The Guardian
Whether you’ve seen it or not, go back and look at the trailer and the gallery of photos of The Nativity Story. That hand on the rope in the opening screen is St. Joseph leading the donkey carrying Mother and Child. The sandals walking the desert dirt and sand and rocks are his. Watch the Manger Scene at that link, look at the man Joseph guarding his family, the Holy Family.
Today is the Feast Day of St. Joseph, Guardian of the Redeemer.
One can say that what Joseph did united him in an altogether special way to the faith of Mary. He accepted as truth coming from God the very thing that she had already accepted at the Annunciation…Therefore he became a unique guardian of the mystery “hidden for ages in God” (Eph 3:9), as did Mary, in that decisive moment which St. Paul calls “the fullness of time,” when “God sent forth his Son, born of woman…Together with Mary, Joseph is the first guardian of this divine mystery. Together with Mary, and in relation to Mary, he shares in this final phase of God’s self-revelation in Christ and he does so from the very beginning.
Joseph is overlooked a lot, but in this document, Pope John Paul II detailed the virtues and defined the place of this perfect father.
St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood…His fatherhood is expressed concretely “in his having made his life a service, a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation and to the redemptive mission connected with it; in having used the legal authority which was his over the Holy Family in order to make a total gift of self, of his life and work; in having turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of self, an oblation of his heart and all his abilities into love placed at the service of the Messiah growing up in his house.”
In that spirit, and following that model, the St. Joseph Covenant Keepers are trying to build stronger families and honor their commitment as guardians. Fathers need this kind of support and these kinds of resources.
St. Jospeph with the Infant Jesus
by Guido Reni
