Vigils Reading – St Joseph the Worker

From the writing of

FR KARL RAHNER

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Is it possible to think that anyone living today will be able to see himself or

herself reflected in Joseph? Are there not people today who, if they are true to

their character as willed by God, are a people of small means, of hard work, of

only a few words, of loyalty of heart and simple sincerity? Certainly every

Christian and every Christian nation is charged with the entire fullness of

Christian perfection as a duty that is never completed. But every nation and

every person has, so to speak, his own door, his own approach, through which

he alone can come nearer to the fullness of Christianity. Not all of us will find

access to the boundless vistas of God’s world through the great gate of surging

rapture and burning ardor. Some must go through the small gate of quiet loyalty

and the ordinary, exact performance of duty. And it is this fact, I am inclined to

think, that can help us to discover a rapport between earth and heaven, between

Christians today and their heavenly intercessor…

[Joseph] received into his family the One who came to redeem his nation

from their sin, One to whom he himself gave the name of Jesus, a name which

means “Yahweh is Salvation.” Silent and loyal, he served the eternal Word of the

Father, the Word who had become a child of this world. And they called their

Redeemer the son of a carpenter. When the eternal Word was audible in the

world in the message of the gospels, Joseph, having quietly done his duty, went

away without any notice on the part of this world.

But the life of this insignificant man did have significance; it had one

meaning that, in the long run, counts in each one’s life: God and his incarnate

grace. To him it could be said: “Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of

your Lord.” Who can doubt that this man is a good patron for us? This man of

humble, everyday routine, this man of silent performance of duty, of honest

righteousness and of manly piety, this man who was charged with protecting the

grace of God in its embodied life…

A nation needs men and women of life-long performance of duty, of clear-

headed loyalty, of discipline of heart and body. A nation needs those who know

that true greatness is achieved only in selfless service to the greater and holy

duty that is imposed upon each life; those of genuine reverence, conquerors of

themselves, who hear the word of God and carry out the inflexible decrees of

conscience. It needs those who through their lives bear the childlike, defenseless

grace of God past all those who, like Herod, attempt to kill this grace. A nation

needs those who do not lose confidence in God’s grace, even when they have to

seek it as lost, as Joseph once sought the divine child.

Such as these are urgently needed in every situation and in every class. We

have a good patron, who is suitable for everyone. For he is a patron of the poor, a

patron of working men and women, a patron of exiles, a model for worshipers,

an exemplar of the pure discipline of the heart, a prototype of fathers who

protect in their children the Son of the Father.