Featured Saint: St. Joseph

By: Abigail Delic

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You would think that being the adoptive father of Jesus would earn you more recognition. However, St Joseph, despite holding a great deal of importance and being considered the patron saint of both the Catholic Church itself and our beautiful country of Canada. St Joseph’s normalcy is indicated by the fact that most of the information we have surrounding him is in reference to other people, specifically his family Mary and Jesus. We know that he was the husband of Mary and he raised Jesus as his adoptive son. 

He was a perfectly average Nazarethan carpenter who was suddenly thrust into a greater purpose when Mary told him that she had conceived Jesus. While working on this article, my priest, Father Joseph at St Peter’s Woodbridge, shared an interesting view of Joseph's hesitance toward marrying Mary. The gospel of Matthew does not give a specific reason behind his psyche, though most people think that Joseph, not unjustly, thought that Mary had an affair. This is a fair reasoning but my priest put forth the idea that Joseph had believed Mary, but had thought himself average and thus unworthy, to help raise the saviour. His outlook only changed after his visitation with the angel.

All too often, we do not think that we can do anything. We are just normal Canadian teenagers, concerned about our grade on our English essay or which friends we’re hanging out with on Saturday. How can we help in a big or meaningful way? I myself have fallen into this thinking. But what Saint Joseph, along with all the saints of the Church, beg us to realize is that we do have an effect. God gives each of us a call, to reveal Him to the world. We can respond to this call regardless of our age, if we search for a way. That might be through donations, activism or writing newspaper articles that nobody reads. 

Even though his importance is understated today, I don’t think St Joseph would mind too much. In all accounts given to us in the gospels, he is humble, caring and faithful, a perfect model of a Catholic person. He did not need to perform a million miracles or leave a mystical relic to be a saint. He just had to be responsive to God’s call and present where he was needed, as a simple and reliable dad to Jesus. Being normal is not a bad thing, in fact it can be the greatest thing we can be called to.