I was invited during the weekend to speak about St. Joseph. This is what I said:
I am not a biblical scholar nor a theologian. I am a lay Catholic who was taught as a child that I should be obedient to my parents because Jesus, the Son of God, was obedient to Joseph and to Mary, His parents.
"Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour." (Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 51 - 52)
What an interesting conjunction of ideas there is in those two sentences. The evangelist appears to suggest that, partly as a consequence of His obedience to Joseph and Mary, Jesus grew in wisdom and in divine and human favour. Joseph and Mary are depicted as the Son of God's primary educators on earth. The Divine mandate of all parents thoughout history can be seen in the example of the Holy Family.
The more I've reflected on the theme of the talk I was invited to give today, the more I've been impressed by the insight of the NACF in choosing St Joseph as a topic for their family pilgrimage to Walsingham in 2010. St Joseph is a thoroughly relevant, thoroughly modern, saint for the crisis families face today in Britain.
On the one hand, of course, St. Joseph is the great, still, figure of tradition in religious history. He embodies the biblical history of our salvation. Old Testament prophecies about Salvation come to fulfilment through Joseph's being the husband of Mary who gives birth to Jesus. According to St Matthew, the evangelist, St Joseph is a final link in the genealogy of Salvation going back to Abraham.
On the other hand, St Joseph is far from being a still, even passive, figure in our salvation history. When you look at the way he acts in truly massive crises, St Joseph is a radical and instinctive man whose first thought is to act strongly, swiftly, decisively, independent-mindedly, selflessly and with true compassion for those who are closest to him. For example when Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, St Joseph makes up his mind to act decisively to protect her from disgrace and possible death. But St. Joseph's independent-minded judgement of human affairs is always open to the Holy Spirit - Who guides him to take Mary home as his wife and Who later guides him in another massive family crisis as he escapes with Jesus and Mary from King Herod's murderous plans.
But, above all, the significance and relevance of St Joseph for the National Association of Catholic Families this weekend in May, 2010, can be seen in the Gospel passage with which I began:
"Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour." (Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 51 - 52)
What we see here is St Joseph's spousal relationship with Mary. We witness in that spousal relationship the timeless, eternal icon of a married couple who are the primary educators of their child: a married couple who, in Joseph's and Mary's case, are responsible for the education and formation of Jesus, the Son of God Who, under their care, increases in wisdom, years, and in divine and human favour.
Doesn't this short passage say everything the world needs to know about the irreplaceable, inalienable, right and duty of parents to be the primary educators of their children? Doesn't the teaching of Familiaris Consortio, one of the founding documents of the National Association of Catholic Families, that the right and duty of parents in the education and formation of their children is "irreplaceable and inalienable", find its eternal authoritative source in these two simple verses?
If Jesus himself depended on the formation of his parents, his primary educators, to reach full maturity and to increase in wisdom, how much more is the case for the rest of humanity?
The first and the primary focus of my reflection today is St. Joseph's impact on the human person of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Through St. Joseph's spousal relationship with Mary, taking Mary as his wife, they become the primary educators of Jesus Christ. They take command of His education and formation - and this is all the more underlined after the crisis of losing Jesus in Jerusalem - and Jesus increases in wisdom and in Divine and human favour. In the same way, we parents today must take command of the education and formation of our children so that they too can increase in wisdom and in divine and human favour.
Parents do not only find the authoritative source of their right and duty of to be the primary educators of their children in the life of Jesus Christ. We also find an authoritative source in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I would like to quote from an important talk, given in Qatar, by the distinguished US attorney and bioethicist, William L. Saunders Jnr, entitled "Human Rights, the Family and the Education of Children".
Mr Saunders writes: "Article 16 [of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights] declares: 'The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.' Thus, article 16 recognizes the common sense fact, sometimes overlooked by governments and international organizations, that the family exists prior to the state, is the foundation of the state, and that the state is obligated to protect it."
Mr Saunders continues: "Article 16 goes further. It recognizes the right of a man and woman to marry and found a family. In other words, it recognizes that the family is founded ... upon marriage. We can all be thankful the Declaration recognized these fundamental truths."
Listen carefully to William Saunders's explanation of how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights upholds parents as the primary educators of their children. He says: "Echoing the approach of article 16 [of the Declaration], article 26(3) recognizes that parents are the primary educators of their children. 'Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children' [the article states]. As article 16 recognized the priority to the state of the family founded upon marriage, article 26 recognizes the priority of the wishes of parents regarding the education of their own children over any designs of the state. Remember, per article 16, the State is obligated to protect the family. If the State presumes to usurp the rights of parents to choose the education of their own children, it damages the family, violates its own obligations, and undermines the foundation of a just society and State."
William Saunders underlines the historical significance of the Universal Declaration's insistence on parents as the primary educators of their children by citing Mary Ann Glendon, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, former US ambassador to the Holy See, and President of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences. In her authoritative book on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights A World Made New Mary Ann Glendon writes:
"In the article on education [26]...[the drafting committee for the Declaration] made an important change, influenced directly by recollections of the National Socialist regime's efforts to turn Germany's renowned educational system into a mechanism for indoctrinating the young with the government's program.... [A]fter Beaufort of the Netherlands recalled the ways in which German schools had been used to undermine the role of parents, a third paragraph was added: 'Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children'".
"In other words" William Saunders comments "one of the most important lessons drawn by the framers of the Declaration from the experience of the Second World War was that parental choice in education is a fundamental plank of international peace and security".
The second focus of my reflection is St. Joseph's role in the Holy Family's flight into Egypt, escaping from King Herod's murderous intentions towards Jesus. As Pope John Paul II explains in his Letter to Families (21), another foundational document for the National Association of Catholic Families: "Matthew, for his part, tells of the plot of Herod against Jesus. Informed by the Magi who came from the East to see the new king who was to be born (cf. Mt 2:2), Herod senses a threat to his power, and after their departure he orders the death of all male children aged two years or under in Bethlehem and the surrounding towns. Jesus escapes from the hands of Herod thanks to a special divine intervention and the fatherly care of Joseph, who takes him with his mother into Egypt, where they remain until Herod's death."
Let me turn to St. Matthew's account in the second chapter of his Gospel: "After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddently some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage. When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem ... Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, 'Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage ... But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way. After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.' So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead ... After Herod's death, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the leand of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.' So Joseph got up and, taking child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth ... "
Just think about the various elements in Joseph's "fatherly care" of Jesus and Mary, the Holy Family. Firstly, he acts immediately and with a real sense of urgency. "So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead ... ". This sentence tells us that Joseph is attentive to the signs of the times and open to the Holy Spirit - leaving nothing to chance as he senses his enemy closing in: "he left that night for Egypt". Secondly, there are signs again of St Joseph's independent-mindedness as he works out for himself what's best to do: "But when he learnt that Archelaus hd succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there ... ". Constantly studious of the signs of the times, he decides not to go to Judaea. The goodness and conscientiousness of this great man once again, just like the crisis over Mary's mysterious pregnancy, make him open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and we learn "being warned in a dream he withdrew to the region of Galilee".
Joseph is the model for Catholic fathers - and Catholic mothers - today. In fact he's the model for all parents, whatever their religion, whose children's welfare are threatened by governments, like the British government, which have policies to provide children under the age of 16 with access to abortion, without their parents' knowledge or consent. This is happening in schools in England and Wales, including in Catholic schools. Strangely, the Catholic Education Service, on behalf of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, welcomes Connexions, an organization which promotes such access to abortion to under-age children, into Catholic schools. Strangely, too, the Catholic Education Service has appointed as its deputy director Greg Pope who, as a Member of Parliament, signed parliamentary motions praising the Family Planning Association and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the biggest abortion-promoting agency in the world, and who voted against parents being informed about their under-age child having an abortion.
As parents we must, like St Joseph, take command of the education and formation of our children. We must be prepared to take radical, urgent action, to protect them from government authorities and even from Catholic authorities who will co-operate with the killing of our unborn grandchildren - just as St. Joseph used his wits and his heavenly-inspired wisdom to escape the murderous intentions of King Herod.
Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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