One of the most important things we are told about Joseph was that he was a “just man.” That didn’t mean he was honest only in his business dealings; it meant he was an observant Jew of his time. One of the duties of an observant Jew, as commanded by the Torah, was to make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to attend the great festivals of the faith, including Passover.
Luke specifically tells us that “each year [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover . . . according to festival custom” (Luke 2:41–42). At this time, Passover was a national holiday. The historian Josephus talks about huge crowds, including men, women, and children, pouring into Jerusalem not only to offer sacrifices and worship, but also to meet up with friends and family and generally have a good time. So many people would come to Jerusalem at the festival time that entire villages were virtually unpopulated. Josephus says that when the Roman army was marching along the coast in A.D. 66, they found the villages deserted because everyone was in Jerusalem celebrating Sukkot.
Sometimes we imagine that Jesus was making this pilgrimage for the first time when he was twelve, but that’s not true. He would have been going to Jerusalem for Passover most, if not all, of his life. However, the year he was twelve would have been a bigger deal than typical. Even though the Torah commanded men over the age of thirteen to make the pilgrimage, that age was a bit flexible, and twelve might have been “close enough” for Jesus to make the pilgrimage as “a man” for the first time.
This becomes important when we think about how Mary and Joseph could have lost Jesus on the way home. But for now, we need to consider how Joseph, as the head of the family, lived his life according to the commandments. We cannot underestimate how much Jesus would have learned about being a faith-filled and faithful Jew from observing Joseph. We tend to focus on the special relationship Mary and Jesus had, but from an everyday, practical perspective, Joseph’s influence on Jesus cannot be minimized.
Joseph showed Jesus what it was like to be a God-fearing man who lived his faith his entire life. He observed the Law, and he made sure that Jesus knew and observed it as well. Even though Jesus was the Messiah, he still needed Joseph to teach him by example.
Quotation
“Joseph turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of himself, his heart and all his abilities, a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home.” –Saint Paul VI
Prayer
Saint Joseph, help me to show those with whom I come in contact, especially children, what it means to live as a person of deep faith—both by my words and by my example. Amen.
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