Joseph: the oft forgotten man at the manger

BBC writer Brian Sibley (best known for his BBC series on the LOTR link) ponders about St. Joseph, who is alas too often left out of the Christmas scenes. 

He was inspired by this depiction on a tapestry: where Joseph is on the side bringing in wood to warm the mother and child, but who is easily overlooked by those viewing the scene.

Sibley write:

What struck me was that Joseph was left out of the central action of the scene: was on the periphery of the tableau: an attendant, but minor, figure in the drama. So began my slow discovery that, again and again, in images from great art to all manner of popular depictions – including nativity plays and Christmas cards – Joseph's fate is almost always on the fringes of an event of cataclysmic timelessness...

this inspired him to write a book about Joseph, as told by the Angel Gabriel: and he provides links to the BBC version of the story.for your listening pleasure.

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You know, the Vatican has proclaimed last year the year of Joseph, but since covid restrictions limited the number who could go inside, (and I was unwilling to stand outside in the parking lot to listen to the service) I have no idea what this was about. No pondering about it on the Catholic blogosphere, which seems to be more interested in debating the mites in their brother's eye instead of the plank in their own.

So who was Joseph? The protector of Jesus and Mary. Who when the paranoid Herod sent soldiers to kill the child, fled with him to Egypt, probably to Alexandria, which had a huge Jewish population where he could find family and a job to support him.

The point is that he took responsibility for his family. And he was a carpenter, which in those days meant not just making furniture, but yokes for oxen, and building houses (some speculate he worked in the nearby Greek city of Sepphoris as what we would call a construction worker).

In a modern world, where masculine virtues are being attacked daily by the PC and where promiscuity without responsibility is pushed as normal and good, one wonders why no one is talking about Joseph, who did take responsibility and protect those under his care.

Ironically, the best film depiction of Joseph is in Anne Rice (Yes, that Anne Rice) story the Young Messiah, which is based on the ancient but non biblical stories of Jesus as a child. 

Many theological problems with the movie, but the characters were believable, (without the schizoid like staring eyes that film makers usually show in their characters as if schizophrenia was a sign of holiness)...

but you know, I usually shudder at "religious" movies, and this one I actually liked: Because it shows one view of the Holy Family as ordinary people, by an author who likes Him. (Rice once claimed when doing her research she noticed that most of the modern biblical scholars seemed to hate Jesus, which says a lot about modern Biblical scholarship).

this scene shows Joseph with Jesus.

full movie here:

Childbirth in a stable. Not the poetic stuff of most picture: but at least it was private and clean straw was available for Mary. 

I've delivered lots of babies as a GP, and each birth is a miracle: when after the pain the child comes out and starts to cry.

as an antidote to all those Hallmark movies on line, let Linus remind you what Christmas is really about.

Every child is a sign of hope: And the greatest sin in the USA (and one that horrifies people in African and Asian villages) is the propaganda that sees the child not as a symbol of hope, but as an enemy to be eliminated in the name of freedom.

Sigh.

And behind that lie is the lie that men have nothing to do with the children they beget, and that the sexual act has no moral dimension to it. 

Sigh.

Jesus was born in a stable because the rich world had no place for him and his parents.

Sound familiar?

But for refugees, and the third world homeless, the modern equivalent might not be a stable but a garage, as painted by Joey Velasco:

Sigh.

say a prayer and maybe send a donation to help those made homeless by the latest typhoon here in the Philippines.

Red Cross link

https://opinion.inquirer.net/147921/editorial-cartoon-december-25-2021