source of the growth of his joys may be found in the progressive display of the glory of the God-made-Man. For the Savior, accommodating during His Infancy the manifestation of His person to the order of nature, revealed to this beloved father fresh rays of His divine perfections, as He advanced in age.¹² One day He would give proof of His infinite wisdom, another, of His absolute power over creatures; on another occasion it was His prudence or His mercy which He would exhibit. This Divine Flower of the Field, budding and blossoming on the Rod of Jesse, day by day unfolding Its lovely flowers and giving forth a fragrance of Paradise, must have filled the heart of the virgin-father in whose garden It flourished with an ever-increasing delight.

The joys of Joseph on earth had also more extension than those of the saints in Heaven, because, with the exception of the favored band whose bodies were raised after the Resurrection of Jesus, and who accompanied Him in His glorious Ascension, only the souls of the saints enjoy beatitude, their bodies awaiting the second coming of our Lord. But the soul of Joseph, replete with spiritual delights even while on earth, could not but communicate to his body a special felicity; for, if the unborn Baptist leaped for joy at the near presence of Jesus still enclosed in His Mother’s womb, what must have been Joseph’s sensible joy who lived ever in His company! The sight of Jesus will be one of the joys of our bodily eyes after the resurrection, but the eyes of Joseph had this joy while he was on earth. Abraham saw His day from afar, and was glad;¹³ but what must have been the gladness of Joseph who was close to Him for nigh upon thirty years! To His three favored Apostles He showed Himself only once in His glory, when He was transfigured before them on Mount Thabor; but we can have no hesitation in believing, with a holy and great preacher,¹⁴ that to Joseph He thus manifested Himself not once only but very often; not to strengthen his faith, but to reward it. It was St. Hilary’s¹⁵ opinion that our saint recognized the mystery of the Incarnation and the majesty of the hidden Word in the womb of the Virgin by the resplendent rays which invested her and issued from her sacred bosom. This splendor (continues the same Father), although imperceptible to the dull eyes of other men, was so dazzling to Joseph that he forbore to look on her face until after her delivery. The Master of Theologians, who examined the subject with scholastic rigor, did not disapprove of the opinion held on this subject by certain Fathers of the Church,¹⁶ who thus interpreted a passage in St. Matthew upon which the impugners of our Blessed Lady’s virginity have endeavored to fix an impious and revolting meaning. If this Sun of Justice shone with so brilliant a light while yet in Mary’s womb, it seems, to say the least, highly probable that when He had come forth He would often allow Joseph to behold Him enveloped with glory. This view is confirmed by St. Bridget’s revelations, who assures us that the Blessed Virgin told her that she and Joseph often saw Jesus surrounded with light.¹⁷ And what was true of one of Joseph’s senses, his eyes, was true of all the rest, which shared, no doubt, in the joy of his soul. No music could equal that of one single word from the mouth of Him whose voice could give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and raise the dead to life. But what could have been comparable to the delight of the Saint when receiving the caresses of his Adorable Son, and even the kisses of His divine lips! For Jesus did not wait for Joseph to ask this favor of Him, as does the spouse in the Canticles—his humility would have restrained him—but, as St. Bernard¹⁸ and the learned Gerson¹⁹ both teach, anticipated his desire by clinging lovingly to his neck and fondly kissing him after the manner of little children. These tender embraces of the Divine Infant must have filled the senses as well as the soul of Joseph with joy and delight unspeakable.

May we not, then, with the fullest reason accede to the Church declaring that the interior life of Joseph on earth was similar, nay, in some respects superior, to that of the Blessed Saints in Heaven?

Before leaving this subject of Joseph’s interior life, which, exalted as it was, above all that any of his devout clients can attempt to equal, is nevertheless the model and pattern of all interior souls, it may be well to say a few words more concerning his abiding state of contemplation and his silence, if only for the sake of obviating misconstruction. This is the more necessary because the devil is not slow to perceive what inappreciable advantages are to be derived from love and devotion to St. Joseph, and uses his wiliest arts to keep us at a distance from him. Unable to persuade us that Joseph did not enjoy a preeminence in sanctity, as he does now in glory, through his association with the Ever-Blessed Virgin and the office he fulfilled towards the Eternal Son of God, the evil one, under the pretext of exalting him, would at least endeavor, by obscuring the human side of his character, with all its winning graces, to diminish what we may call our familiar affection for him; for familiarity is not in itself derogatory to genuine respect and veneration, as every page in the Gospel history relating the dealings of Jesus with His Apostles amply proves. This, we believe, is to many a very hurtful idea, leading also, as it does, to the persuasion that heroic sanctity cannot accommodate itself to nature.

When, therefore, it is asserted, as we have seen it is by several holy doctors, that Joseph’s life was one of unceasing contemplation, or ecstasy, as it may be called, it must never be supposed that this inward attention to God produced a state of absorption which unfitted him for the charities and amenities of life. We have said already that it was of that kind which left the fullest exercise to all the lower faculties of the mind as well as to the senses, and, as such, it never obtruded itself on the notice of others, being far removed from that rigidity or abstraction which creates a separation from friends and fellow-creatures. This would appear from the Gospel narrative itself. Joseph was evidently a well-known character in Nazareth. All sorts of persons were familiar with him. They had often greeted and conversed with him. They knew, as we may say, what manner of man he was. They had had dealings with him in his trade; he had worked for them, and, we may be sure, had done his work well, and at a generously moderate price. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” they said, speaking of Jesus; the carpenter with whom they were all well acquainted. Had there been anything stiff and repellent in the father’s demeanor or strange and forbidding in his silence, something probably would have been alleged in disparagement of the Son. But there was nothing in our Lord’s beautiful ways, His ease of speech and winning kindness, which surprised them. All this, we may conceive, was natural and to be expected in the son of a man who had been so trusted, so loved, and so admired in Nazareth and its surroundings. What surprised and irritated them in Jesus were the divine claims and assumptions of one who was, as they thought, the son of the carpenter, their fellow-townsman, with whom they had held familiar converse. Joseph, then, we cannot doubt, was all that is human, acceptable, sympathetic, and attractive; known no less for his geniality and kindness than for his integrity and conscientious work, perhaps also for its singular excellence; and it is observable that he is spoken of, not simply as a carpenter, but as “the carpenter,” as though to mention his trade was to name the man.

Again, as to his silence in particular: although we can never be persuaded that Joseph was not sparing of his words, it nowise follows (as we have already suggested) that he was any the less loved on that account. People are not loved for their much speaking, but for speech in season—“a word in due time is best,”²⁰—and often all the better loved because they know how to be silent and to listen to others rather than indulge their own loquacity. There is a silence which says much, and much that is far more pleasing and engaging than speech would be; a charitable, sympathetic, and expressive silence; and such, we may be sure, was Joseph’s. It was a silence which inspired a loving reverence and confidence, which never made him difficult of access, or which hung around him a heavy and unpleasant garb of mystery.

The life of bliss, therefore, all interior, which Joseph led on earth no more hindered his sweet companionship with friends than the vision of God interfered with that of the gracious angel, Raphael, when journeying with Tobias, towards whom he conducted himself during their association, not with the estrangement and reserve of some superior being, but with a marvelous kindness and brotherly affection, so that, until he revealed himself, the young man had no suspicion that he was not what he seemed. Or, to use a still higher, but in some respects a more appropriate comparison, that life of exalted bliss which Joseph inwardly led took away none of the exterior charms of his dealings with men, any more—with reverence we say it—than the Divine Nature in Jesus, his Foster-Son, whom he so closely resembled, detracted from the loveliness and lovableness of His perfect Human Nature. Nay, rather, the supernatural and the divine would indefinitely enhance the beauty and attractiveness of the natural and the human.