A journey into the tradition of Mario Rabbollini

by Sergio Todeschini

An edifying and precious image of St. Joseph is presented to us by Mario Rabolini in his book «Joseph a father for God». At the beginning of the treatise, some aspects of which are captured in this article, the author traces the experience of Joseph and Mary, as the story of a couple who, welcoming God made man as their son, accomplished his task in impeccably, and Jesus was the meaning of Joseph's life. The evangelists recognize our saint as the father of Jesus, and they attest to us that in the synagogue of Nazareth, all the people, amazed by the boy's wisdom, identify him as the son of Joseph.

It was not easy for the saint to accept a child conceived by God and save his marriage with Mary; a union that had the sole task of realizing God's plan. Joseph is a man who accepts this project with his eyes and heart: he is therefore the custodian and cooperator of the providential mystery of God. For Pope John Paul II, the religiosity of Saint Joseph traces the path for man in search of God. By faith he listens to the angel and with Mary and Jesus overcomes the old testament and opens the doors of the new. By faith Joseph and Mary endured all the difficulties to accompany little Jesus until he became a man. Joseph, good and righteous according to the law, becomes the righteous par excellence of the new alliance because he listens to and makes God's will his own. Rabbilini, dealing with the paternity of the saint, lists some types of paternity outlined by some scholars; from the divine to the natural and incomplete one, both censored by the Holy Office; up to the fatherhood that he sees in the assumption of Christ's humanity, appropriating a family and delegating his own human fatherhood to Joseph. The author, listing the different paternity titles attributed to Joseph: foster father, guardian, adoptive, matrimonial, representative, etc., ends with the quote from Martelet who identifies Joseph as the one whom God not only placed alongside the mystery , but he made it penetrate inside, and with Mary at the center of the history of salvation. Joseph's hesitation (in accepting his bride) does not consist of Mary's supposed infidelity, but of the mystery that he intuits and of which he feels unworthy. Rabbolini sees Giuseppe, not as a wise old man next to a girl, but a strong and lively young man who has known an absolute and inexpressible love, "wild like a torrent, calm and warm like a lake, fresh like the springs", recognizing in Maria an immense superiority over him. Therefore, a Joseph changed and sublimated by the smile of his bride; like an Adam next to Eve before original sin. Rabbolini quotes the German romantic Novalis who sees in the union of Joseph and Mary not a union closed on itself, but a bond wrapped in hope. "The future was with them and they breathed it in this sublime and serious happiness." Mary finds in Joseph the only person in the world with whom she can live. Her meeting with the groom was proof that God intervened in the most unpredictable and extraordinary way. Joseph's fatherhood, the author writes, was a state of life given by God and exercised with maximum effectiveness. He was Abraham's heir, bridge between the patriarchs of the old and new alliance. Like the first Abraham, open to dialogue with God. He was David's heir and as a Davidic descendant, prepares the ground that will historically welcome the son of God on earth. Saint Bernard will say: «he is a descendant of David more than by the flesh, by faith, holiness and dedication. The Lord found him according to his heart." In the small chapter concerning «Joseph and the Fathers of the Church», Rabbolini goes through the first references of theologians on the figure of the saint, starting from Ephrem, who lived in the early 300s, who wrote «No one can worthily praise Joseph». In the same period, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus states that in Joseph, God the Father, has placed the gifts of all the saints, and does not look out of place next to Jesus and Mary. Saint John Chrysostom wrote that God searched among men and found in Joseph the man he was looking for to be a father to his son. Saint Jerome defended the virginity of Mary and Joseph against the apocryphal theses that denied their virginity. And again, passing from Saint Augustine, up to Saint Bernardino of Siena, who defined Joseph: «faithful guardian of Mary's virginity and sharing with her in the love of charity...». The author lists the decrees of the Popes who have succeeded over time, concerning the figure of Saint Joseph, starting from Pius IX who, interrupting the First Vatican Council, defined him as "patron saint of the Catholic Church" and established his cult, in the devotion of the saints, second only to that of the Madonna. Dictation, reiterated again in 1871, in the apostolic letter Inclytum Patriarcham. In the encyclical Quamquam pluries issued by Leo XIII, where the faithful are invited to pray not only to the Virgin Mary, but also to her husband Joseph, guardian, head and defender of the divine family. Leo XIII with the apostolic letter Neminem fugit, issued in 1892, indicated Joseph, Mary and Jesus as a model for families. With the Motu proprio Bonum sane, issued in the aftermath of the First World War, Pope Benedict In the encyclical Divini Redemptoris of 1937, Pius Pius XII in 1942, during an audience concerning "women and the family", did not fail to refer to the family of Nazareth and the figure of Jesus "the son of the carpenter". John XXIII did not fail to entrust the Second Vatican Council to Saint Joseph, and wanted to insert his name in the canon of the Mass, after that of Mary. Paul VI stated that Joseph made his life a service, a total gift to God. Thus we arrive at the apostolic exhortation Redemptoris custos by John Paul II, we are in 1989. Joseph, custodian of the same love that makes us children of the Father; by assuming the role of father of Jesus, he cooperates, in the fullness of time, in the great mystery of redemption and in its careful custody God wanted to entrust from the beginning. Rabbolini dedicates a chapter to Giuseppe's silence. His silence is a listening to the will of God. A silence that saved the lives of Mary and Jesus. His life was an understanding. Joseph's faith is linked to the certainty that God is working by making him an instrument. He worked as a father should towards his children. To Joseph's silence, Jesus responded with the same silence on him. But Jesus' gratitude towards his parents was certainly enormous. Joseph the worker. Under the title of "Guardian", the chapter remembers Joseph: guardian of the house of Nazareth and of the nascent church, and, as John Paul II said, guardian of the Redeemer, who, lovingly caring for his family, «guards and protects in his mystical body, the Church, of which the holy virgin is the figure and model." In the final chapter, «Short journey among testimonies and devotees», the author lists some texts on Saint Joseph and the devotion towards the saint that has been handed down over the centuries, reminding readers of the apparition of the saint next to the Madonna which took place in Fatima on October 13, 1917.