Joseph - husband, father, protector - and intercessor

In his 2020 apostolic letter Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis declared the period from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2020, through the following Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 2021 to be a “Year of St. Joseph,” and marked the 150th anniversary since Blessed Pope Pius IX declared St. Joseph to the Patron of the Universal Church. Additionally, on May 1, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker, a celebration instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955. Many in the Church have had a renewed interest in Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, as is indicated by the increase in the number of books and conferences on the saint.

Revering Joseph

Among those who have written St. Joseph books in recent years is Fr. Gary Caster, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois and past Legatus speaker, who wrote Joseph, the Man Who Raised Jesus, published through Franciscan Media in 2013. He wrote it for his late mother, Nancy, who “understood St. Joseph as a man, as a father to Jesus, and as an intercessor.” He believes the book is unique in contrast to others on St. Joseph, because of “its use of Jesus and His public life as a reflection upon the man who raised Him.”
Father Caster grew up in southern California, and had wanted to be a priest since age nine, when he experienced “a profound encounter with Jesus” which “did not infuse me with virtue, moral purity, or mystical insights,” but it “did secure the truth that I am loved by God. Period.”

He entered seminary for the Diocese of Orange in southern California, later transferring to Peoria and being ordained a priest in 1992. After serving as a chaplain and religion teacher for a diocesan high school, he left the education apostolate in 2019 to serve as a parochial vicar for the Ottawa Catholic Community (the three parishes of St. Columba, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Patrick, in Ottawa, IL) . He has written seven books on spirituality as well as many articles, leads parish missions, and is a guest on EWTN programs and Relevant Radio’s “The Inner Life.”

Wholly attuned to God

Fr. Caster believes that St. Joseph’s outstanding characteristic in the Bible is his absolute trust in God. He explained, “He never waivers and this is expressed in his unrelenting obedience. This alone should give every man pause. Most men would question, doubt, or try to take control of the situations Joseph found himself and his family facing. Not Joseph. Talk about a man of God!”

The little information about Joseph provided in the books of Matthew and Luke present Joseph as a man who has a substantive relationship with God, Fr. Caster believes. He explained, “Only a person familiar with the ways and words of God would awaken from a dream and accept the fact of an angelic visitation. Recall how God also spoke within the context of dreams to the ancestor whose name Joseph bears” — Joseph, son of Jacob in the Old Testament.

St. Joseph is shown to be a man educated in the faith and practices of his people. Matthew describes him as “a righteous man,” and Luke notes that he adhered to all that the law required concerning the Child Jesus. Fr. Caster continued, “Both Gospels make it clear that Joseph had been given the responsibility of standing in the place of God the Father. Jesus was to be raised as Joseph’s son, and he provided all that a child would need from his father. Mary was likewise under Joseph’s protective and loving care.”

Joseph demonstrates to Catholics today, Father Caster believes, that “we, like our Creator, must be life-giving in all aspects of our lives,” and that men are called to be “constantly open and engaged. In family life, this will ensure that a man’s family is always protected.”

Joseph is “a man deeply rooted in the life of the Spirit,” and to be a father like Joseph is only possible with “the deep, abiding relationship with God that the Spirit makes possible … the unrelenting trust St. Joseph demonstrates is the only way to lead others and one’s family to Christ.”

The model for a man

Society has a desperate need for men with Joseph’s qualities today, as “men are attacked in terms of their biology from the earliest age … St. Joseph is the perfect antidote to the bizarre and misguided and satanic preoccupation with ‘toxic masculinity.’”

Satan has targeted men, Fr. Caster believes, because “every man is created to stand in the world as the presence of the Father. That just drives Satan wild!”
Imbued with the spirit and virtues of St. Joseph, men should be proud to publicly express their faith and live lives of excellence by “willingly embracing their particular vocations and apostolates. Through his willing and committed service a man will receive all that is needed from God to stand as an image of the Father in the world.” 

JIM GRAVES is a Legatus magazine contributing writer.