We must revive devotion to St Joseph

Dear Editor, Some years ago I came across a book with the title The Feminisation of the Male. I thought of this book title on reading Philip Brennan’s letter on the subject of St Joseph (IC Letters 01/01/2015). Unfortunately, there has been a tendency in the past (not necessarily on the part of Mr Brennan) to feminise the figure of St Joseph. Think of all the art work and statues of Joseph as a lily-carrying man. Personally I could never relate to this overly pious image put forward (by whom?) as a model of manhood.

However, this image was exploded for me by the study of Pope Emeritus Benedict’s great portrayal of the person of Jesus in his writings. In his study Benedict brings out clearly the personality of Jesus which is a million miles away from the popular images of him we have internalised as someone who wouldn’t say “boo” to a goose. On the contrary, Benedict portrays Jesus as strong, upright, fearless as well as gentle and compassionate, someone who is not intimidated by his enemies  and who is not afraid to speak the truth regardless of the consequences, a man who is not afraid to be silent when need be. From whom did he absorb all these qualities?

I got to thinking about this especially since I have become a father myself and worry about how to transmit to my sons the qualities of manhood. I know that the father will always be reflected in the son for good or ill. It is in the light of this that I realised that St Joseph was the man who taught Jesus to be a man.

They say that we men communicate better side-by-side rather than face-to-face. I think of the long hours, days and years of Jesus and Joseph working side-by-side in the carpenter’s workshop and can only speculate about the qualities of manhood communicated to Jesus by his mentor Joseph. So if we wish to know Joseph as he really was, we need look no further than at Jesus.

We need to revive devotion to St Joseph in our country today. In this I agree wholeheartedly with Philip Brennan. But it needs to be a devotion to him as a strong and fearless protector and defender of vulnerable human life at all its stages.

Yours etc.,

John Cleary,

Rathaspeck,

Co. Wexford.