Death

Saint Joseph, Foster Father of Christ, Patron Saint of the dying, have pity on me a sinner who has recourse to thee…

The Transit of Saint Joseph (El tránsito de San José) (Francisco Goya)

Saint Joseph was a holy man.  He was the foster father of God.  Saint Joseph was the soul selected to kiss the Holy Face of God.

He was selected to love the Blessed Virgin, mother of God.

God entrusted Himself in infant form and His Spouse in the Blessed Virgin to Saint Joseph.

Imagine what that really means.  It means that Saint Joseph had to be quite sinless.  Perhaps he was not perfect or without sin, but he was surely without very much sin.  He would have been disciplined in his approach to God.  For example, he would not have had bad habits of lying and swearing.  He would have refrained for gossip.  He would have avoided the near occasions of sin.  He would have focused on pleasing the Lord.

Why?

Because He loved God and He loved God’s Mother.  And in loving them he did not want them to suffer.  He did not want to cause offence to them.  He wished to help them.  He wanted to be pleasing to them.  He wanted to know that the trust that God had placed in him was trust that he could aim to deserve.

We I surround myself with sinful people I tend to sin more.  When I surround myself with people who are trying to stop themselves from sinning then I am less likely to sin.  If instead I surround myself with people who are sinning, then I am more likely to sin.

For example, if I socialise with people who take drugs and drink alcohol to excess, then I am far more likely to take drugs myself and drink alcohol to excess also.  But if instead, my friends and I do not drink alcohol to excess or take drugs, then we will not become desensitised to this behaviour and because it will remain more shocking to me it will remain more taboo as well.

And I have been thinking about that in relation to Saint Joseph.  You see, Saint Joseph spent his Earthly life around people who did not sin.  There was the Blessed Virgin and there was Christ.  Both were born without Original Sin and both resisted sin all the days of their lives.

Imagine how their home must have been.  There would have been no gossip or swearing or uncharitable behaviour.  Nobody would have shirked their duties or avoided their prayers.  In their home there would have been such an expression of love – the greatest love in any family that was ever born.  And that is ironic because the relationship between the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph was not sexual and we become so fixated on the physical expression of love that we often fail to see the greater love that underpins that expression.

And I can imagine the love expressed on the deathbed of this Saint.  I can imagine how anguished he was to leave them behind when he knew that they had further to journey without him.  And I can imagine his faithful acceptance of the Holy Will of God in allowing that death at that time for him.

And knowing this, I pray to Saint Joseph – now and at the hour of my death…  Saint Joseph, Foster Father of Christ, Patron Saint of the dying, have pity on me a sinner who has recourse to thee…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.