Joe, the High Priest

I came across this icon of the Holy Family several months back, and it greatly intrigued me because Joe is clothed in the vestments of a Greek bishop. Since encountering the icon, I have been thinking a great deal about why he would, or should, be clothed as bishop. I think I might finally have an answer.

Last week, I shared St. Francis de Sales analogy of two mirrors and the sun for the Holy Family. I'm currently in a class entitled "Sacraments and the Christian Mystical Tradition" and in this course we're reading a short book written by Dr. David Fagerberg entitled Consecrating the World: On Mundane Liturgical Theology. In this book, Dr. Fagerberg speaks about the proper understanding of the term 'hierarchy', which comes from two Greek words: hiereus (priestly/sacred) arche (source of power). Then, quoting from Dionysius's Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter 3:

The aim of Hierarchy is the greatest possible assimilation to and union with God, and by taking Him as leader in all holy wisdom, to become like Him, so far as is permitted, by contemplating intently His most Divine Beauty. Also it moulds and perfects its participants in the holy image of God like bright and spotless mirrors which receive the Ray of the Supreme Deity — which is the Source of Light; and being mystically filled with the Gift of Light, it pours it forth again abundantly, according to the Divine Law, upon those below itself.

In other words, the hierarchy should be seen as a series of mirrors that each receive the Light of Christ from another and shares the same Light with another. The first mirror in the hierarchy is Mary; the second is Joe, all the way down to you and I. Joe is clothed as a bishop, that is a high-priest, because he is the first to receive the Light of Christ from another mirror (i.e. Mary, who receive the Light of Christ, not from another "mirror", but from Christ Himself). We too are called to be priests who sanctify this world (as Dr. Fagerberg write throughout his book).

For this reason I have begun to extend the phrase "To Jesus, through Mary" to "To Jesus, through Mary, with Joseph."

Joe, the second mirror

Last week, I shared St. Francis de Sales' analogy of the date-palm tree for Joe. This week, I'm sharing another analogy that de Sales offers in this conference: Joe as a mirror. This analogy should not be surprising though; after all, Joe is invoked as the "mirror of patience" in his litany. Simply put, as a mirror does not emit any light of its own but only reflects light from a source, Joe too does not emit any light of his own but only reflects that light, which is the Light of the World (John 8:12). Joe, however, does not reflect the Light directly. He receives the Light of the World from Mary, who is also a mirror. Here is what de Sales writes:

Oh divine union between Our Lady and the glorious St. Joseph! By means of this union, that Good of eternal goods, Our Lord Himself, belonged to St. Joseph as well as to Our Lady. This is not true as regards the nature which He took in the womb of our glorious Mistress, and which had been formed by the Holy Ghost of the most pure blood of Our Lady ; but is so 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. For although it is true that she possessed every virtue in a higher degree than is attainable by any other pure creature, yet it is quite certain that the glorious St. Joseph was the being who approached most nearly to that perfection.

And just as we see that a mirror placed opposite to the rays of the sun receives those rays perfectly, and another mirror placed opposite to the first, though it only takes or receives the sun's rays by reflection, yet reflects them so absolutely that you can scarcely judge which receives them directly from the sun and which only by reflection, so it was in the case of Our Lady. She was like a most pure mirror, receiving on a spotless surface the rays of the Sun of Justice, which poured into her soul all virtues in their perfection. All these virtues and perfections were then absolutely reflected in St. Joseph, so that it almost seemed as if he were as perfect, and possessed all virtues in as high a degree, as the glorious Virgin our Mistress.

More coming up next week...

Joe, the Holy Date Palm?

Today stands between the feasts of St. Francis de Sales (Jan. 24) and St. John Bosco (Jan. 31). In looking for something to share this week, I began my search for anything that St. John Bosco might have said about Joe. However, I really couldn't find anything, but I was inspired to look at what St. Francis de Sales had to say. After all, John Bosco had such a great devotion to Francis de Sales that he named the religious order that he established after de Sales: the Salesian Order. I came across a talk that de Sales gave, entitled On the Virtues of St. Joseph. You can read the talk here.

What struck me most about this talk was how Francis de Sales compared Joe to a date-palm tree, and it truly is an amazing comparison. He begins the talk by quoting Psalm 92:13, "The just shall flourish like the palm tree..." He basically compares Joe's three "primary" virtues (virginity, humility, and courage) with the date tree:

1. Virginity (pg. 366-371): The date-palm tree is either male or female (the male tree exclusively produces the pollen, and the female tree exclusively produces the flower). Therefore, "the male palm-tree does not bear fruit, and yet it is not unfruitful, for the female palm would bear no fruit without it, or without its aspects." Similarly, Joe does not produce children of his own (de Sales believed that Joe was a young-virgin spouse of Mary, pg. 369); yet, he is not unfruitful because Jesus becomes his son through his spousal relationship with Mary.
2. Humility (pg. 371-378): The date-palm tree does not produce flowers until summer-time. Francis de Sales interprets summer-time spiritually as one's entrance into heaven and the putting forth of flowers as the recognition of virtue. He says that the humble person does not try to make their virtue public, but tries to keep it hidden, and prefers that God will reveal the person's virtue after he or she has died. De Sales points out that the Sacred Scriptures do not directly reveal much about Joe because Joe truly lived a humble and hidden life (pg. 372-373).
3. Courage (pg. 378-383): The date-palm tree does not bend low the more it becomes laden with fruit; instead, the more fruit it has, the taller it seems to grow. This seems to correspond with the virtue of courage, which does not back away when given a heavier load, but rather, seems to grow even stronger. De Sales relates this to Joe who was given the very difficult task of providing for Jesus and Mary in the midst of dangers, poverty and uncertainty.

So, who knew that Joe could be compared to a date tree? 

In case you were wondering about the biological statements about date trees, consider this Encyclopedia Britannica article on date trees. To make the comparison even more interesting, this article concludes by stating that date-palm leaves are commonly used on Palm Sunday. What was proclaimed on Palm Sunday? “Hosanna to the Son of David..." (Matthew 21:30) 

And is not Joe a son of David? (Matthew 1:20)

Coincidence? I think not.