This Christmas, Adam Prince focuses on St. Joseph, a nativity scene mainstay who is, nonetheless, often overlooked.
—
Josephology
Crowding the nativity
painting, staring off frame,
larger than he was useful.
Like crowding the bed,
trying to dream, while
Mary fed our Lord.
In another life, he might
have been eunuch servant
or minstrel dancer to some
Tutankamen of marble
pacifier and dragging robe.
No, said the boy.
No other life.
Only this
and judgment.
***
Author’s Note: Josephology is a theological discipline studying Joseph, father of Jesus. John Paul II believed that Saint Joseph broke the old vice of paternal familial domination and suggested him as the model of a loving father.
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Thanks Adam. You’re right, he’s often not thought about. A few years ago my parish priest did a sermon about Joseph. He got us to all think about how special he was. At a time where he was engaged to a women, during a time where a women for all intents and purposes was pregnant by someone other then he, imagine how strong his faith must have been? How committed he was to the women he loved. Fr. also incorporated that Joseph was Jesus’ step father and how great a parent he was. He is the perfect image of a… Read more »