I pray to St. Joseph every single day.
Someone once said to me that St. Joseph actually had it pretty hard in his house. He sat down at the dinner table between the Incarnate Word and the Immaculate Conception; if someone was screwing up in that house, it had to be him.
But in seriousness, Joseph did not have it easy. Very little is known about his life with certainty. There are stories from things like the non-canonical Proto-Gospel of James, but we take those traditions with a grain of salt. The Bible itself doesn’t give us that much information. Was he young? Was he old? Was he popular? Was he charismatic? None of this is in the Scriptures.
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that he was a righteous man. This meant at the very least that he was consciously religious and he kept the law. But it is his action that reveals his character.
Matthew tells us that when he found Mary was with a child not his own, he decided to divorce her quietly. I know some people point to this as a moment of selfishness or weakness. But there is a great deal we can learn about Joseph in this moment.
At this point in the story, Joseph mistakenly believes that Mary is with child by another man. The penalty for adultery could be death. If Joseph wanted to exact his righteous indignation at his tarnished honor, he could expose her to the law. But the fact that he was to divorce her quietly means that he would subject her to trial. Yet Mary would still be pregnant. Who would people think was the father?
Joseph, of course.
You can read the entire thing here.
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