St. Joseph - The Sixth Sorrow, Sixth Joy

Deacon Kevin Gingras

St. Joseph Devotion

Day Six reflection

Sixth Sorrow: The return from Egypt. 

Matthew 2:22 But hearing that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; and being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee.

Joseph and Mary must have wanted nothing more than to just get home.  They had heard that Herod was dead.  The problem was his son, Archelaus had taken over and he was no better than Herod.  At one point in his illustrious career, he slaughtered roughly 3000 worshipers in the temple area and canceled Passover.  Joseph knew he couldn’t return and his dream confirmed it, he went to Galilee instead.

Have you ever traveled and wanted to just get home, wanted the journey to be over?  You were tired, jet-lagged, worn out.  I’m sure that is how Joseph and Mary felt here, they just wanted to be home and to top it off they were doing all of this traveling with a small child.  Sure, the small child was the Son of God but remember, he was still 100% human. Traveling in a car or plane with a small child is tough enough, imagine traveling with a donkey or walking as your means of transportation!

My wife and I had a small taste of what Joseph went through here.  No, we didn’t travel via donkey, we used planes and automobiles.  We had adopted our daughter Faith in Wuhan China in 2009.  During our trip, China was in the grips of a swine flu pandemic.  At every airport, we had to walk through temperature check zones.  When they gave us Faith at the agency that first day in Wuhan, she had a cold and a fever.  That was our first worry.  We cleaned her up, gave her some Motrin, and began to pray.  This is when St. Joseph really became a member of my Saint Posse.  I prayed to him since St. Joseph was the adoptive father and guardian of Jesus in strange lands.  I felt since I was the adoptive father of Faith in strange lands we had some things in common.  I prayed our itinerary wouldn’t change, I prayed both Allison and I could find peace in this craziness, I prayed we could just focus on being Faith’s parents and getting her to accept us as our primary goal.

We made it to Guangzhou and while there we realized Faith’s passport was incorrect, her birthday stated 10/1, October 1 instead of 1/10, January 10th.  I prayed to St. Joseph even more!

Our prayers were answered.  I remained oddly calm through this, (ask my wife, these situations usually topple me), we were able to keep our itinerary and leave on schedule and we made it through all the airport checkpoints.  That’s where St. Joseph’s sorrow was so much more, he couldn’t make it home as quickly and his itinerary changed drastically.

Sixth Joy: Life with Jesus and Mary at Nazareth. 

Luke 2:39 And when they had fulfilled all things prescribed in the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, into their own town of Nazareth.

Galilee was not under the control of Archelaus so Joseph felt safe bringing Jesus there.  God always can use bad things for good.  Because of the evil that Archelaus was doing in Judea he went to Nazareth instead and thus fulfilled another prophecy about Jesus, that “He shall be called a Nazorean”.

What a great moment that must have been walking over that town line, they knew they were home.  To find a place to finally take a bit of a rest from travel.  The joy, the smiles on Joseph and Mary’s faces must have been beaming.  Finally, at a safe place, they can call home.

The first leg of our journey home was landing in California.  Faith instantly became an American Citizen when that plane touched down on American soil, well, not soil, tarmac but it meant the same!  We weren’t home just yet, one more flight to Logon airport in Boston.

I don’t remember a lot vividly but I do vividly remember going down that escalator in Logan airport and my two sons Ian and Adam, my brother, and my dad were there at the bottom waiting for Faith, Allison, and me.  The joy and elation, the emotions, all of them happy, were all a bit overwhelming.  Seeing my dad’s joy was all the more as he was apprehensive of us adopting a deaf child.  Seeing my son Adam’s joy as he was apprehensive of us adopting at all!  Seeing my son Ian’s joy as he finally gets to meet his sister he was so looking forward to meeting.  Yes, we were home, finally.  Well, almost, one final ride from Logan in Boston to Raynham.

Walking through our front door in my hometown was even better.  Our travel was over and it was indeed much easier than what Joseph and Mary went through, we did walk a little bit but the long-distance parts were automobiles and the VERY long-distance parts were planes, but somehow, in a small way I can feel attached to Joseph’s joy a bit here, he succeeded in getting them home safely.  That’s one worry that is now a joy for him.

I thanked St. Joseph for traveling with us, even in the midst of the chaos of travel, which is not something I enjoy at all, St. Joseph managed to keep me calm and guided me to trust in the Lord as he did.

“Go to Joseph” is a line we’ve probably all heard before. I agree with that wholeheartedly.  Doing so hasn’t made my life perfect, but even when it isn’t, my Saint Posse helps get me by,  especially with St. Joseph tucked in there. Saint Joseph quietly did what he needed to do and not one word spoken by Joseph was ever recorded in Scripture. Perhaps that’s the greatest lesson I can take from him: do what you need to do quietly, humbly, and with prayer.