The Silent ‘Yes’ of St. Joseph

June 1, 2023

A 2021 interview with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI about the protector of the Holy Family and patron of the universal Church

June 1, 2023

San José, 2021, painting by José Luis Castrillo# — San José, 2021, painting by José Luis Castrillo

In Scripture, St. Joseph’s obedient faith is expressed not in words but decisive action, in prompt response to the commands of God and in loving service to Mary and Jesus. “Joseph found happiness not in mere self-sacrifice but in self-gift,” observed Pope Francis in his apostolic letter Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart). “His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expressions of trust.”

The Knights of Columbus has long had a special devotion to St. Joseph, recognizing him as an extraordinary model of fidelity and fatherhood. When Patrick Kelly was installed as the 14th supreme knight in 2021, during the Year of St. Joseph proclaimed by Pope Francis, he consecrated his administration to the Guardian of the Redeemer. Later that year, the Order launched a Pilgrim Icon program in honor of St. Joseph that is ongoing.

Also during the Year of St. Joseph, just months after Pope Francis published Patris Corde, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) gave an interview about his namesake to Regina Einig, a German newspaper editor. Originally titled “Sein Schweigen ist zugleich sein Wort” (“His Silence Is Also His Way of Expressing Himself”), the interview appears in What Is Christianity?, a book featuring Pope Benedict’s last writings. The English-language version of the book will be published by Ignatius Press in August, and an abridged version of the interview is printed here with permission.

Your Holiness, Scripture does not record a single word spoken by St. Joseph. Is there however, in your opinion, a statement in the New Testament that expresses the saint’s character in a particularly suitable way?

POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI: It is true, no words of St. Joseph are handed down to us by the New Testament within his story. But there is a correspondence between the task entrusted to him by the angel who appears to him in a dream and the action of St. Joseph, a correspondence that clearly characterizes him.

In the episode of the command that he receives in a dream to take Mary as his spouse, his response is given in a simple sentence: “He woke and did as the angel commanded him” (Mt 1:24). The correspondence between the task and the action is manifested even more strikingly in the episode of the flight into Egypt, in which the same words [in Greek] are used: “He rose and took the child and his mother” (Mt 2:14). Both expressions are used again a third time at the news of Herod’s death and of the possibility of returning to the Holy Land. The words that characterize Joseph follow, one after the other: “He rose and took the child and his mother” (Mt 2:21).

The nocturnal warning about the danger of [King Herod’s son] Archelaus does not have the same authority as the preceding information. St. Joseph’s action in response says much more simply: “Being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee” (Mt 2:22). The same basic attitude is manifested finally, in an altogether different way, in the episode of the adoration of the Magi who came from the East: “Going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother” (Mt 2:11). St. Joseph does not appear in the meeting between the Magi and the Child Jesus. This silent reluctance to appear is also characteristic and shows very clearly that along with the formation of the Holy Family he took upon himself a service that required great decision-making and organizational ability, but together with a great capacity for self-denial. His silence is at the same time his message. It expresses his “yes” to what he took upon himself in binding himself to Mary and to Jesus.

“Along with the formation of the Holy Family, he took upon himself a service that required great decision-making and organizational ability, but together with a great capacity for self-denial. His silence is at the same time his message.”

Pope Benedict XVI receives a statue of St. Joseph as a gift July 17, 2008, at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in Sydney, following his arrival for World Youth Day. *AP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto, Pool*

What impressions do you have from your pilgrimages in the Holy Land that are particularly connected with the life of your patron saint?

BENEDICT XVI: I must say that during the visits that I made to the Holy Land, St. Joseph almost never appeared. It is natural that he should not be mentioned at the major sites of the public ministry of Jesus in Galilee, especially near the Lake of Gennesaret and the surrounding areas, as well as in Judea. It would contradict his fundamental attitude of obedient silence and his being in second place. However, one could certainly expect a word about him in Nazareth as well as in Bethlehem. Nazareth, in particular, refers to the figure of Joseph. Indeed, it is a place which, outside of the New Testament, is not mentioned anywhere else in written sources. …

Indeed, for Matthew — who puts an Old Testament passage at the basis of every event in the life of Jesus as an attempt to demonstrate that Jesus truly was the Messiah foretold by the Old Testament — the fact that there was no prophetic prediction that had spoken in some way about Nazareth presented a difficulty. This was a fundamental difficulty for the legitimization of Jesus as the promised Messiah: Nazareth in itself obtained no promise (cf. Jn 1:46). And nevertheless, Matthew found three ways to legitimize Jesus the Nazarene as Messiah, too. The Messianic trilogy by Isaiah in Chapters 7, 9 and 11 relates in Chapter 9 the prophecy whereby a light will shine in a land of darkness. Matthew identifies the land of darkness with semi-pagan Galilee where Jesus began his journey.

A second legitimization of Nazareth is obtained, for Matthew, from the inscription over the cross composed by the pagan Pilate, in which he deliberately proposes the “title” (which means the legal motivation) for the crucifixion: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (Jn 19:19). This term has been handed down in two forms — Nazarene and Nazirite — which certainly refers, on the one hand, to Jesus’ total consecration to God, but recalls, on the other hand, his geographical origin. Thus Nazareth, as part of the mystery of Jesus through the pagan Pilate, is inseparably connected with the figure of Jesus himself.

Finally it occurs to me that a catechesis on St. Joseph given in the Holy Land could also recall a third aspect that summarizes and adds greater depth to the two preceding ones. … “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Is 11:1).

The stump of Jesse, who was the forefather of the dynasty of David, which had received the promise of lasting forever, refers to the contradiction between promise and reality that was intolerable for a believing Israelite: The Davidic dynasty disappeared, and only a dead stump remained. But that very same dead stump now becomes a sign of hope: From it a shoot unexpectedly sprouts once again. This paradox, in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-28, is recorded in the form of a present reality and for the evangelist conceals within it a tacit reference to the birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary. Joseph is not the true biological father of Jesus, but he is so legally, by the Law that is constitutive for Israel. The mystery of the shoot becomes still deeper here. The stump of Jesse, by itself, no longer generates life; the stump is truly dead. And yet it bears new life in the son of the Virgin Mary, whose legal father is Joseph.

All this has to do with the theme of Nazareth, inasmuch as the word Nazareth seems to contain within it the term nezer, naser (shoot). The name Nazareth could also be translated as “village of the shoot.” … In any case, the mystery of St. Joseph is profoundly related to the locality of Nazareth. He is the one who, as a shoot from the root of Jesse, expresses the hope of Israel.

St. Joseph is traditionally invoked as patron saint of a happy death. What do you think about this custom?

BENEDICT XVI: We can say with certainty that St. Joseph died during the time of Jesus’ hidden life. He is mentioned one last time in Luke 4:22 after the first public visit of Jesus to the synagogue in Nazareth. The amazement of the crowd at what Jesus says and how he says it turns into perplexity, and they ask each other: “Is this not the son of Joseph?” The fact that subsequently he is no longer mentioned, while it is his mother and his “brothers” who ask to see Jesus, is a certain sign that he was no longer alive. Therefore, the idea that St. Joseph concluded his earthly life in Mary’s care is well founded. Praying to him to accompany us kindly, too, in our final hour is therefore an absolutely warranted form of piety.

How was your patron saint’s day celebrated in your family?

BENEDICT XVI: St. Joseph’s Day [March 19] was my father’s patronal feast and mine, and, within the practical limitations, it was celebrated properly. Most times my mother, with her savings, somehow managed to buy an important book (for example Der kleine Herder [a small reference book]). Then there was a tablecloth specifically for the feast day, which made the breakfast festive. We would drink fresh-ground coffee, which my father liked very much, although usually we could not afford it. Finally on the table there was always a primrose as a sign of spring, which St. Joseph brings with him. And to top it off, Mother would bake a cake with icing, which completely expressed the extraordinary character of the feast. In this way the special quality of the feast of St. Joseph was tangible from early morning on.

Have you experienced personally in your life the intercession of your patron saint?

BENEDICT XVI: When I notice that a prayer has been answered, I do not trace the cause of it back to individual intercessions, but feel indebted to them as a whole.

[In 2020] Pope Francis announced the Year of St. Joseph, reminding the faithful that St. Joseph was declared the patron of the universal Church in 1870. What hope do you place in this gesture?

BENEDICT XVI: I am particularly glad, of course, that Pope Francis has reawakened among the faithful an awareness of St. Joseph’s importance; and therefore I read with enormous gratitude and most sincere agreement the apostolic letter Patris Corde, which the Holy Father wrote for the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph as patron of the universal Church. It is a very simple text which comes from the heart and is addressed to the heart, and for precisely this reason it is very profound. I think that this document should be read diligently and meditated on by the faithful; it would thus contribute to the purification and deepening of our veneration of the saints in general and of St. Joseph in particular.

*****

Featured Resource: With a Father’s Heart

For men seeking to grow in devotion to St. Joseph, the Order’s Catholic Information Service recently published With a Father’s Heart, a study guide to Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Patris Corde. The booklet presents sections of the papal letter, issued in December 2020, with accompanying commentary, questions, and opening and closing prayers. This is the first title in the new CIS Cor Ecclesiae (Heart of the Church) series, a line of study guides to essential Church documents designed for Knights of Columbus Cor meetings and other faith-centered discussions. For more information and to order, visit kofc.org/shopcis.

Archbishop William Lori celebrates Mass in the Church of the Gesù in Rome on Oct. 23, 2024.

The Silent ‘Yes’ of St. Joseph

Featured Resource: With a Father’s Heart

Related Articles

Spiritual Life

The Heart of Prayer

The Heart of Prayer

Spiritual Life

The Raised Man of the Shroud

The Raised Man of the Shroud

Spiritual Life

The Eucharistic Mission of the Church

The Eucharistic Mission of the Church

Spiritual Life

Light and Life Amid Loss

Light and Life Amid Loss

Spiritual Life

St. Joseph’s Eloquent Silence

St. Joseph’s Eloquent Silence

Spiritual Life

What Do You Desire Most?

What Do You Desire Most?

Spiritual Life

The School of St. Joseph

The School of St. Joseph

Spiritual Life

Joseph, Did You Know?

Joseph, Did You Know?