As the Church of Christ is prefigured in the
rites and ceremonies of the Old Law, so the chief
personages who center around Our Lord in the
redemption of the world are foreshadowed in the
Old Testament. We trace the outlines of Our
Lady's graces in Esther, Jahel, Judith.
So, too, St. Joseph's place in the New Dispensation
is anticipated in the place of the Patriarch Joseph
at the Court of Pharaoh. Thus God in His love
for His chosen ones paves the way for them centuries
before. He has prepared their work and the throne
they are to earn in Heaven by their labors and
sufferings for Him.
In the life of the Patriarch Joseph there was,
throughout, a correspondence with the life of the
foster-father of Jesus Christ. The troubles and
persecutions of his early life--his long time of
servitude and obscurity--his wondrous purity--his
time of patient expectation--his glorious exaltation--his omnipotence with the King--his power
to save all who came to him--all these were
repeated, or rather were fulfilled, in St. Joseph.
Reflect on each of these, and consider how St.
Joseph is a model to us.
We read of the Patriarch that the King of
Egypt made him lord of his house. So God made
St. Joseph lord of that earthly tabernacle of flesh
in which He dwelt on earth. Joseph ruled Our
Lord in His Sacred Humanity. He made him lord,
too, of another house in which He sojourned, of
the sacred house that Wisdom built for Himself in
the form of His Holy Mother. If St. Joseph was
thus lord of Jesus and Mary, what may we not
expect from him?