St. Joseph, be a father, to be a man
Reflections by Loris Cozzolino* Author of the Facebook pageEvery holy day
On March 19, the holiday of San Giuseppe, the putative father of the Redeemer, custodian of the Virgin, protector of the Church, is celebrated.
Despite this high -sounding title, the figure of Joseph has long been kept in the penumbra, almost forgotten by the Church that only in recent decades has rediscovered the essential and very particular role that the Saint plays in the history of salvation.
In the Gospels there are few and strincati verses and after the first pages Giuseppe disappears so as not to appear anymore.
All the "extra" information, the iconography, legends on his life and his death are taken from the apocryphal Gospels: to them we owe the widespread idea that Joseph was an eighty year old, the story of the flowery stick, plus a grandfather than a father.
But today I want to focus on those few sentences that the evangelists have dedicated, few verses but full of meaning that trace the greatness and humanity experienced to the end of the father of Jesus.
Surely Giuseppe was not old and when he was promised to Mary, according to the Jewish law, he should not have been more than eighteen years. The young Giuseppe is said by Matteo "right man"; His justice consisted in following the precepts and rules of Jewish religion and in pursuing that ideal of "purity" that only the slavish respect for the law of Moses could procure.
But here is the irreparable: his bride, the one who was promised to him, before the celebration of the wedding, confesses that he is pregnant. Giuseppe knows that nothing has to do with that conception: what to do? The law would force him to report the unfaithful bride so that he is stone. But Giuseppe doubts, despair, in the apocryphal gospels the crying, the bitterness of Joseph, his atrocious doubt is reported; However, the change, justice and respect for the law of God begins to give way to the tenderness and essence of God. Joseph decides to postpone Mary home in secret, so that it is not done to her. He does not respect the law because in the life of Mary and in the love he feels, now perhaps more than before, he recognizes something superior.
Giuseppe is tormented, full of doubts and questions he tries to rest so that the night brings advice: he dreams of the angel of God who reveals the great mystery that has been accomplished and asked to support him, collaboration so that the world is safe and love takes the place of the law.
Giuseppe embodies everything our societies proudly male and petty would not want a "true male" to become and tried.
Giuseppe doubts, the true man never doubts and always knows what he has to do; Joseph cries, the males do not cry, crying is weak and females; Joseph believes in dreams, males are realistic and practical and believe only in themselves.
Giuseppe takes Mary with him: he will never speak again but he will be close to her in gestation, in childbirth, he will hurry to find a safe place to give birth to the child. Giuseppe in fear of Herod will leave home and work to migrate to Egypt, so that his son is safe.
Not even a word, but only the love of a father: God was entrusted to him.
Giuseppe perhaps does not know, did not fully understand the mystery of that pregnancy and that son. But Joseph knows well that the life of that son is priceless and there is no law or fear that holds. Biological paternity does not matter; The newborn baby has tightened his hands and honor, the law of Moses, the temple disappeared to make room for father's love. He is his son.
We don't know anything else. The Gospels after a few hints to Jesus' childhood pass directly to his adult phase, "public".
Giuseppe is gone. it Is assumed that he died.
Tradition wants it as a patron saint of "good death" since this world has left this world in the arms of Mary and Jesus, almost a taste of paradise on earth.
We are sure it went like this; The crying and immense love of that son will have reminded him of what happened to the Bethlehem manger years earlier: I am really your father and you are really my son.
* Loris Cozzolino, born in 1986, early Christian archaeologist, immoderate passion for hagiography, biblical exegesis and gender theology. Not resigned to an image of the legalistic and repaintant church, in marginality and in the "waste" sees the face of the Christ of God. His blog of hagiographies can be found at the link https://www.gionata.org/tag/ogni-santo-giorno/
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