When St. Joseph Sleeps, Demons Tremble

This is a special day in the Church. It is, in fact, a solemnity (the highest order of feast days) because today, we honor St. Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Mother and the foster father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today’s a special day for me as well because it’s the anniversary of my ordination to the permanent diaconate (along with 15 of my brothers). What a great blessing it was to be ordained on the Feast of St. Joseph in 2022. I guess you could say that I’m well into my “toddler years” when it comes to serving as a deacon. 

Concerning St. Joseph, the Scriptures unfortunately don’t tell us much. He’s not even mentioned in the Gospel of Mark, and very little in the other Gospels. In the Gospel of Matthew, however, we are told something very important about St. Joseph. Three times, an angel came to him in a dream and all three times, his obedience to the message of the angel ruined the plans of the devil. First, in today’s Gospel (Matthew 1:20), when he was considering divorcing Mary quietly, again (in Matthew 2:13) after Jesus was born and the angel told him to flee to Egypt, and finally (Matthew 2:19) when the angel told him it was safe to return from Egypt. 

Because God always spoke to St. Joseph when he was asleep, it’s said that the demons feared when St. Joseph slept, and because of this, St. Joseph is known as the Terror of Demons. This title is amazing considering that St. Joseph wasn’t a pope, a priest, a monk, or a martyr. St. Joseph was a layman! He was a father and a husband. Because of his loving fatherhood, in particular, our prayers for his intercession concerning our families are especially powerful. 

Another often-overlooked point about St. Joseph is that since he was head of the Holy Family, he had authority over both the Blessed Mother and Jesus, at least in an earthly sense. This reflects the importance God places on the family unit and, more specifically, the role of the man in the family. Think about it - St. Joseph’s wife, Mary, was born sinless, never sinned, and brought God the Son into the world, and his son Jesus was GOD, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Yet God the Father placed them into his care. Because of his position as head of the Holy Family, there’s a lot that can be attributed to St. Joseph, even if it was not recorded in the Bible. For example, as head of the Holy Family, we know that St. Joseph was the provider and protector of Jesus and Mary. We also know that he was the person who taught Jesus how to work and how to be a man. As the earthly father of Jesus, St. Joseph was the only human Jesus ever called “father.” Wow!

In addition, over the centuries, many popes and saints have had great devotion to St. Joseph and have written about him extensively, helping us gain a better understanding of this humble, faithful, and holy man. After Jesus and Mary, St. Joseph is the holiest, most prayerful, and most virtuous person who ever lived. Making this point, St. Maximilian Kolbe once said, “With the exception of our loving Mother, St. Joseph stands above all the saints.” 

This makes perfect sense, because just as Mary was the only woman in human history to be chosen by God to be the mother of His Son, St. Joseph was the only man chosen by God to be the earthly father of His Son. God didn’t have to come into the world this way, but he chose to become incarnate through a family: the family of Mary and Joseph. What an incredible honor.

St. Teresa of Avila wrote, “Knowing by experience St. Joseph’s astonishing influence with God, I would wish to persuade everyone to honor him with particular devotion. I have always seen those who honored him, in a special manner, make progress in virtue, for this heavenly protector favors in a striking manner the spiritual advancement of souls who commend themselves to him.”

Personally, for about ten years now, I’ve had a strong devotion to St. Joseph. It came about in a rather miraculous way during the Sacrament of Confession. I was in San Antonio at a school board convention back when I was on the West ISD school board. The convention was only about three blocks away from St. Joseph Church on Commerce Street. A fellow board member told me that the church was nearby and encouraged me to go and pray for our kids, schools, and community. During a break, I decided to do just that. When I got there, it was a little after 11:00am, and I noticed that they had Adoration and Confessions from 11:00 to 11:50, and then Mass at noon. I hadn’t been to the Sacrament of Confession in a while and thought that this would be a good time to go. I went into the confessional, made my confession, and then the priest gave me a very unexpected penance. He said, “For your penance, I want you to make St. Joseph your friend.” I said, “Do you want me to say some prayers, Father?” He said, “No. I want you to make St. Joseph your friend. I want you to develop a close, personal relationship with St. Joseph.” 

After praying my Act of Contrition, I went out and knelt at a pew. Since they were having Adoration, Jesus was still exposed in the monstrance, and I asked Him to help me understand the penance the priest had given me, why he’d given it to me, and how I was going to fulfill it. As I sat there in the presence of our Lord, I was reminded that St. Joseph is our model as a father. I was also reminded that one of my college-aged children was really struggling, both in their faith and in life in general, and because of this, our relationship was not going well. I began to understand that I needed St. Joseph to help guide me in the relationship and (through his intercession) help me mend the relationship. 

When I got home, I found a novena prayer to St. Joseph, and I started praying it daily with that intention in mind. Within a short time, I noticed that something started to change. I don’t know if (through the intercession of St. Joseph) God was changing my heart, my child’s heart, or both, but our relationship got better. I’m not saying that I never have issues in dealing with my adult children at times. However, I’ve found that through asking St. Joseph to take my prayers directly to God the Father, family difficulties can be eased and hope restored, even when I don’t know the answer or understand how the difficulty will be solved. Uplifted by this, I still pray daily to St. Joseph for my children and grandchildren, and I encourage you to do the same. Amen.