Consecration to Our Lord Jesus Christ Through St. Joseph
The piety of Catholics has always been a fountainhead for various devotions and practices. These devotions, in order to gain the stamp of approval from the Church, undergo thorough scrutiny and criticism. Practices of piety and devotion, in order to be truthful, must always conform to doctrine. No matter how beautiful a devotion may seem, if it is at odds with doctrine, doctrine stands and the devotion falls. There are numerous “devotions” in the history of the Church that have fallen before the discerning eye of doctrine.
The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined by Pius IX in 1854. This definition was possible because of its root in Scripture and Tradition. The Church rejoiced in this definition, for it was the belief of Catholics for centuries. In a similar manner, and likewise believed for centuries (although not defined as a dogma of the Faith), the Universal Patronage of St. Joseph over the Catholic Church has been decreed. In order for this to be taught, it must have its roots in the constant belief of the Church. Could something more be said about St. Joseph? Is there matter sufficient in Revelation for the definition of a dogma of our Faith?
Concerning balanced piety and devotion to St. Joseph, Catholics often have only a vague and undetermined understanding. Surely he is invoked particularly for the spiritual and temporal needs of individuals and families. As for a specific development of his dignity and grandeur, few of us ever follow these lines. Thus, in most cases, St. Joseph is in fact unknown and underrated.
This article is meant to provide a more specific development of his dignity. Pages have been written by more apt pens, and greater insights provided by higher minds; however, the task at hand is to list with a brief explanation the main doctrinal points so as to establish a firm foundation for devotion to St. Joseph. Admittedly, this article will be more a compilation of different texts rather than any original work. The main point is not to prove something; others have done so and at very great length. It is rather to impress upon ourselves the necessity of devotion to St. Joseph and to urge action on the part of Catholics in this direction. For those who are seeking the more in-depth explanation and the further proofs and arguments of the points outlined herein, I simply refer you to the bibliography.
In lieu of the explanations, a consecration to St. Joseph is also desired. Is it possible to speak of a total consecration through St. Joseph? Would this in any way subtract from or conflict with the total consecration through the Blessed Virgin Mary? Perhaps in the minds of some warning flags go up and a kind of indignation comes with this thought. Hopefully by the end of the article, the same zeal remains in favor of St. Joseph.
St. Joseph Belongs to the Hypostatic Order
All would agree that St. Joseph is intimately connected with Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. What is the extent of this connection, that is, what is the degree of his involvement, and how necessary is he to the Divine Plan?
Theologians are quite clear about the involvement/relationship of St. Joseph to Jesus and Mary. In fact, it is termed theologically certain that he belongs to the order of the Hypostatic Union. To paraphrase what this means: St. Joseph was necessary for the Holy Trinity to execute the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Divine Providence eternally proclaims the Incarnation of Jesus, the Divine Maternity, and the paternity of St. Joseph through the virginal marriage all in the same Decree of our Salvation.
These are the conclusions of theologians. How do they reach these conclusions? First, what is the hypostatic order? Second, what are the various relationships that put one into this order? Third, what are those relations that put St. Joseph in the hypostatic order which also are his singular prerogatives?
The Hypostatic Order
The Hypostatic Union is the union of the divine nature and the human nature in the single person of Jesus Christ. The hypostatic order comprises immediately this individual human nature in its union with the eternal Son of God, together with all other gifts, privileges, and relations which naturally and immediately result from this union. Belonging also to this order is all that directly and effectively served the accomplishment of this union. In conclusion, the Virgin Mary belongs of necessity to this order as Mother, the indispensable condition for birth into this world. St. Joseph, likewise, belongs to the hypostatic order for having effectively served as spouse of Mary and father of Jesus.
The hypostatic union is the summit of all divine benefits; it is the highest grace that can be conferred on human nature. Created nature is elevated to an intimate association with the Son’s divine being.“The mystery of the Incarnation,” exclaims St. Thomas, “holds supremacy over all divine works. The mind cannot conceive anything more remarkable than the immense reality contained in the expression: the Son of God, true God, became true man.” Those related immediately and indispensably with this Union belong to the highest order. The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are therefore the most elevated in the kingdom of heaven, for even the lowest in the higher order is higher than the highest in the lower order. As there is no higher order, we can have a firmer understanding of the singular dignity and grandeur of those belonging to it.
St. Thomas states: “Once we have established that St. Joseph is truly and remarkably included in this order, there is no necessity of further proof of his exalted dignity” (III, q. 7. a. 13).
Testimonies of Theologians
The relations of St. Joseph to the hypostatic union place him in the hypostatic order. These relations are: true spouse of the virginal Mother of God, true though not natural father of Jesus, and head of the holy family. These show him in closest immediate connection with the other members of the Holy Family, the last one, as head of the family, giving him even a kind of precedence before Mary, and even before Jesus.
Cornelius a Lapide states: “The ministry and office of St. Joseph was most noble because it belonged to the order of the hypostatic union of the Word with our flesh, as did the maternity of the most Blessed Virgin. All of his works and actions were immediately and directly ordained to the person of Christ, whom he fed, protected and instructed in the occupation which he himself exercised, according to the common teaching of the Doctors.”
Cardinal Billot states: “St. Joseph was more intimately connected with Christ than all the others since he exercised the office of father toward Him in everything except generation, being the head of that conjugal society expressly ordained to receive and educate Christ.”
Source of St. Joseph’s Dignity: His Marriage with the Virgin Mary
St. Thomas asks why it was fitting that Christ should be born of an espoused virgin; in other words, why should Mary be in the married state? The significance of this question has its importance also for St. Joseph, for these are the conditions in which the Incarnation took place. Were they necessary conditions? In other words, are these the necessary conditions without which the Incarnation and birth of Jesus would not take place?
The arguments of St. Thomas are simply listed here as they do not require much explanation. Mary needed to be espoused so Christ would not be rejected as an illegitimate child; secondly, so that His genealogy could be traced in the customary way, namely, through his father; thirdly, so the Christ child would be safeguarded lest the devil should fiercely try to harm or hamper Him; lastly, that Jesus (who would share with us all His infirmities and needs of our human nature) would be nourished by Joseph, who is therefore called His father. (IIIa, Q. 29, Art. 1.)
The mother also benefits in this marriage, for she would be saved from the punishment of adultery, also saved from infamy, her holiness would be maintained, and she would likewise have the service of her husband (Ibid.).
While these reasons are more moral considerations or fittingness rather than solid proof, they certainly indicate that a marriage and a man/husband are required for the accomplishment of the Incarnation. One can assert that as the Mother of God was chosen and prepared for her mission, likewise and simultaneously, St. Joseph was chosen and prepared for his. To understand the weight and meaning behind this statement, one could paraphrase by saying: the Holy Trinity from all eternity decreed the Incarnation of the Word. Simultaneously Mary and Joseph were decreed, the preparation of these two, as well as their marriage. In fact, one could even assert, that as the most perfect in anything is the first in mind and the exemplar for the others, so in God the marriage of Joseph and Mary is first and most perfect and acts as the exemplar for the entire institution of marriage. The same argument holds true for their paternity and maternity respectively.
St. Bernard states: “There is no doubt that this Joseph to whom the Mother of our Savior was married was a good and faithful man–a faithful and prudent servant, chosen by the Lord for the consolation of His Mother, the guardian of His flesh and Mary’s only earthly assistant in carrying out the plans of the Great Council” (Homil. 2 super Missus).
Miecowiense states: “From eternity the Lord chose them both in preference to all the other saints for this supreme dignity; Mary, to be the natural Mother of Christ, and Joseph, to be His legal father; that she should give to the Son of God the substance of flesh, and that he should nourish and care for, and defend it….He chose Mary that she should nurse Him at her breast and Joseph that he should by the sweat of his brow and the labor of his hands provide for Him the necessities of this life.”
St. Joseph had an effective part in bringing about the Incarnation of the Son of God, planned and decreed by God from all eternity. According to God’s eternal plan, the Incarnation had to come to pass within a virginal marriage. This was so first because, after the creation of the first man and woman, human life should be propagated only in and through marriage; secondly, because the most suitable, if not the only way, to carry out the plan of the Incarnation in a manner appropriate and worthy of it was in a virginal marriage. (Having a human father would make him a human person.) By responding to God’s inspiration and contracting that virginal marriage, Mary and Joseph cooperated freely and effectively to bring about the Incarnation of the Son of God that had been planned from all eternity. Their virginal marriage paved the way for His entrance into this world.
St. Joseph’s Singular Prerogatives
The marriage between the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph is the source of his singular prerogatives. The roles which St. Joseph fills, namely spouse and father, are these singular prerogatives and establish him (according to the theologians) in the hypostatic order. These prerogatives coincide with the goods of marriage. The Council of Florence states: “The first good of marriage is offspring, to be begotten and educated for the service of God; the second, fidelity which each party has to observe toward the other; the third, the indissolubility of marriage.”
Indissolubility: Spouse of the Mother of God
When we refer to St. Joseph, Leo XIII states: “The dignity of the Mother of God is certainly so sublime that nothing can surpass it; nevertheless, since the bond of marriage existed between Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, there can be no doubt that more than any other person he approached that super-eminent dignity by which the Mother of God is raised far above all created natures.” And again the same holy pontiff writes: “For marriage is the closest possible union and relationship whereby each spouse mutually participates in the goods of the other. Consequently, if God gave Joseph as a spouse to the Virgin, He assuredly gave him not only as a companion in life, a witness of her virginity and the guardian of her honor, but also a sharer in her exalted dignity by reason of the conjugal tie itself.”
This property of indissolubility is the unbreakable bond between spouses. It is the first result of the marriage contract and belongs necessarily to it while the other goods of marriage refer to necessary conditions and purpose in marriage. The indissolubility is likewise the channel of communication of the goods of each other. St. Francis of Sales states: “By means of the marriage between Our Lady and the glorious St. Joseph, the Good of eternal goods, our Lord Himself, belonged to St. Joseph as well to our Lady. This is not true as regards the nature of our Lord that was formed in the womb by the Holy Ghost; it is true, however, as regards grace, which made him participate in all the possessions of his beloved spouse and which increased so marvelously his growth in perfection; and this through his continual communication with our Lady.”
The honor which comes to St. Joseph through being the spouse of the Mother of God is the most exalted that can be attributed to him. As with the divine maternity of Mary, it is the root of all his prerogatives.
Offspring: Father of Jesus
Suarez develops Augustine’s “fatherhood by right of marriage,” showing more fully its juridical source; first, Joseph’s possession of Mary and, therefore, his possession of her Son; and second, the mutual ownership that the marriage affected. He states: “I add, finally, that husband and wife are in a certain way made one by the bond of marriage. Now, although they are made one flesh by bodily union, they become one in heart and one in will by reason of their marriage contract. That is why they own all their goods in common. What is under the dominion and authority of one consequently belongs to the other in some degree. The Blessed Virgin was the mother of Christ; therefore, it was impossible for Joseph as her true husband not to share in the quality of parenthood, always excepting physical generation.”
Leo XIII states: “Because the Saint was truly the husband of Mary, he became in a certain sense the lord of her body. As a consequence, the fruit of that virginal body belonged to St. Joseph. A fountain miraculously springing up in a garden would belong to the owner of the garden. So, too, in the case of Jesus and Mary and Joseph! As was prefigured in the Old Testament, the virginal earth ‘Mary’ conceived of the blessing of the Lord and the fruit of that blessing belonged to St. Joseph, who possessed the land.”
Concerning this good of marriage, there is no need for deep explanation of what is known to all, namely St. Joseph is not the natural father of Jesus. The Virgin Mary, as is the way with normal conception, provided the female germ cell, while the supernatural act of the Holy Ghost saw to its fertilization, the infusing of the human soul, and the grace of union of that human nature with the person of the Word of God. This happened at the moment of the fiat of the Blessed Virgin.
While St. Joseph does not contribute in what we may call the normal procedure for human generation, his role is nevertheless necessary. St. Thomas states: “Offspring is called a good of marriage not only so far as it is begotten through marriage, but also as it is conceived and reared in the marriage. And in this manner was that offspring (the Lord Jesus) a fruit of this marriage, not in the first manner. However, one born of adultery, or an adopted child, who is reared during the marriage, is not a good of marriage because marriage is not by its nature ordained toward the rearing of such children; whereas the marriage of Mary and Joseph was specifically ordained to the end that in it this offspring should be received” (In IV, d. 30, q. 2, a. 2,ad 4). St. Joseph was in truth the father of the Child who was God and man, not indeed natural father by physical procreation, but as virginal father according to principles of marriage law and through what we may call a kind of spiritual generation. In consequence, he had all the rights, duties, and characteristic attributes of a true father, the natural procreation excepted. Therefore he stood in the closest and most immediate relations with Jesus and Mary.
In conclusion, there is a ministry that St. Joseph is to fulfill, namely the rearing and education of the child Jesus. This is a result of the marriage with the Virgin Mary and so the child Jesus is a fruit of the marriage. There would be no fruit if this marriage did not take place. St. Augustine states: “What the Holy Ghost has wrought, He wrought for both of them…being well pleased with the sanctity of both, He gave the Son to both of them. But in that sex in which he had to give birth to the Son, He brought it about so that the Son was also born to the father. Therefore, the angel tells both of them to give the name to the Child.” Cordovani states: “The prerogative of this Saint (Joseph) is singular from the fact of his being the true spouse of the Virgin Mary and from the mission which Providence confided to him relative to the mystery of Jesus and His humanity. Where nature was lacking, grace superabounded; and his peculiar fatherhood is the most intimate as it springs from the most loftiest origin.”
Conclusion
It is well established that St. Joseph belongs to the hypostatic order. He is in closest relationship with Jesus and Mary because of his virginal marriage. This marriage, as has been said, was arranged by God entirely and only in view of the Incarnation; in fact, it finds in this its only reason for existence. This is the root of all his graces and privileges and at the same time of his cooperation in our salvation and spiritual fatherhood over the Church of Christ. This cooperation in the redemption of the human race is the crowning of all his glory. By his labors he nourished that body which Christ offered to His Father on the Cross and the blood which He shed so copiously for us.
We may draw our attention to the expressions just used: “cooperation in our salvation” and “spiritual fatherhood over the Church.” St. Joseph has a ministry that is fulfilled during his life; he also has a ministry that is fulfilled as the centuries pass. We can read the following quotations understanding that the ministry of St. Joseph continues as the mission of the Incarnation continues to the end of the world.
St. John Chrysostom states: “Do not think that, because what is born of the Holy Spirit, you therefore are excluded from the ministry of that dispensation (hypostatic order).”
Gerson states: “Jesus was born in the land or property of Joseph.…Why, therefore, does there not belong to him a certain juridical right beyond that of other men in the blessed formation of the Child Jesus, for He was born in the flesh and out of the flesh, whose dominion was truly given to Joseph by the right of marriage? All that we have said about the corporal birth of Jesus Christ, in which Joseph contributed in a certain manner, and of the sublimity which that imposes, appears to be evident” (Sermo in Conc. Constans).
As St. Joseph was necessary for the accomplishment of the Incarnation, it seems he is likewise an indispensable asset to our salvation. It is in this sense that a consecration to Our Lord Jesus Christ through St. Joseph is desired, not only on an individual level as all may be encouraged to do, but on the level of families, associations, and societies, including our very own Society of St. Pius X.
Does such a consecration take away from the prerogatives of the Virgin Mary? Does such a consecration somehow limit the totality of the consecration to Mary described by St. Louis de Montfort? Does such a consecration take away the spotlight on the Virgin Mary as being the remedy to the current crisis of Faith as seems obvious from her various apparitions?
One could develop at great length the glory of both the Mother of God and her spouse, St. Joseph, as many authors have done. The Wisdom and Providence of God shine when discovering how one mystery and privilege can be so linked and united with another to provide one grand vision of God’s redemptive work. This is the case with the persons belonging to the Hypostatic Order. Each in a way needs the other. To propose some kind of obstacle or limit would indeed attempt to frustrate the very ordered plan which God has decreed and enacted.
When reading this article, our devotion to the Blessed Virgin has not been decreased; on the contrary, we have learned something more, something great about her! This adds to the glory of Mary rather than takes away from her. The totality of consecration to the Virgin Mary is not diminished seeing as all that is given to St. Joseph is likewise given to her through that unbreakable tie of marriage by which each shares the goods of the other. Aside from the singular prerogatives that both possess in their own right, and aside from the fact that the Virgin Mother is certainly more favored and dignified than her Spouse, all other goods are held in common–what is one’s is the other’s. The Blessed Virgin Mary is all the more glorified when St. Joseph is glorified. Acknowledging that the best of men was given to her somehow adds to her glory, just as that the best of women was given to him adds to his.
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