Saint Joseph: A Creatively Courageous Father

Today, we look at the next attribute of Saint Joseph’s fatherhood, “A Creatively Courageous Father,” as presented to us the Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart).

We have looked at Saint Joseph as “A Beloved Father,” whom the Church lovingly venerates, as a Tender and Loving Father evident in his constant care and devotion to Mary and Jesus, as an Obedient Father who listened to God’s will and obeyed, and as an Accepting Father who embraced his circumstances and lovingly took responsibility for his part in God’s plan.

We hope in this Year of Saint Joseph and in these reflections is to increase “our love for this great saint, to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal.” We are seeking to plumb the depths of the fatherly heart of Saint Joseph, that heart that Jesus and Mary knew and loved so well.

A Creatively Courageous Father

This attribute of Saint Joseph’s fatherly heart, creative courage, is really an expanded description of “how” he responded to the difficulties he encountered in providing for and protecting Mary and Jesus. We are literally “en-couraged” to see and imitate the creative zeal and manly determination with which Saint Joseph responded to God’s plan for his life.

Pope Francis reminds us, “In the face of difficulty, we can either give up and walk away, or somehow engage with it.” Saint Joseph faced difficulties, despite his natural fears. That is what courage is–being scared to death but saddling up anyway, moving toward, rather than away, from the burning building. His courage was not the absence of fear, it was an affirmative act of the will, despite his fear, by which Joseph could, “Get up, take the Child and His Mother” and work out what was required to keep them safe.

Creative courage means you don’t need to be told all the details of “how” to meet the challenges inherent in the difficulties, because you engage with your entire self. You bring your natural and supernatural “skills” to the engagement; the entirety of yourself is precisely what God wants of you. This is God’s method, “God acts through events and people. Joseph was the man chosen by God to guide the beginnings of the history of redemption. He was the true “miracle” by which God saves the child and his mother. God acted by trusting in Joseph’s creative courage.”

In our piety, we give God all the credit, and rightfully so. But we often overlook the fact, sometimes the blatant fact, that our human capabilities are precisely what God is depending on. God can act in any way He wants, as directly as He wants. But He acts through “events and people,” namely, us, including our native and creative abilities. Grace perfects nature. The Pope goes on to say that, “If at times God seems not to help us, surely this does not mean that we have been abandoned, but instead are being trusted to plan, to be creative, and to find solutions ourselves.” This highlights the astounding, reassuring, and mysterious truth that our lives are actually a collaboration with Almighty God. This is a source of true joy.

Pope Francis acknowledges that, in the face of difficulties, we can often feel overwhelmed and powerless, seemingly “at the mercy of the strong and mighty.” We all know this feeling. But, God alone is all-mighty and employs our littleness to confound the “strong.” As the Pope says, and we can almost hear Saint Joseph say, with joy, “God always finds a way!”

This is the “good news” of the Gospel, this is what counts most; God’s plan of salvation will not be thwarted, “God always finds a way to save us, provided we show the same creative courage as the carpenter of Nazareth, who was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting always in Divine Providence.”

What’s more, by God’s design, we grow in virtue by each engagement, because “difficulties bring out resources we did not even think we had.” This is yet another example of Christian realism, by which we reject nothing that exists. God’s plan, of which the details of our lives are an integral part, is infinitely comprehensive; nothing is lost with God, including His employment of our limited abilities.

Finally, the Pope relates Saint Joseph’s creative courage back to his vocation as father and husband, to his care and protection of the Christ Child and His Mother. We, as husbands and fathers, should treasure our wives and children as Joseph did his, loving them with creative courage. Furthermore, Jesus teaches us that Mary, the Church, and the poor and needy (the least of our brothers and sisters) are inseparable from Him. “Jesus showed a particular concern for them and personally identified with them.” From Saint Joseph’s example, “We must learn that same care and responsibility. We must learn to love the child and his mother, to love the sacraments and charity, to love the Church and the poor.” Each of these realities is, in some real way, always “the Child and His Mother” which we are called to protect.

Let us, once again, “Go to Joseph!” He is Guardian of the Church, of husbands, fathers, families, and the poor, because, by his intercession on our behalf, he obtains God’s Providence and protection and by his example reminds us to engage our duties lovingly with creative courage.

If you would like to continue celebrating the Year of St. Joseph, learn about and download our plenary indulgences cheat sheet! You can also find more St. Joseph resources (including an audio story and coloring pages for your kids!) here.

You can also begin preparing for the May 1st Feast Day of St. Joseph with this St. Joseph Novena!