Tag: Man in Background

Joseph, man in background.

St Joseph, detail from Crib @
St John’s Epping.

St Joseph could be called the man in the background. His importance at one level is that he provides a link with his ancestor David, thus giving Jesus the lineage back to the establishment of the Royal Kingdom of which Jesus is the heir.
In the story of Jesus’s birth, we have to go to St. Matthew for the story of Joseph’s own Annunciation. (Matthew 1: verses 18 to 25)
Having learned of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph’s life was in a turmoil.  The law was quite clear that Mary should be punished but Joseph was a compassionate man and he wanted to spare her and her family disgrace.  It was then that an angel visited him in a dream and explained about the work of the Holy Spirit in Mary and about both their parts in the Incarnation. Joseph is central to the Christmas story and it is because of him that they must go the Bethlehem for a census.  There he provides shelter for Mary to give birth to the Saviour of the World.  We next hear about him when Herod seeks to kill Jesus and they take the long journey to Egypt.  Later he is told by an angel to return home and the family settle in Nazareth. After this, the only reference to Joseph is in the incident where the boy Jesus remains in the Temple and his parents have to rush back to search for him. We are told that after this Jesus went back home with his parents to Nazareth where he was obedient to his parents.  Then, Joseph fades completely from the story though there are references to him when the crowd say of Jesus, Isn’t this the Carpenter’s Son?

Reading the Bible there are many people who appear for some particular reason and then disappear from its pages. 
Joseph, however, stands not only as one who completes the picture of the Holy Family but who is also a reminder to all of us that God does not always need us to shine on the centre stage.  God needs people who are faithfully living out a life of prayer and support with compassion, kindness and loving obedience. People who, like Joseph are attentive to God’s will.  He needs people who are content to be in the background and who, by a life of quiet service, allow Jesus to take centre stage in all our lives. 
Too often the Church is preoccupied with itself and can get so bogged down in its own affairs that it fails to proclaim the Lord we are there to serve. Joseph never does that. He always points away from himself and shows us a vision of God in Christ Jesus. That is God’s call to Christians ~ to us.

Heavenly Father,
whose Son grew in wisdom and stature
in the home of Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth
and on the wood of the cross
perfected the work of the world’s salvation:
help us to count the wisdom of the world as foolishness,
and to walk with Joseph in simplicity and trust;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[Mr G. St Joseph’s Day, 19th March 2026]

Man in Background ?

Josefina de Vasconcellos, they fled by night.detail
Cartmel Priory. Photo: Mr G.

St. Joseph’s Day 2021

Josefina de Vasconcellos, the sculptor, was commissioned on a  number of occasions to carve large statues of the Holy Family.  What never fails to strike me is that always Joseph is central to the scene.  He does not lurk in the background or act like some passive kind of bystander.  Josefina shows him as a strong fatherly figure who is a protector of both Mary and Jesus.  It is clear that Josefina had a soft spot for the shadowy figure from the Christmas story and was determined to give him the prominence he deserves.  Perhaps it was because she was graced with the female form of his name.

One particular statue of the Holy Family, which I’ve featured on this blog before, is one that was graphically very different.  It can be seen in Cartmel Priory in the Lake District.  It is called They fled by night and it was inspired by the flight into Egypt taken by the Holy Family to escape the threat of King Herod.

It is a very powerfully real  statue.  Mary is shown to be exhausted with her head leaning backwards as she rests in Joseph’s arms.  Joseph is holding her and looking down with loving compassion. Despite being exhausted himself he was concerned only about her. Meanwhile in the foreground of the composition, Jesus is leaping forward as he embraces the future. 

What I like about Josefina’s portrayal of Joseph is that he is not the shadow figure that we find in the Gospel.  Apart from Matthew’s ‘dream’ sequence when an angel tells Joseph it is God’s will to take Mary as his wife, and an incident when Jesus was 12, Joseph plays no further part in the Gospel story.  There is a reference to him when Jesus is called the carpenter’s son but we are left wondering – what happened to Joseph?

We can invent our own story but I like to think that Joseph was content with his role in making the Incarnation possible.  In a world like ours which celebrates status and fame it isn’t a bad thing to be background people.  Those with a quiet but firm faith are the bedrock of the Church. They seek nothing more than to proclaim Jesus, not necessarily in words or spectacular deeds but with a fidelity towards Him which simply shouts faith in all they do and are.  In Josefina’s statues Joseph comes across as a dependable, caring and protective parent.  If I could choose a guardian angel, it would be like him. 

It is good to think of him as the dependable one who may be in the background but whose care of Jesus and Mary is truly godly.  Joseph, who can be relied upon and sought nothing for himself.  Does that describe you?

[Mr.G.]