Archdiocese of Denver

39 ARCHDIOCESE OF DENVER | THE YEAR OF ST. JOSEPH the life he had dreamed of – a married life with children, like everyone else's. In silence, she saw him accept with faith the God's plan, by mar- rying a most pure wife and welcoming a divine adoptive child. When a wife is asked to describe her hus- band, it's not unusual for her to respond: "My husband? He's a good man." Perhaps Mary's response wouldn't have been very different: "My husband Joseph? He's a good man." This response may seem too simplistic and short, because we think Joseph should be described with more sophisticated adjectives: "holy, extraordinary, exceptional…" Yet Mary's response, after contemplating Joseph for so long, would highlight what perhaps defines him best: his goodness. Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone" (Lk 18:19). Mary experienced the goodness in Joseph's heart through his embrace, his eyes, his words, his care, his natural tenderness towards her and the child. She could rightly say, "My husband is the best man in the world." While this might seem like a very ordinary way of defining him, Mary's words would fully echo God's goodness present in the heart of a pure and sincere man. They lived a married life in the highest expression: in a most pure mutual self-gift, faithful to God's plan. If asked to elaborate, Mary would probably say that Joseph was a good father. During her pregnancy, at Jesus' birth, at the Temple, and in the ordinary events and upheavals in life, Joseph was always present to his wife and child, with that constant and provident presence that denotes a true fatherhood. This is precisely how Jesus defines his heavenly Father when he says, "He who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone" (Jn 8:29). Jesus says that he and his Father are one. In his humanity, Jesus learned that being a father implies being always present for one's children, protecting them and letting them know they are never alone in life. "With a father's heart: that is how Joseph loved Jesus" – thus Pope Francis begins his Apostolic Letter "With a Father's Heart," written for the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph's declaration as Patron of the Universal Church. Jesus learned and expe- rienced from Joseph what the heart feels when the word "father" is said. Fatherhood creates a connection in which the child identifies with the father based on the time spent together and on the example that the father provides for the child and the child tries to imitate. The father achieves this connec- tion through hard work and the attention and the time he dedicates to his child. Mary saw Joseph's fortitude in spirit and maturity when, with a broken heart, he decided to leave in secret as to not put her to shame. He must have been a strong man, both physically and morally, in order to bear the demands that taking care of Mary and the child entailed: the mysterious pregnancy, the unexpected travels and their harshness, poverty, attacks from those in power, hard work, migration to an unknown land… Mary knew she could count on him, a man of deep integrity, a responsible, strong man. Per- haps she would have described Joseph as such. While it's true that Mary never said Joseph was a "good man," a "good father," a "strong man of deep integrity," the Gospel story tells us that Mary felt cared for, understood, protected, defended, accompanied, sustained in life by Joseph, because of who he was; and that Jesus, his son, was the type of man that he was, pre- cisely because of his fatherly presence, his exam- ple and the qualities Jesus learned from him. ⊲

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