Easter this year falls squarely between two feasts celebrating St. Joseph: March 19, his primary feast day, and May 1, which commemorates him as “St. Joseph the Worker.” St. Joseph might not naturally come to mind in connection with Easter, since he was not there: the Gospels make no mention of him in reference to that fateful Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and tradition presumes he died when Jesus was a young man. Yet we know he was alive — as all departed souls are alive. The following poem by St. Joseph Sister Sr. Mary Ada imagines him waiting, with all the just souls from before Christ’s time, for Jesus to rescue them.
Limbo
The ancient grayness shifted
Suddenly and thinned
Like mist upon the moors
Before a wind.
An old, old prophet lifted
A shining face and said:
“He will be coming soon.
The Son of God is dead;
He died this afternoon.”
A murmurous excitement stirred
All souls.
They wondered if they dreamed –
Save one old man who seemed
Not even to have heard.
And Moses, standing,
Hushed them all to ask
If any had a welcome song prepared.
If not, would David take the task?
…
A breath of spring surprised them,
Stilling Moses’ words.
No one could speak, remembering
The first fresh flowers,
The little singing birds.
…
And there He was
Splendid as the morning sun and fair
As only God is fair.
And they, confused with joy,
Knelt to adore
Seeing that He wore
Five crimson stars
He never had before.
No canticle at all was sung
None toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song,
A silent man alone
Of all that throng
Found tongue –
Not any other.
Close to His heart
When the embrace was done,
Old Joseph said,
“How is Your Mother,
How is Your Mother, Son?”
St. Joseph is a perfect patron for our Easter meditation during this Jubilee Year of Hope. St. Joseph was a man of silence; Sister Mary Ada alludes to this by making him significantly the only soul able to speak upon the Risen Christ’s arrival.
But St. Joseph was even more so a man of hope. He hoped that some miracle was at work in Mary, some miracle so awe-inspiring he was unworthy to wed her. And each of his actions, taking Mary into his home, traveling with her to Bethlehem, fleeing with her and the newborn to Egypt, finally returning to Nazareth, was always decisive with the certainty born of hope — of knowing where we are ultimately headed and Whose strength it is that sustains us along the way.
Here in Sr. Mary Ada’s poem, St. Joseph shows us one additional facet of hope. He speaks to the heart of each of us who has lost a loved one. He assures us that our grieving is sacred, our longing for re-union hallowed — because the origin of that longing is God Himself. God made us not for impermanence and loss, but for love and eternity. In this poem, Joseph waits for Jesus — and Mary — with a “hope full of immortality” (Wisdom 3:4). Mary entered into the same hope-hued waiting on Holy Saturday as she watched for Jesus’ return.
The Risen Lord comes to us this Easter, as He came to Joseph and Mary, bearing the freeing truth that Love conquers death.
Sr. Maria Veritas Marks is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
