When asked to speak on the virginity of St. Joseph, I tried to convince Deacon Dan Gannon to switch talks. Deacon Gannon’s talk “Wonder 9: Patron of a Happy Death” (Nov. 2) will be at the Carondelet Center, which the Sisters of St. Joseph own, and I worked as a nursing supervisor at the retirement home of the sisters for years. I have been with many sisters as they experienced a happy death. But, alas, Deacon Gannon did not want to give up a happy death for virginity.
Contemplating this fourth wonder, I realized that I had never given much thought to the concept that St. Joseph remained a virgin all his life. So, I ventured on a prayer-filled quest to know the man, St. Joseph, better.
Kelly Wahlquist
Though precious little information about St. Joseph is found in Scripture, we do know he was just, faithful, righteous and obedient. We know he made a living as a carpenter. We know he guarded the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and we know he loved and protected his family.
St. Joseph’s first vocation was that of a spouse, then it became spouse and father. But first, he was the most chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Scripture tells us that Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb at the time our Lady was already betrothed to St. Joseph, which means he was present in Mary’s life before the Annunciation. I don’t think I had given that concept much thought either.
St. Joseph was there before the Annunciation, throughout the pregnancy and at the Nativity. He was the man nearest to Christ at the moment of his birth. St. Joseph’s arms received and welcomed God Incarnate into the world! It’s not a stretch to believe, then, that God would make the man who was to receive his Son at the Nativity a pure man, much like he made the woman who received his son at the Annunciation a pure woman.
Yet, throughout the ages, the struggle to understand how St. Joseph could control his passions and remain chaste while married to a beautiful woman led to him being portrayed as an elderly man. Depicting St. Joseph as an old grandfatherly man made it easier to accept that he was a virgin, reasoning that an old grandfatherly man would be less tempted and less of a temptation.
However, in his book “Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father,” Father Don Calloway, along with many saints, scholars and theologians, proposes that St. Joseph was a young man — stating “it would take a strong, loving, youthful, and virginal man to make such a tremendous sacrifice of his mind, body, senses, and heart in order to espouse a woman so pure and lovely.”
Indeed, he was no random Joe! St. Joseph, just like Mary, was fashioned for God’s holy purpose from the beginning; for, this earthly father would have an influence on Jesus. From St. Joseph, Jesus would have learned to read, pray and understand the Hebrew Scriptures. He would have also learned his father’s trade — no doubt, learning what it means to work hard and live a humble and virtuous life.
But also from St. Joseph, Jesus would copy mannerisms, share little idiosyncrasies, maybe laugh at the same silly things. Who knows? Perhaps at the wedding in Cana, Jesus told a corny joke and then looked at his mother smiling and said, “Remember when Dad used to say that?”
God knew what he was doing when he made the man who would raise his only begotten Son a pure man. And as the great Josephology scholar Father Francis Filas said, “God in His providence gave the Saint special graces to make him fit for so unique a calling, and Joseph obeyed these inspirations in an equally special way.” Nothing is impossible with God!
Wahlquist is director of the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul. She also is founder of WINE: Women In the New Evangelization. Wahlquist adapted this essay from her June presentation for “Cuppa Joe,” a 10-part series on the spiritual wonders of St. Joseph. It was recorded at St. Joseph in Red Wing.
Cuppa Joe
“Cuppa Joe” is a series of 10 talks by 10 theologians on the 10 wonders of St. Joseph, taking place at 10 locations in our archdiocese entrusted to the patronage of our spiritual father. These talks premiere the first Tuesday of the month, March through December, at 4 p.m. — just in time for your afternoon coffee. The next presentation, “Just and Reverent Man” by Father Kevin Zilverberg, will be posted July 6. It was recorded at St. Joseph in New Hope.
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