Saint Joseph: wise and faithful servant

The entrance antiphony for Mass, celebrated on March 19th in honor of Saint Joseph, recounts these words: Behold the wise and faithful servant whom the Lord has placed at the head of his family.

Other texts are lengthy and dense, brimming with exegetical ideas and boundless horizons. Here, we have exactly the opposite: just two short sentences, yet very clear and highly applicable. Not to be considered in an abstract sense, but to be brought back to the reality of life.

A wise and faithful servant. Who is the wise and faithful servant? A servant is someone who renders service. But the word implies something more: a servant who, in some way and in any capacity, belongs to the Lord whom he serves. In this precise sense, Joseph was a servant: a man who dedicated himself to the service of God, but he was not a slave, because there is a somewhat inhuman aspect in slavery: it lacks freedom. Of this latter, Joseph always remained a complete master. He exercised it, however, serving God voluntarily in all that he knew as his will. He gave his life to God, not losing it, as martyrs do, but consecrating it to the mission for which God had called him through the angel.

He was faithful because he maintained intact the faith he owed to his God and Lord. The concept of fidelity could be developed to a high degree during the Middle Ages: a personal relationship of adherence and loyalty to the Lord, a firm unshakeability in the given word, promise, at any cost and despite any difficulty, obstacle, or problem that may arise. Conceived thus, fidelity has a connotation, or better, a property, that inspires trust and confers it. A faithful man is a man firm in his faith and, therefore, one on whom one can rely.

He was also wise, because he worked with prudence. Operating with prudence is having discernment, knowing how to distinguish what is good from what is not. But wisdom is not only that. There is more. A wise man, above all, is a man capable of knowing reality and adhering to it, and therefore, a man who has a solid base for making his choices. In fact, Joseph does not seem to belong to that type of people who spend their forces, or a great part of them, developing projects that they will never perfect, because it is difficult for them to implement. The kind of people who dream of great things and then let slip, carried away by so many quimeras, the concrete duty demanded by the moment, that which is more real than all the marvellous but imaginary entanglements that attract them. Joseph, as a wise man, did not build castles in the air, but made his decisions according to the precise data provided by the reality of things.

But a man like this, a man clearly conscious of his condition of servant in relation to his God and Lord. Who, for this very reason, knows that he exists to serve him and wants to do so with full and determined freedom. Who, precisely because he accepted voluntarily and freely his condition, remains faithful to the decision to the point of maintaining this firmness despite any obstacle, opposition, or danger. And who, moreover, prudent and faithful to reality, knows how to make the right choice in each case and circumstance, without falling into unfounded optimism, blind ambition, or foolish vanity, is a man of trust.

Joseph was made of such stuff, that is why the Lord placed him at the head of his family. God entrusted him with the care of his incarnate Son and his Most Holy Mother: extraordinary treasures ever entrusted to a creature. To entrust means to expect from someone with firmness and security, to place something precious in his hands with the sole guarantee constituted by the certainty placed in that fidelity. God knew that Joseph was wise and faithful, and for this reason made him his man of trust, one of those on whom one can rely with all tranquillity, certain that he will not fail in adverse circumstances, that he will remain loyal in any adversity, that he will fulfill his tasks to the best of his abilities.