Page 67 - Reflections on St. Joseph

SAINT

JOSEPH

Minister of Salvation

Fr. José Antonio Bertolin, OSJ

he Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos by John Paul II places the ministry of St.
Joseph with the mystery of salvation, affirming that He “was called by God to serve the
person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in
this way that, as the Church's Liturgy teaches, he cooperated in the fullness of time in the great
mystery of salvation and is truly a minister of salvation” (RC 8). From this comes the importance
and quality of his cooperation in God’s plan of salvation from the fact that he accepted his
vocation and his specific role.

St. Joseph, therefore, is not a person of
secondary importance and even less a
decorative figure in the plan for our salvation.
God chose him and destined him for a specific
task which must be known if we do not want
to run the risk of not having clear the reason
for the mystery of human redemption with its
foundation in the humanity of the Son of God
of whom Joseph was to be father on earth. So,
the presence of St. Joseph in the History of
Salvation is tied to the plan of the Incarnation
by which it was established that the Word
would be part of the human race by being
quietly placed within the institute of the
family.

Joseph was, therefore, in virtue of the mission
entrusted to him, the object of a sublime
choice by God to be among all men the one
chosen to be God’s direct collaborator, the

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