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Catholic Saints
St. Joseph, Part 1: Old and New
00:20:49
Dr. Ben Akers and Taylor Kemp sit down to reflect on the earthly father chosen by the Heavenly Father for his Son, Jesus Christ. This four-part series will begin by looking at Joseph from the Old Testament and comparing him with Saint Joseph from the New Testament, and then move into reflections on three of Saint Joseph's titles; Guardian of the Redeemer, Patron of the Universal Church, and Patron of the Domestic Church. Watch Catholic Saints on FORMED. Sign Up for FORMED. Support this podcast and the Augustine Institute on the Mission Circle.
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- [00:02]
Narrator
You're listening to St. Joseph, a four part series on the foster father of Jesus Christ. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith.
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Taylor Kemp
I'm Taylor Kemp, the platform manager here at Formd and with me is our fearless leader, Dr. Ben Akers, our executive director. We are so excited to be with you here. We are doing a four part series on St. Joseph. We are gonna start today with Joseph in terms of Old and New Testament. There's Old Testament Joseph and the New Testament Joseph. Then we're going to move into St. Joseph as under the title of Guardian of the Redeemer. We're going to move from there into patron of the universal Church and then end with patron of the domestic church. So I was thinking, Ben, why don't you start us off with why are we doing a series on St. Joseph? What is the motivation and where are we coming from on this?
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Dr. Ben Akers
Right, so March, traditionally as a month of the year, is dedicated to, to the memory of St. Joseph. And this is something the church has done for centuries, is dedicated months to different saints and themes and focus. And March is St. Joseph's month because it's his feast day is March 19th. So this is a good thing to do in March. It takes on even more special, more special meaning when Pope Francis surprised everybody and declared a year of St. Joseph. So this was just 12-8-2020, he declared a year of Joseph from December 8, 2020 to December 8 20. And you might remember, you might not remember the great jubilee of the year 2000, but I was there. I went to Rome, to 10 different countries in Europe on pilgrimage. There's so many graces. We're celebrating 2000 years since God became man and redeemed us from our sins. And then there was the year of Saint Paul, the year of the priest. And so there's a tradition in the church, little tea tradition in the church of celebrating different saints or different themes we've never had in the 2000 years of the church history, never had a year dedicated to St. Joseph, which is
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Taylor Kemp
actually quite fitting the more you think about it. Like Joseph, we'll talk about this, but he lives such a hidden life. So do you have any thoughts like, why is it? It just seems that Joseph has always been venerated in the church, but there does seem to be kind of this momentum that has been growing over the past 100, 150 years. And the church really seems to be saying, you know, we'll go to, go to Joseph, go to Joseph. Go to Joseph. Do you have any thoughts on just, you know, why is it that the, the Church is holding up St. Joseph as someone that we need to particularly turn to today?
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Dr. Ben Akers
Good question. I think that when we look at, as you mentioned in the history of the Church, Joseph is always there. You read him in the, you read in the Gospels, we'll talk about that. He makes, he's present in the Gospel. We know his name, we know his profession, and then we see him in some of the fathers of the Church. The fathers of the Church will write about him. But you know, in the early Church, the focus is on who is Jesus? And the different debates about is Jesus God or not? And then how many persons in the Trinity and what does that look like? And so, and then Mary, things having to do with Mary, teaches about Mary. And so I think that it's appropriate that Joseph's kind of hiddenness has been hidden and the Pope's, as you mentioned, 150 years starting to push him forward. So that's actually why this year of Joseph is significant. It's the 150th anniversary of the Pope declaring Joseph the universal patron, Patron of the universal Church.
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Taylor Kemp
And I can't help but think too just you look at a lot of the stuff that's going on today, it's no secret that the family is under attack. That's for certain. Divorce is extremely high. What is marriage is being called into question. And so there's something that just seems very fitting about like, we need the Father who led the holy family. And then you think of the Church universal as the body of Christ, which is also under attack in many, many ways. And so I think it's really, really amazing how the Church is saying we need the person who protected Christ and that the Church is his extension. We need the person who protected the Mother of God, because all of these things are under attack. So I'm really happy that we're doing this. Okay, so having said that, Joseph is such a silent figure, there's here at the Augusta Institute, we have a kitchen area where we have a chalkboard and people put up saint quotes and whatnot. And it's really wonderful. And someone I thought hilariously put up St. Joseph and it was just two little quote blurbs, but there was nothing there because he's the silent one. And then someone actually fixed it and they put Jesus as in the only word ever uttered was Jesus. So this begs the question though, how, how are we going to fill four form nows on Joseph? He's such a He's such a silent figure.
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Dr. Ben Akers
He is.
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Taylor Kemp
Right.
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Dr. Ben Akers
So we, there's, we can turn to the Gospels and that's what we're going to be doing today. And actually each of the sessions we can turn to the, some gospel scene where he's present. But you can also look at the, the writings of the, of the Holy Fathers and writings of the saints that have brought up these ideas of how to turn to Joseph. So we'll be doing that. We're Looking at Pope St. John Paul II's letter, Redemptors Custos is a Latin title for it, for Guardian of the Redeemer. We'll be looking at even Pope Francis's letter, his apostolic letter on Joseph is beautiful. From a father's heart is how it begins. And yes, when you look at the Gospels, as you mentioned, there are, there's no recorded word of St. Joseph, but we do know he said at least the name Jesus, because in the Gospel of Matthew it says when the angel gave, when the angel appears to him, he says, you shall call his name Jesus. And then when Jesus is born, says that Joseph called him Jesus. So we know he at least spoke the name of Jesus.
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Taylor Kemp
Yeah, it's beautiful. And okay, so today we want to focus on the Old Testament Joseph. And so something, something that's beautiful about Catholic theology is we look and we, we say that we can, we can come to understand some of the New Testament figures better by understanding their Old Testament precursors, their foreshadowings. And so St. Joseph has one of those in the Old Testament, Joseph. So could you just give us the general outlines of the Old Testament Joseph, some of the shapes of his life and where, and then we can start kind of breaking down what we can take from him and then come to know a little bit more about the foster father of Christ.
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Dr. Ben Akers
Sure. So if we look at, we do have stories about Joseph's life, they're in the first couple chapters of Matthew, the first couple chapters of Luke, and then Mark and John actually mention that, you know, Mark mentions that Jesus is the son of a carpenter. It doesn't mention Joseph by name, but twice in John's Gospel, he actually mentions that Jesus is the son of Joseph. And we're at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel and as Taylor mentioned, is that we see a type, a figure of someone in the Old Testament that is pointing towards the fulfillment in the New Testament. So that's called typology or prefigurement. And so the fulfillment of the Old Testament, Joseph is found in the New Testament Joseph. And one of the reasons that we're clued in to read this story in this way is by looking at Matthew chapter one, in Matthew chapter one, that genealogy, that really exciting part at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, because you actually see where Jesus comes from. He comes from Abraham, he comes from David. And then in chapter one of Matthew, verse 16, Jacob the Father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So just that little detail encourages us to think about the Old Testament, Joseph. And the reason for that is there's a Joseph, that they share the same name, but they also share the same father's name, that Jacob was the father in the Old Testament of his beloved son Joseph. So even right there is Matthew's clue to start thinking in this way.
- [07:37]
Taylor Kemp
Yeah, it's fascinating. And then these, these. Because the similarities obviously don't just stop with the name and the father's name. So then when we look at the Old Testament, Joseph, you want to give us just like a quick run through of his.
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Dr. Ben Akers
His life. Sure. Yeah. So if you turn to Genesis 37 through 50, it's the Joseph cycle. So it's of. Of Jacob and then his son Joseph. And well, you see Joseph, he's the beloved of his father. He's going to be one of twelve sons, the twelve sons of Israel. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, so he's one of the beloved sons. His mother's name is Rachel. He is, he has, he's a dreamer. He has dreams and he has dreams that of sheaves of wheat bowing down to him when he wakes up. While he's sleeping, he has this dream and then he has dreams of the sun and the moon and the stars bowing down to him, these kind of strange dreams and interprets that he's going to have authority, some kind of position of authority. And family's not too keen on that. He gets a special. The brothers are not happy. Even his parents kind of get upset. They're like, chill, chill. And one, one, he has, he's so beloved. He has a special coat. Right. So you may have heard of Andrew Lloyd Weber's the Technicolor dream coat of Joseph. He's sold by his brother, he's betrayed by his brothers. He's sold into Egypt, he's sold for silver pieces, he's sold into Egypt as a slave. He grows up in Potiphar's house. Who's. That's the name of the person that bought him. And Potiphar's what, he does everything well, God is with him. Potiphar's wife is attracted to him, tries to seduce him. He's known for his purity. He rejects the advances of Potiphar's wife. She betrays Joseph by making up a story that he tried to attack her. And he's thrown in prison. And then in prison, he has more dreams and interprets dreams. And then he's finally taken to the right hand of Pharaoh, Put at the second position highest in the kingdom of Pharaoh, and has dreams. Interprets Pharaoh's dreams as seeing a famine coming. He stores up for the famine and then ultimately saves all of Egypt and many other people through his providential care. And then even his own family gets to finally meet his dad and his brothers again.
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Taylor Kemp
Yeah. And he's like this kind of minister of salvation almost for the people. Okay, thank you for that.
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Dr. Ben Akers
There's a lot of chapters of scripture condensed. Beautiful.
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Taylor Kemp
It's great. Okay, so let's connect some of these to then the New Testament. Some of those you scattered in, but to make it as clear as possible. So favored son. And then you think about New Testament Joseph. And we don't have any lines that he was favored by his father, Jacob, but we know he was favored by the father because you think from all of eternity, God had his plan. He knew he was going to send his son, and he knew his son was going to come into the world through Mary, but into a family. And he chose St. Joseph to be the father. Like St. Joseph is the earthly father chosen by the Father. So he is the favored son to become the father of his own son.
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Dr. Ben Akers
One of the titles that we actually use is the. For Joseph is the shadow of the eternal Father is because he was chosen by God the Father to show his son in his human nature what it's like to have an earthly father.
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Taylor Kemp
Yeah, I mean, that's. It's such a. I love that line. It's so good. And then they shared. The father's name is Jacob. And then the dreams. I mean, this is a big. This is a big thing. Dream. God revealing himself through dreams is present through scripture. But Joseph, Old Testament Joseph, this, it was very present. It happened again and again and again and again. And then you go to the New Testament and it's like every. You know, there's not that many verses that have Joseph in it. And it's like through a dream, God told him this. Through a dream. Through a dream, an angel told him this. And he does it. And it's just like four times. Yeah, it was just really present. He was guided by God through his dreams. And then that was present in the Old Testament Joseph.
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Dr. Ben Akers
That's why this, this image here, if you can see it at home, the sleeping Joseph is actually a devotion that was introduced to the church by at least, you know, to the wide church by Pope Francis. But it's an older tradition of this image, of that God speaks to Joseph in his dreams. And so you put your, your wishes, your prayers underneath the sleeping Joseph and ask Joseph's intercession to answer them.
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Taylor Kemp
And then from there we. Let's talk a little bit about purity or chastity. So Joseph, as you said he was, he had been elevated to. In Potiphar's house, the Egyptian official. And Potiphar's wife is trying to seduce him again and again and again. He's like, no, no, no, no, I'm not. You know, he wants nothing to do with it. She grabs his garment, he leaves it, he flees, she falsely accuses him. But what we see here is a man who is he. He refuses to give in to something that is immoral, that he is not supposed to do. And he protects his own chastity. And in effect, he's also trying to protect Potiphar's wife's dignity. And then you get to the New Testament and you see Mary and they are betrothed. She is with child by the Holy Spirit. And then we say she remained ever virgin, which implies that Joseph took it upon himself to protect her purity and his own.
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Dr. Ben Akers
Yep.
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Taylor Kemp
Which is just a really beautiful thing. And I think that here is maybe a good time to talk about. We don't know for sure how old Joseph was. New Testament Joseph. Do you have any thoughts on that?
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Dr. Ben Akers
Right. So we don't know what Joseph. There's. There's different speculations that we see in the writings of saints in the church and theologians. Some speculate that he was older, that he was married, he had other kids, and then his wife died as a widower, and then takes Mary as the younger. So sometimes you see an old Joseph in art, and then oftentimes you'll see a young Joseph in art. And I more of the side with the young Joseph that I believe that Joseph was virginal, was a virgin, just like Mary was a virgin, and that they actually entered into marriage with the intention of honoring each other's virginity. But yet God honors and that union of keeping their virginity, but also blessing them to be parents.
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Taylor Kemp
Yeah. When you think about that title, there was. I'm reading a book of the glories of St. Joseph right now. And I had never heard of the Saint before, but St. Leonard of Port Maurice has just this really short line, and he says all of Joseph's glories are summed up in the eulogy. Joseph was a just man, and many saints have written that this means that he contained all of the virtues. So how does this apply to his age in relation to Mary? I think it far more likely. I also think it far more spiritually profitable to recognize that Joseph protected Mary's virginity not because of a lack of hormones, but because of virtue. And I think that as a young man, he still had all of the coursing emotions that would accompany a normal human life. And yet virtue, it's a strength, it's a power. And he from that place protected her and himself, and that, that actually makes him all the greater. And what a phenomenal saint for anyone who is seeking to live in celibacy, anyone who is seeking to grow in chastity, because, yeah, I think an old man doesn't go to Egypt. I mean, you could, who knows? Like, I don't know. But an old man, I don't think takes a wife and child into Egypt. But it was virtue that protected her virginity, not just because he was an old man who, you know, had lost that appetite, so to speak.
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Dr. Ben Akers
Sure. Yeah. Regardless of, you know, what, what the actual account was, we do know that Scripture wants to put before our eyes that he was pure. Yeah, he was pure.
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Taylor Kemp
Yep.
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Dr. Ben Akers
Another thing looking at the, the connection between the Old and the New Testament, so we talked about name, the Father's name, beloved of the Father, these dreams that he had is this flight to Egypt because of envy, so this persecution. So just as the Joseph of the Old Testament was driven, sold by his brothers and sold into Egypt out of their envy because they're jealous that their brother is so loved by their father. So because of Herod's envy that what, there's a king. And go back and read Matthew 1 and Matthew chapter 2, that he goes to Egypt out of the envy of Herod.
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Taylor Kemp
Yeah. And as you're saying that, I'm just thinking about how easy it would be to become bitter. I'm really glad you brought that up because one of the most powerful lines, I think in this narrative of the Old Testament, Joseph comes in chapter 50, verse 20, where he's. Joseph has just been had. All of these horrible things happen to him, like his family turned on him, he sold into slavery, he kind of gets out of it, then he's falsely thrown back into it, then he gets out of it. Again, then his brothers need him. Like, imagine on a human level how easy it would be to have resentment, bitterness, hatred, judgment, all of these things. And his brothers fall at his feet. And they're like, Jacob had just died. And they're like, you know, who knows what Joseph is going to do to us?
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Dr. Ben Akers
Wipe us out.
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Taylor Kemp
Yeah, yeah, what are you going to do? And he says, what you meant, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. If you dig into this, you. You really find a man who trusts that God's providence is being worked out regardless of how things look right? And then you think about New Testament Joseph and the flight into Egypt. Like, this is a man who says yes to taking a woman as his wife who is pregnant not by him. Think about what that would bring, the humiliation, the judgment from other people. He still says, yes, take. The angel says, take Mary as your wife. And he gets up, he does it, he's prompt. And then the response of this is, think about the prophecy of Simeon over the child. Then you think of the flight into Egypt, the losing the temple, like all of the things. But when you look in light of the Old Testament Joseph, and then the New Testament Joseph, you can almost see a similar attitude, which is, God is working out his providence. His will is being done. It is coming by way of difficulty. And his heart doesn't grow bitter like his heart doesn't grow hard. And that, I think, is a great model from Old Testament Joseph and New Testament Joseph to strengthen in us a faith that despite all appearances or difficulties in how God's will is playing out in our lives. And like you're a father of a fan of a big family who has moved and done different things and had difficulty, every person has that in their life to give us the faith that God is working in that and to have faith in what other people have meant for evil. God meant it for good. It can bring out the good. And that is, to me, like just such a beautiful connection between the two of them.
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Dr. Ben Akers
It is. And the greatest scandal in the world is not broken hearts. It's hard hearts. And the way that we have these hearts hardened is, you know, by being bitter by holding onto the things, our desires, of what we wanted and not trusting in God's providence. And we see that Joseph, of course, had a broken heart. How could he not be pained as he doesn't have a place to provide for his wife who's pregnant, about to give birth. How can he not Have a broken heart when he's being then, you know, taking this young family into Egypt, how can he not have a broken heart? At the presentation when he hears Simeon's prophecy that your wife's heart will be pierced and your son will suffer, he hears those things. And then even right when they look for Jesus at age 12, they were looking for him. So the broken heart, he can be present to us and with us. And that's I think, the last thing that another connection that the last connection we'll make, at least in this episode, is they both the Joseph of the Old Testament, the Joseph of the New Testament trust in the presence of God. Several times in the narrative of Genesis 37 through 50, it says that the Lord was with Joseph. He's in prison in the pit in Potiphar's house, at Pharaoh's house, God is with him. And then what does Joseph receive? He receives Emmanuel Jesus, whose name means God, with us.
- [19:05]
Taylor Kemp
So now we have to go one more thing and we'll wrap this up because on that is I'm immediately thinking about the Eucharist. God is with us. And so the last connection that you had already mentioned, but I think is worth just a 1 second of time is Joseph in the Old Testament provides food. He provides grain, bread. In a time of famine. If we don't, if Joseph of the New Testament does not give his yes. If he does not protect the holy family, which we'll talk more about in the next episode, we do not Christ doesn't make it to the cross. We do not have the Eucharist. And so in a Joseph is central to the grain, the bread, the bread of life. Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist, he is part of that being offered to the world in a famine, in a spiritual famine, in spiritual death. And what is going to vivify us came by way of Mary and Joseph. And I love that all of these things come together. It's just really beautiful. So thank you so much for joining us on this first episode of a four part series on St. Joseph where we talked about the Old Testament Joseph and the New Testament Joseph and how there's all these similarities and they can kind of bring light to who St. Joseph is. Thank you so much and God bless.
- [20:18]
Narrator
You can watch this series in video format by visiting formed.org formed is an online Catholic streaming service created by the Augustan Institute and Ignatius Press with award winning studies and parish programs, inspiring audio content, movies, ebooks and family friendly kids programming to support the mission of the Augustine Institute. Please visit missioncircle.org.