St. Joseph is given to us as a new Joseph over all God’s house

August 27, 2021 • 4 min

From St. Joseph’s Life, Virtues, Privileges, Power, page 349
By Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P.

“Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you” (Gen. xli. 55).

“Thou shalt be over my house, and at the commandment of thy mouth all the people shall obey. … Behold I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt … without thy commandment no man shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt … and he called him in the Egyptian tongue the saviour of the world” (Gen. xli. 40).

“He made him master of his house and ruler of all his possessions” (Ps. civ. 21).

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In our last meditation we reflected on St. Joseph’s ardent love and desire for our salvation, because he knew from Jesus Himself the value of souls, the dear and high price that Jesus paid for them, and because he knew that nothing gives more consolation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus than the salvation of souls and the conversion of sinners.

To-day in Paradise St. Joseph is giving constant glory to God, and consoling the Sacred Heart of Jesus by obtaining the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of souls. What is his power?

Pharao, the King of Egypt, showered all the honours in his power and in his kingdom upon the first Joseph. He created him Viceroy of Egypt, and ordered all his subjects to pay him homage and obey him.

“He made him master of his house and ruler of all his possessions.” To his subjects Pharao said: “Go to Joseph, and do all things he shall say to you, and receive what he shall give you.”

The first Joseph, the son of Jacob, was, in a sense, a figure of the second Joseph, the reputed father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pharao, King of Egypt, made the first Joseph master of his household and ruler of his kingdom. Unspeakably greater is the dignity of the second Joseph, for the King of kings created him head of the Holy Family, lord and master, in a sense, over Jesus and Mary.

If the people of Egypt obeyed and paid homage to the first Joseph, the Saviour of all mankind, God Himself, and His Holy Mother obeyed and reverenced the second Joseph.

If the first Joseph supplied bread to starving nations, the second Joseph was privileged, by the labour of his hands, to minister to the maintenance, wants, and comforts of Jesus and Mary.

St. Joseph, according to the above figure, is created by Jesus Christ viceroy of His kingdom, master and ruler of His Church; and Jesus says to His people in their necessities: “Go to Joseph.”

Let the Saints speak for us. St. Bernard says: “Jesus is so full of charity that he could never refuse to hear St. Joseph’s prayer. If it is true that He does the will of those that fear Him, how could He refuse anything to St. Joseph, who watched over and tended Him so faithfully during His tender infancy?”

In another place the same Saint writes: “If it is true that Jesus Christ, who is our Advocate with His Father, shows His Wounds and bleeding Side; if Mary presents to her Son the only womb that bore Him, may we not add that Joseph shows to his dear Son and His Mother the hands with which he toiled and worked for so many years on earth for their support. And if the Eternal Father can refuse nothing to His Beloved Son, nor the Son to His most holy Mother, may we not easily believe that neither the Son nor the Mother could refuse anything to the glorious St. Joseph. If, when Jesus and Mary were living at Nazareth, we had wished to receive a favour from one or the other, could we have employed a better mediator than St. Joseph?”

St. Bernardine of Sienna concludes: “Jesus, wishing to give St. Joseph in heaven a constant proof of His filial respect and obedience, grants all his requests and fulfils all his desires.”

A serious reflection upon the above points cannot fail to impress upon the thoughtful mind the greatest faith and confidence in the power and prayers of St. Joseph.