by Angelo Forti

In recent decades, the figure of Saint Joseph has appeared on the stage of popular devotion with great prominence. We cannot ignore the characteristics of Saint Joseph that emerge from the pages of the Gospel story which make him an important person, a faithful and punctual executor of God's desires, available to destroy all dreams and human projects about his future fiancé and husband of Mary . 

Even his presence in the life of the Church has always played a humble and silent role in the service of the common good. The recognition of his functions in the plan of salvation has always respected this characteristic of his: being assigned to secondary offices with discretion. The end of the last century and the beginning of this new millennium was characterized by a rediscovery of the leading role of the figure of Saint Joseph: he was recognized and given exemplary support in the activity of the universal Church.

Saint John XXIII placed the assembly of bishops convened for the Second Vatican Council under the protection of Saint Joseph. During his journey to the Holy Land, Blessed Paul VI made the little house in Nazareth the hearth to warm our charity and to constantly inspire the style of our Christian life. Saint John Paul II dedicated an Apostolic Exhortation to him with a title: "Guardian of the Redeemer". Benedict XVI, who bore the name of Joseph since his baptism, honored him in many ways. Pope Francis not only also wanted to begin his pontificate on the feast of Saint Joseph, he wanted his name to be invoked in every Eucharistic celebration.

History moves slowly, the evangelical truths flourish and bear fruit by not respecting the seasons of men but obeying the seasons of God. The ancient Fathers of the Church, who lived with the first Christian generations, were the first and sure interpreters of the evangelical message , enucleating the meaning of the new hinges on which the story brought by Jesus moved. The first two chapters of the gospel of Luke and Matthew had the task of opening the curtain on the life and message of Jesus with the intention of opening to universal level a new era of human history.

The Fathers of the Church in their writings investigated an objective history, evaluating the cultural and spiritual process on the population. There was a pagan world in its death throes and a nascent Christian world and a new history to describe and decipher.

With the passing of generations, objective history has also been combined with subjective history considered as art. An approximate representation which, although based on concrete historical realities, is not interpreted and disclosed with scientific criteria, but on the wing of devotions, the people describes in the vein of objective truths, interprets and implements as a reflection of the evangelical truths which are incarnated in the traditions popular. They are ancient truths interpreted and implemented in new social realities.

Even the entire theology of Saint Joseph was developed on the platform of the Judeo-Palestinian world lived by Saint Joseph so that his own life was illuminated both in the phase preceding his marriage to Mary and after the marriage.

It is indisputable that the life of Saint Joseph is full of a sense of the divine, original and unique to his person after that of Jesus and Mary. The divine matrix in Saint Joseph is found in the fact that God from eternity has registered full, free and responsible acceptance of the divine plan.

«Divine Providence has chosen one among the infinite plans of its activity in favor of humanity, and, as a result of its divine omnipotence, has arranged in such a way that everything contributes to the fulfillment of this plan».

Providence's plan was aimed at the coming of the Messiah. Christ becomes the center of the universe and in him there is the synthesis of the entire plan of salvation.

In this preparation plan the Patriarchs and prophets come into play who build the milestones of a history of salvation. In this secular history God writes straight paths in the bends of human history. At every bend, in the new panorama the eyes always see the last of the patriarchs: Joseph who will record in human history the name of Jesus, "descendant of King David". Joseph marks the culmination of the Old Testament and opens the new era of light and salvation brought by Jesus.

In the introduction to the Apostolic Exhortation “The Guardian of the Redeemer” Saint John Paul II writes: «I believe, in fact, that reconsidering the participation of Mary's husband in this regard will allow the Church, on its journey towards the future together with all humanity , to continually rediscover one's identity within this redemptive plan, which has its foundation in the mystery of the Incarnation.

Precisely in this mystery Joseph of Nazareth "participated" like no other human person, with the exception of Mary, the mother of the incarnate Word. He participated together with her, involved in the reality of the same salvific event, and was the custodian of the same love, by whose power the eternal Father "predestined us to be her adopted children through Jesus Christ" (Eph 1,5, XNUMX) ».

In the Gospel, Jesus states that the man and woman of faith, through reflection and study, know how to make known and hidden truths emerge from revealed words. The devotee of Saint Joseph knows how to keep his feet on the ground, on the platform of revealed truths, and allows noble feelings of admiration to flourish in his soul for what Saint Joseph was able to do with his generous adherence to the mysterious plan of God.