by Mario Sgarbossa

Joseph, a carpenter and carpenter by family tradition, teaches Jesus the trade as soon as the teenager is able to operate the various tools. Manual labor for Jews is sacred. Rabbis and priests of the temple, and the teachers of the law themselves (improperly called doctors of the law), have calluses on their hands like Joseph. In Ecclesiastes (or Ecclesiastes, as the fourth of the didactic books of the Old Testament was translated until a few years ago) we read: “Alongside your study, get a job”.

Holy words, for which the founder of the Pauline Family, Blessed Giacomo Alberione, a practical man, recommended do-it-yourself to his men and women religious, in every activity. And the Talmud adds: “The best work is not intellectual work, but that of the land even if less advantageous. A Jew, a teacher of the law at the time of Joseph's life, once finished his lesson, went into the woods to be a woodcutter. He was imitated by a famous prime minister of Queen Victoria of England, who, when he was free from government commitments, armed himself with a saw and ax and went into the woods to get wood for the winter. So Giuseppe was not satisfied with just practicing the profession of carpenter, but he also learned the carpenter's technique regarding the construction of load-bearing structures in wood or metal.

And he taught this trade to his son, despite being aware that under the boy's clothes (his son according to the registry office) the Messiah was hidden, not destined for the plane or the anvil. A truth that is not easy to interpret, just as any investigation into the mystery is difficult, for which the holy theologian and philosopher Anselm of Aosta, author of the short but important treatise entitled Cur Deus homo (because God became man) recommended the method he followed: I believe ut intelligam, I believe to understand. Therefore Joseph had an exceptional apprentice like Jesus in his workshop right from school age, so various hypotheses can be formulated about both of them. Hypotheses on Joseph and Jesus: two lives as if in communicating vessels? Among the pages of the Old Testament we can grasp words that are well suited to the human and spiritual stature of Joseph, such as this passage in which Tobit recommends to his son a lifestyle that will help him grow as a just man before God and men .

Joseph knew the Bible and will certainly have also repeated these instructive words to the adolescent Jesus: “Do not do to anyone what does not please you. Give your bread to the hungry and give some of your clothing to the naked. Ask the opinion of every wise person. In every circumstance, bless the Lord and ask that he guide you in your ways and that your paths come to a successful end (from the book of Tobit 4,15). Here are therefore some hypotheses that trace the profile of Joseph, the man placed by God as a teacher (and as a pedagogue!) Next to his Son. From his earthly father, Jesus not only learned the art of the carpenter, but also the conduct of daily living, the moral rules and the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures which will amaze the masters of the law in the three days in which the twelve-year-old Jesus escaped the custody of his parents to take care of the mission entrusted to him by the Father. The evangelist John writes that Jesus was God, he was in the beginning with God, he was uncreated wisdom, therefore he did not need teachers or to learn the truths revealed by reading the sacred texts.

True God, but also true man and as such he learned from childhood the practical knowledge of daily living at the school of his father, Giuseppe, whose example he conformed to his conduct, lifestyle and way of expressing his thoughts. How then to explain that voluntary confusion in the temple which caused three days of unspeakable anguish in Mary and Joseph? Why hadn't an obedient boy like Jesus notified his parents, from whose custody he escaped at the age of twelve? To his mother's veiled reproach, Jesus gave an answer that left his parents dumbfounded: "Didn't you know that I must take care of the things that belong to my Father?" No, they didn't know, at least up to that point. Giuseppe preferred silence. A silence more eloquent than many words.