I love the title of Fr. Doze’s book: St. Joseph: Shadow of the Father. For what is a shadow? It can be a poor image of a reality, like we creatures when compared to the Holy Trinity. It can also be thought of having some essential attachment to that reality, like an element that places the reality in a context for us: as artists know, shadowing brings texture, shows from which direction the light comes, and also shapes the face, provides some indications to the special character of the face and body, the clothing.
A shadow also hides, obscures, provides proof of shelter from storm or strong sun. A shadow also helps us to hide ourselves, to die. Within a shadow, we can no longer see ourselves, but can more easily focus on reality; our eyes are able more clearly to see what is in the light.
St. Joseph is all these elements of a shadow. But he was no ordinary shadow: he was, for Our Lady and for Christ, the Shadow of the Father. Poor creature though he was, like St. Bernadette, he was chosen for the greatest task next to that of Our Lady. He was the physical image of the Father for the child Jesus, he was the human face of fatherhood, he held Our Lord as a baby, received His tiny hands into his rough carpenter’s hands, helped him to walk and talk, and taught him his trade; he took him to the synagogue and prayed with Him, to Him. When one lets this sink in, St. Joseph suddenly becomes a very important shadow; he was the vessel the Father chose to help the Son learn about fatherhood and the human language in which to describe it. I speak no heresy when I talk about the Son learning: for the Church has taught that the Son did indeed learn, in His human nature. So He learned. He learned to plane a board and make a ladder. He learned how to pray the traditional prayers, he learned as a son learns from his father. And the face on that fatherhood, the human face, was that of St. Joseph.
For Jesus, St. Joseph was also the shadow that obscures, hides, protects. He did this as fathers do, in watching at the entrances and providing food and shelter; he also did this in an extraordinary way by the journeys to Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt; but in a deeper way, he did this by being ordinary. In providing a father’s face for the world, he protected both Mary and Jesus from attention at a time when the Holy Family was meant to be just that, and only that: a family. He was the shadow that provided the space for the family to be sanctified by the Child-God. We will talk further about the depth and beauty of the Holy Family; but to understand the great role of St. Joseph in being ordinary and humble is to begin unlocking the secrets of this great and silent saint.
