2. Saint Joseph was considered to be the Father of Jesus
The Eternal Son of God was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, not by the power of man, but by the work of the Holy Spirit. In becoming man, Christ was born and received into a human family because he wanted to become like unto us in all things, sin alone excepted.
One of the main reasons why Christ was born into a family was due to the fact that it is in accordance with the divine natural law that children should be born to a married couple. Obviously God could have dispensed from this particular law him who was the "first begotten" of the new economy of salvation.

There was another reason why Christ should be born into a family. God reveals His mysteries of salvation to the world gradually, and as yet men were not prepared for the good news that the Second Person of the Trinity had become incarnate for our salvation, or for the news of the virginal conception of the Saviour. Thus it would have harmed the cause of human redemption had Christ become incarnate outside of a human family: this would have brought dishonor upon the Saviour, and upon His mother too, since many would have considered her guilty of seriously violating the moral law of God.

We can see, therefore, the great advantage of Christ being born of the marriage of Mary and Joseph, and how this acted as a veil over the inscrutable designs of Providence until the world could profit from this disclosure. As a matter of fact the gospels do not indicate that Christ ever revealed this mystery of his virginal conception until he had demonstrated his divinity and thus prepared the minds of men to accept this mystery.

Some of the texts of Sacred Scripture, especially in Saint Luke's second chapter, call Saint Joseph the father of Jesus, as Mary is called his Mother. In recording the presentation of the Child in the temple, Saint Luke writes: "and when His <parents> brought in the Child Jesus"2. After the prophecy of Simeon the narrative continues: "His <father> and <mother> were marvelling at the things spoken concerning Him"3. When Christ went up to the temple at the age of twelve, we read: "And His <parents> were wont to go every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, <they> went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. And after <they> had fulfilled the days, when <they> were returning, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His <parents> did not know it"4. Noticing that the boy was missing, Joseph and Mary searched for three days until they discovered him in the temple. On that occasion the gospel relates the words of Mary to the Child: "Behold, in sorrow Thy <father> and I have been seeking Thee"5 .

3. Saint Joseph exercised paternal rights over the child Jesus
An Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said: "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary your wife, because what is born of her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bring forth a Son, and you will call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins"6. Thus Joseph is assured that it is his right and duty to impose a name on the Child born of his wife.

Naming the child was considered, according to the Jewish mentality, as a special prerogative of the father: it was an exercise of paternal authority. And so eight days after His birth, on the occasion of the circumcision, we find Joseph presiding over the ceremony (though in all likelihood he did not perform the circumcision), and as he directed, the child was called Jesus. This rite made Christ a member of the chosen people, heir to all the promises that had been foretold by the prophets. At the same time, he also received his legal ancestry, becoming a member of the Davidic dynasty. True, both Mary and Joseph were descendants of the house of David, but it is through Joseph that Christ received the title, Son of David, according to which the Messiah was to be recognized.

In the gospels there are other indications of the leadership Saint Joseph gave to his family as he cared for his wife and the child. After the visit of the Magi, Herod was seeking the life of the Child, and an angel appeared to Joseph: "Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell thee"7. Acting as a protective father to the Infant, he led Him safely to Egypt where He was safe from the devilish intent of Herod. When king Herod was dead an angel again appeared to Joseph as the head of the Holy Family and told him "to take the Child and His Mother into the land of Israel"8. Finally, an angel appeared to him and told him to return to Galilee and Joseph brought his family back to Nazareth9. Jesus was obedient to Joseph as to a father: "And He went down with them and was subject to them''10.

Saint Joseph exercised authority over Jesus only because this was the will of God. Obviously the right of authority can be exercised only over a person, and since Christ is a divine Person no one can have any authority over Him. The authority exercised by Joseph was given by God because Christ <chose> to be subject to His earthly father, who was the "shadow of His heavenly Father". If Jesus' humble subjection gives us an example of due submission to lawfully constituted authority, it also serves to emphasize the dignity of him whom He obeyed.

The matter of Joseph's exercising authority over Jesus enables us to enter a little more deeply into the inner sanctuary of the soul of the earthly father of Christ and the husband of Mary. Was it not natural for him to be hesitant in the exercise of that same authority? Was he not timid about giving lawful commands? Is it not easy to imagine that he was reluctant to govern those who were his superiors in holiness and in goodness? Actually this did not cause any uneasiness in the soul of Joseph; he fully realized that he commanded in virtue of the authority granted by God and he only exercised that authority for the love of God and for the welfare of those placed under his charge.

From the exercise of authority over Jesus and Mary, it is an easy step to a further question: did Saint Joseph know that Christ was the second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity? A similar question is often raised by theologians concerning our Blessed Lady: did she know from the time of the Annunciation that her Child was the only begotten Son of God the Father? The gospels, it is true, are not as clear on these questions as we might like them to be. But they do give some indications that are extremely helpful.

First of all, there seems to be a growing consensus among exegetes that most likely Mary did not know, from the moment of the Incarnation, the true identity of her divine Son. Joseph, naturally, would have less knowledge than that accorded to Mary. When Saint Luke, who must have been assisted by the information he received from Mary in composing his account of the early life of Christ, describes the scene of Our Lord in the temple when He was twelve years old, he relates the words of Christ to "His parents": "Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" And in the next sentence he continues with the words: "And they (his parents) did not understand the word that He spoke unto them''11. It seems that Saint Luke is telling us that Mary and Joseph did not understand the explanation given by Christ; and their lack of understanding would be difficult to account for had they already known that Christ was the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Furthermore, it hardly seems likely to assume that Saint Luke is here talking of a sudden shock that these words caused Mary and Joseph, as though they had <momentarily> forgotten his identity. Luke seems to be speaking of the fact that they did not as yet fully know of His divinity and therefore they were puzzled by his words to them. And, finally, Luke relates how "His mother preserved all these words in her heart''12, as though she meditated on these words a long time before she came to see, in the growing light of her Son, the real meaning they contained.

True, there are still modem exegetes who maintain that Mary knew from the time of the Annunciation that her Son was truly the Son of God, but their arguments do not seem entirely convincing. The texts must be forced to yield such a meaning.

Supposing that Mary and Joseph did not know the divine nature of their Son, it is much easier to understand the early life of the Holy Family. Jesus, who "grew in wisdom, age and grace with God and men''13, in due time must have revealed this mystery to them. At the time of the first miracle of Jesus at Cana of Galilee we notice the confident tone of Mary when she orders the chief steward: "Do whatever He tells you to do''14 By this time she fully understood. Though the gospel does not tell us, we can presume Christ fully revealed Himself to Joseph before the latter's death.

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