"Whatsoever you do, in word or work, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus," is the advice of Saint Paul. As Holy Mother Church commemorates the circumcision of Our Lord, let us recall the intimate part which Saint Joseph played in this sacred incident of Christ's life.
The Holy Family did not remain long in the stable at Bethlehem. Within a very short time after the birth of Jesus, Saint Joseph found Him a more becoming place to dwell.
In this new dwelling occurred, after the passage of eight days, the circumcision of the Child. "And after eight days," says Saint Luke, "were accomplished that the Child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb." (2:21) Christ, of course, was not bound by the Law, but He wished to fulfill the Law, and also to show that according to the flesh He was descended from Abraham.
The ceremony of circumcision at that time was performed in the home, not, as later, in the synagogue. Sometimes it was the mother who performed the rite, but more generally the father. When the angel had appeared to Joseph in his sleep and told him not to fear to take Mary as his wife-since she had conceived of the Holy Ghost - the angel had said, "And she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Thou shalt call His name Jesus! This indicates that it was Joseph who made Jesus shed the first drops of His blood.
It is only a great saint, and a Saint Joseph at that, who could begin to tell the deep emotion of the man as, during those days, he faced the mystic ceremony. Joseph was not dealing with an ordinary child; he was dealing with the Son of God. He knew it. All the mysteries of the divine condescension were becoming clear to him as he conversed with Mary and meditated before the Infant God. The glory had been given to him to entertain the Lord of heaven. His eyes were beholding the Redemption of Israel.
More, he was allowed to participate in it in a manner which he had never imagined. To his poor hands was given the dignity to hold the sacrificial knife. Imagine, if you can, the fear of Joseph as he began the rite. In a moment he was to shed the first drop of blood from that Child who, before He would return to His Father, would be drenched in blood. And when he did draw that first drop and realized that now was beginning the mighty act of salvation for mankind, he must almost have swooned at the very joy of it. If Joseph had not already been a saint, he must have become one in that moment.
And he performed the rite, for it was for him to give the Child that hallowed name. Joseph named the Child Jesus. He was the first of all mankind to speak that beloved name. I think that in all his life that was the supreme moment of his existence, that he was chosen by God to be the one who would be the first to say that holy name, Jesus-Saviour!
Therein is all our hope, the name by which we are saved. And Joseph spoke it first. Whenever I hear that name, the picture arises in my mind of Joseph with the knife in his hand, watching the flow of the blood that saves, and then in a voice filled with emotion, in a soft whisper of adoration that held the unction of the prayers of all the saints, speaking for us all our everlasting benediction- Jesus, Saviour. And I like to think that when I come to die I want to find Joseph and beg him to say for me, as only he could say it, that name of my hope. Blessed man will I be to repeat my lesson after him, the blessed among men who was the first man to see the Infant God and the first one to call Him Saviour.
- Monsignor Hugh F. Blunt, "Give This Man Place"
- text taken from Joseph, Son of David, compiled and edited by Sister Emily Joseph, C.S.J.