We are gathered here today to celebrate your patron, Saint Joseph.

He is a good patron to have because he has shown fidelity to the Lord.

The Gospel passage that has been proclaimed does not tell the whole story.  It is more concerned with Jesus than Joseph.

It says: “His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph”, but it does not tell us how the betrothal took place. We have to go to the Apocryphal Gospel of James for the story of the lottery among the widowers of Israel as to whom Mary, brought up in the Temple and having reached the age of puberty, should be entrusted. The lot designated Joseph. He already had sons by his first marriage, and so he was unwilling at first, but then he accepted her.

But then there came a really disturbing event: “Before they came to live together she (Mary) was found to be with child”. “Joseph, being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity decided to divorce her informally.” I have always wondered what effect this would have. It seems to me that it would have no formal effect, so Joseph and Mary would have remained betrothed in the eyes of the people. Joseph would not have been free to marry another. In other words his decision to divorce informally included his acceptance of chastity.

It was when that decision had been taken that the angel of the Lord appeared to him and revealed that Mary had conceived through the Holy Spirit and that the child she would give birth to would be the Saviour, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Joseph accepted this and became the Guardian of Mary and her child. We know too how he fulfilled his responsibilities: accompanying Mary to Bethlehem, the town of David, where Jesus was born; taking Mary and the child Jesus to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod; and then returning, not to Bethlehem or Jerusalem, but to Nazareth which seemed safer.

So, Joseph is the patron of those who go into exile; and he is also the patron of those who return. He is blessed with human wisdom allied to trust in God.

We are to entrust to his care the Chaldeans who are exiles in this country, as also the Chaldean communities that have returned to their places of origin in Iraq and are developing there again. We pray for them today, that they may persevere in their efforts, that they may be strong in their faith and hope. We pray for the Patriarch and the bishops that they may find strength in unity and be able to build up the Chaldean community according to all its needs. We pray too for Iraq, that having been blessed some years ago by the visit of Pope Francis, it may develop peacefully with respect for its many different communities.

Blessed Joseph, pray for us.