“When Joseph awoke from his dream, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.” Mark 12: 30-31
On this feast of Saint Joseph we remember the man who took a pregnant woman into his home, knowing that her child was not his. Neither law nor duty bound him to do this. Joseph did this because heaven required it.
Like many of us today, he was uncertain of what lay ahead in the future, but he trusted that God would be with him. But how he must have wondered what was going on when he and the pregnant Mary had to travel a great distance on a donkey to Bethlehem, and how frustrated he must have been when door after door was shut closed on them while they were seeking shelter. Certainly St. Joseph must be the patron saint of today’s immigrant families who are forced to flee the violence in their own countries.What trust and faith he had to have in God — as WE do today during this stressful time.
We can picture him showing the young Jesus how to be a carpenter in Nazareth, and then imagine him one day going Home to God in the arms of Jesus and Mary. For this reason he is known as the patron of a “happy” death.