Much is made of Joseph’s silence. It is indeed striking that the Gospels pass down to us not a single word uttered by Jesus’ foster father; it is also striking that this saint, second most intimate of all humans to our Incarnate God, waited centuries for the kind of widespread devotion Christians immediately accorded Mary. Joseph was indeed humble and hidden.
And yet it is possible to know at least one of the words he uttered. We can imagine that, like Zechariah, father of Jesus’s cousin John, Joseph was called upon to give his Son His name, in the formal Jewish ceremony of circumcision and naming. “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Lk 2:21). At the moment of that ceremony, and throughout time and eternity, Joseph would speak the name “Jesus.”
With what awe, what tenderness, did Joseph speak that name, “above every other name” (Phil 2:9)? January is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus. What would Joseph want to tell us about that name? All the beauty and purity of his beloved wife Mary; all Joseph’s hope for his people and for the world; all joy, innocence, strength, peace, and true love came to Joseph’s lips with that name. How sweet it would have been to him to say it! How sweet to call Jesus in from playing outside, how sweet to bring His attention to some matter of carpentry or to instruct Him in God’s law. Here, visible before him, and calling him “father,” was God’s Answer to all of human history, all suffering and sin. “Jesus”: “God saves.”
“The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always” (CCC §2668). Jesus’s name is a prayer. The Devil fears Jesus’ name — as he does Mary’s. Jesus’s name is peace in the tempest, strength in weakness, love in the monotony of every day.
Before my final vows, a wise older Sister painstakingly crafted a five-decade Rosary for me to wear daily, to complement the 15-decade Rosary every Dominican wears on the left side. Since each part of our habit is associated with a distinct prayer prayed when putting on that piece, I asked the Sister what I could pray when fitting this unofficial extra habit piece onto my belt each morning. She considered the question for a day and returned to me with a conspiratorial smile: “Say, ‘Jesus.’” This simple prayer remains one of the sweetest moments of my morning.
Jesus’ name was often on the lips and in the hearts of the saints. It is said of the young mystic Gemma Galgani (d. 1903), “This dear girl Saint also had the privilege of frequent and intimate converse with her Angel Guardian. Sometimes the Angel and Gemma entered into a holy contest as to which of them could say more lovingly the Name of Jesus.”
May St. Joseph teach us to pray Jesus’s name frequently and lovingly.
Sr. Maria Veritas Marks, OP, is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
