"Joseph was probably a young man, strong, virile, athletic, handsome, chaste, and disciplined... Instead of being a man incapable of love, he must have been on fire with love… Instead, then, of being dried fruit to be served on the table of the king, he was rather a blossom filled with promise and power. He was not in the evening of life, but in its morning, bubbling over with energy, strength, and controlled passion."
These words of Venerable Fulton Sheen capture the essence of the beauty of St. Joseph's chaste and priestly heart.
Perhaps that sounds strange. St. Joseph was not a priest, was he? He was the husband of Mary, a simple carpenter. And, yet, St. Joseph was so much more than a convenient cover for the mystery of the Incarnation and Virgin Birth. He was not an extra character who had to be worked into the plot of God's plan for practical reasons.
Joseph was a young man on fire with love for God who was chosen, no less than His betrothed bride, to be consecrated: totally set apart by God for a unique and sacred mission. The gift of Joseph's life and chastity was precious to God, a Fiat that He desired to be united with the Fiat of our Blessed Mother.
Through St. Joseph's yes flowed a powerful fruitfulness. He was wedded to Mary, the Virgin made Church, as our Holy Father Francis loved to call her. He was chosen to be the Virgin Father of the Son of God.
What could be more priestly than the vocation He lived? To pour out His life and all of His chaste love for His Bride, to defend with his manly strength God's greatest treasures, to be entrusted with the care of the literal body of Christ, to be head of this most holy of households.
It would seem natural that God address the details of His unfolding plan to the Theotokos, the all-Immaculate one bearing God within her, and yet the divine directives come time after time to Joseph.
In the humble dwelling of Nazareth, we first see the outlines of the structure of the Church Christ was to found in a few short decades. The designs of His Heart are laid out before us in the two hearts He chose as the first dwelling place of the Sacred Heart.
No matter what our vocation, we have a priestly calling as Christians. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people peculiarly his own, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
God entrusted to St. Joseph His greatest treasures. And so does He wish to do with us.
As St. John Henry Newman wrote, “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.”
May St. Joseph intercede for us in giving our unreserved Fiat to the workings of His Providence in our lives.