The Death of St. Joseph
By Kevin O’Neill (kevin@greatamericanlandscapes.com)--March
19, 2014
Life in the ancient world was hard and
hazardous especially for those who made their living in the common trades.
Joseph of Nazareth is a carpenter and a good one but he has fallen from a
ladder in his workshop.
The man who has raised Jesus--to this
point perhaps more true God and true Boy--is still relatively young and strong
and courageous. Everyone knows the fall is serious but seeing Joseph’s strength
and calmness and knowing his character we cannot help but believe he will
recover. Joseph, however, knows how serious his injuries really are but he is a
man of deep faith and prayer; he has learned through fidelity to his unique
vocation and Love for the Blessed Virgin and for Jesus and through their Love
for him, to above all things and in all things, trust God!
It has been a couple of weeks since
the accident. Jesus has been overwhelmingly busy fulfilling the commitments of
the family business and necessities of the home and as always, the care of his
mother. He is worried about his father but like the rest is reassured by
Joseph's demeanor and continued zest for people and life and the joy it
produces in him and all that come to visit him. He hears the comments as well
as the well-wishers leave, "how is it that we came to cheer and encourage
him but it is us who leave cheered and encouraged?" and "May the God
of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless this loyal son of
Israel."
It
is possible that in the short time since Joseph's fall, Jesus has come to love
and respect his father to a degree he had previously not known.
Mary is also outwardly calm and as always
optimistic, seeing and putting the needs of the others before her own. On the
inside, however, she cannot help but be concerned--she has come to love this
man more than life itself and stays by him night and day.
A couple of days later Jesus is
putting together a table at the house of a local customer when two young
cousins come running, out of breath yelling with all concern, "Jesus come
quickly Joseph has taken a turn for the worse!" The Son of God drops everything and begins
sprinting through the dusty, narrow streets toward his home and though it is
not a long distance it feels like he is moving in slow motion. In his urgency
he knocks over a small boy, looking down and seeing the bewilderment and hurt
in the young lad's eyes, he stops, kneels down, uprights the boy and kisses his
forehead which elicits a great smile from the little fellow - Jesus is
immediately back on his panicked way.
Seeing the crowd outside the house and
the looks on their faces, Our young Lord’s fears are confirmed. He does not
pause but enters the small two-room house immediately. His father is in the
back room in the bed he has been confined to for three weeks and as Jesus walks
in he pauses and surveys the situation, he sees the downtrodden looks and tears
on his aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews faces, he sees his father, barely
conscious and pale in his bed--on his cross--and lastly he sees his Blessed and
Holy mother sitting a few feet away in a chair with her head bowed in prayer and
tears falling on the dirt floor.
It is as if the hundred percent
divinity is finally drawn even with the hundred percent humanity that have both
been in him from the beginning, and in a commanding and authoritative voice
which leaves no room for discussion, he orders everyone to leave the room
except his weeping mother.
Jesus moves to the bed and bends down
and one knee, the Author of life takes Joseph's hand and places his other on
the forehead of his earthly father, turns his eyes to Heaven and starts to pray
out loud, "Father…." But
Joseph immediately interrupts, his eyes tired and worn as they are now, open,
alert and intense as he says slowly "Son, it is not yet your time, it is
mine. Your time will come but it is not now.” Jesus cannot restrain his humanity
any longer and tears pour down, through quite a sob, filled with sorrow and
respect he asks, “father how will I know when my time has come?" Joseph
looks his son in the eye and they pour love and affection into each other that
defies human description. Then without a word this poor carpenter from a little
god-forsaken corner of nowhere turns his head to the love of his life and the
Woman who all generations forever will indeed call blessed and whose image two
thousand years later will be the most reproduced in the history of the world,
his eyes brighten to the degree only the purest and chaste love can produce and
they meet in the eyes of the Mother of God. All they have been through together
are recalled and relived in a few precious minutes; not only the annunciation
and nativity, the proclamation of Simeon, the flight and return from Egypt, the
loss and finding of the 12-year-old son but the quiet moments and conversations
hidden from history. A smile beaming as bright as the sun itself comes across Mary’s
face - yes Mary, because that is who she is to her beloved husband. When these
moments of love’s reminiscences are complete and without taking his eyes off
his love, Joseph speaks slowly but with all the power and clarity of his best
day, "Son, love the Lord your God, the God of our fathers--your real Father--
with all your mind, with all your heart, and with all your strength and stay
close at all times to your Mother and she will lead you to your time."
This special, special man turns his
head back and closes his eyes. Jesus puts his hands on both sides of Joseph's head
and his lips on his forehead and while there are no words spoken aloud, our
broken-hearted Lord hears in his earthly father's heart, "I have seen,
held, and raised the fulfillment of your promise of salvation to your people and
I now surrender my soul to your Holy will," and Joseph, servant of God and
our father and lord, breathes his last and dies a happy and holy death.
