Being sixty years old, thirty from having made the Son of God the Son of man (Mt. 1:25), St. Joseph completed his divinely appointed task of preparing his Son for His divinely appointed task—to make sons of men the sons of God once again (Lk. 3:38).
Thus, with the blessing of his Son, Joseph was gathered together with his fathers to await that blessed moment when the Gates of Hades would be torn open. He closed his fleshly eyes to this world and opened his spiritual eyes to behold all of his great ancestors.
Filled with great delight and joy, he exclaimed to all, “He has come! I have held Him! I have named Him! I have taught Him! Rejoice everyone, for He has come!” At this, the Gates of Hades shook a little with fear, and all “were amazed at what was said” (Lk. 2:33), and Satan went off to see whether Jesus was truly the Son of God (Mt. 4:1-11).
Then, one by one, the great prophets and patriarchs approached Joseph to inquire of whom he spoke.
ISAIAH: Of whom do you speak?
JOSEPH: I speak of him of whom you wrote, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” (Mt. 1:23, Is. 7:14).
DAVID: “The virgin shall be with child?” Tell me, how is this possible?
JOSEPH: It is made possible by the Blessed One who once said to you “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” (Ps. 2:7) Unknowingly, you wrote about Him who has come, but I fear that what you wrote in one of your psalms was written of Him too (Ps. 22).
BEN SIRACH: Is it possible that I, too, unknowingly wrote of him in my final canticle (Sirach 51:1-12)?
JOSEPH: Yes, searcher of Divine Wisdom, and this gives me great comfort. Rejoice, because Wisdom will find you soon.
SOLOMON: I too searched for Divine Wisdom, yet in my weakness I could not withstand the allurements of false beauty (1 Kings 11:1-8).
JOSEPH: You sought to be clothed in fine linens and silks. He, instead, prefers to be clothed by his heavenly Father like the wild flowers are (Mt. 6:28-30, 32).
MOSES: If you held him, named him, and taught him, why then are you not called his father?
JOSEPH: Indeed, I was called his father (Lk. 2:48), and so I was according to the flesh but not by the flesh. He has only one Father according to the Spirit and by the Spirit (Lk. 1:35). For according to the Spirit, He received the same Name from the Blessed One Who revealed His Name to you: I AM (Ex. 3:14), according to the flesh, He received the Name ‘Jesus’ (Lk. 2:21).
JOSHUA: “Jesus!” That is a form of my name! But how is it possible that the One who bears the Name ‘I AM’ bears my name as well?
JOSEPH: He bears both because both are what He is. He is the Lord, and as Lord, he shall save us from our sins (Mt. 1:21), and like you, he will lead us into the New Promised Land (Lk. 23:43).
OLD TESTAMENT JOSEPH: My friend, I am sorry, but have we met? For it seems as if I already know you.
JOSEPH: No, we have not met, but we share the same name because, by Providence, you prefigured me in so many ways. Rejoice! For as you were chosen to store and distribute grain in time of famine (Gen. 41:47-49, 53-57), so I was chosen to store and give away the Bread of Life to all of humanity (John 6:35).
ABRAHAM: I was blessed once to have been able to give bread to the Lord, and it was then that the Lord promised me a son (Gen. 18:1-15). Do you think there is a deeper meaning than Isaac in his words?
JOSEPH: O my father in faith! Yes, there is a great meaning. For I believe that the Lord’s command to sacrifice Isaac is the key. The Lord spared your son, and in his place, He gave you a ram (Gen. 22:1-19). The new Ram is my Son and the Son of God. In his Power will change the bread that you gave into the Divine Bread—the sacrificed flesh of the Lamb of God (Mt. 26:26). Rejoice father! For as you were generous in giving bread to the Lord, so now, He will be even more generous in return.
NOAH: How is it that I find what you say to be hard to understand but beautiful, yet when the Lord sent the flood to drown my enemies (Gen. 6-7), I found it easy to understand but ugly?
JOSEPH: That is because, noble Noah, that you have not yet been drowned beneath the cleansing waters of Baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Like you, I am a carpenter, and I passed on our trade to my Son. He will drown our wickedness and save us by wood. For this reason we should proclaim, “Blest is the wood through which righteousness comes about!” (Wisdom 14:7).
ABEL: You speak, young Joseph, about wood saving us—wood prepared by the Lamb of God. I offered a lamb as a burnt holocaust to God (Gen. 4:4). How is it possible that the Lamb prepares the altar too?
JOSEPH: Love. Love. Love is the only way. It was Love that caused Him to become like us in all things except sin (Heb. 2:17) It is Love that drives Him to prepare Himself as priest, altar, and victim. It is the Love of God for us that is the answer to all our questions.
ADAM: How could He love me? I fell because I wanted to make myself be like Him (Gen. 3:5-6).
JOSEPH: Rejoice, father of humanity! Yes, you fell because you wanted make yourself be like Him, but now He has fallen from heaven in order to be like you. He has come to take away your sin. He has come to become the new Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and He desires that you eat this new Fruit. This time, you will not die, because He is also the Fruit of the Tree of Life. Soon, He will beckon you to partake of this Fruit. You will live and be like Him! You were once driven out of the Garden of Eden; so once again, He will enter the Garden “at the breezy time of the day” (Gen. 2:8), and when He comes out as the new Gardener (John 20:15), He will draw you to a Garden far greater than the one from which you came. He will bring you into His own home (Lk. 23:43). Rejoice, father of humanity, for He is the new Adam, and He will call out for you!
At this point, Hades began to shake and rock. At the same time, blood began to pour down like rain—covering all who were there. At this, Blessed Joseph cried out so that all could hear:
“Now is the hour! Now is the day of salvation! My Son comes as the Paschal Lamb who is slain. Come everyone! Quick, let us greet Him at Hades’s Gates! Do you hear that pounding? I’m sure that it is He in His agony, and He is becoming emboldened. As Hades weakens Him in the flesh, He weakens Hades’s Gates, and when Hades has finished its foul deed, He will cry out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
Then, as if they were just pieces of straw swept up by a tornado, the Gates of Hades burst open, and the Light of the World (John 8:12) flooded all of Hades’s dark caves and crevices—illuminating all who were there. At this, Jesus looked in and saw all who were washed in his own blood, and he exclaimed with joy, “These ones, at last, are bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! (Gen. 2:23), and when the eyes of Jesus and Joseph met each other, tears of joy filled both their eyes. Jesus said to him, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Mt. 25:34) With this, Hades was emptied of its prize.
For, CHRIST IS RISEN!
Indeed, HE IS RISEN!
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