During the Second Vatican Council, there were 2,500 bishops in the world, and they were all permitted to speak, but only for 10 minutes in Latin.

During the first session, an elderly bishop from Yugoslavia was speaking. His Latin wasn’t very good and neither was most of the other 2,500. He spoke very nervously and was asking that the name of St. Joseph be added to the E.P. (The long prayer the priest says when he consecrates the bread and wine into the body and bread of Christ. At that time, only one E.P.—now 4). He kept speaking, over 10 minutes. Some of the bishops started talking among themselves. The Pope, John XXIII, was not present, but watching on closed circuit TV. Finally the presiding cardinal cut the Yugoslavian bishop off with a patronizing remark, “Yes, your Excellency, we all love St. Joseph.” The bishop was embarrassed and sat down. It was now time for the noon break and after the usual prayer, Cardinal Ruffini said, ‘Sanctus Joseph, ora pro nobis” Saint Joseph, Pray for us. Everybody laughed (except the poor bishop).

That afternoon, Pope John XXIII sent a message to the Council that on his own authority, he was adding the name of St. Joseph to the E.P. What the Council had also apparently forgotten was that the given first name of Pope John was “Guiseppe”—Joseph Roncolli.

I tell this story today on the feast of St. Joseph, often forgotten, yet essential to the story of salvation.

He is only mentioned briefly in the Gospels and then only in the birth narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. He is called a “just man.” And to him was entrusted the safety of his wife and her child.

We know Jesus was called a “carpenter, son of a carpenter.” “Carpenter” is a poor translation of the Greek which is more accurately translated as “Day worker.” He did manual labor such as stone work, working in the fields at planting and harvest, and working in wood.

We can hear his voice in the stories Jesus tells, often about workers, the harvest and other stories which demonstrate his familiarity with work. Work he learned from Joseph, working side by side.

Also, Jesus speaks very fondly of fathers and when he addressed God, he called him Abba—the local word meaning “Daddy.”

We stop this day from the usual Lenten austerity of purple vestments, say the Mass as if it were a Sunday. We can thus remember the importance of Joseph in being a model to Jesus and evidently Jesus’ teacher of the prayers and liturgy of the Jewish faith.

Joseph disappears from the gospels, interpreted as meaning by the time Jesus began his ministry, Joseph had died. He would have died with Mary and Jesus nearby. Thus, he was always been invoked as the Patron Saint of a happy death.

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