On this Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, let us consider another article which was published on this very same feast day of May 1 in 2019 on Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire website. This article, titled “Ite ad Joseph” and written by Br. Bartholomew Calvano, O.P., from the Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph discusses the typology between Joseph the Patriarch and Saint Joseph the Virginal Father of Jesus, and relates this to the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. However, what I want to focus on in this article is Br. Bartholomew’s argument for Saint Joseph’s Confirmation in the State of Grace and for Saint Joseph’s Prenatal Sanctification using Psalm 105:16-22.
After discussing the typological relationship between Joseph the Patriarch and Saint Joseph, Br. Bartholomew goes on to quote Psalm 105:16-22, and then writes the following:
The description of Joseph bound in fetters and an iron collar is evocative of the bonds of sin. However, it has long been the tradition of the Church that St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, never committed a single actual sin; however, unlike Mary he was not immaculately conceived, and he came into being with the fetters of original sin. Yet, just as the king released Joseph, the son of Israel, from his bonds and set him over his household, so also God released Joseph, the husband of Mary, from his bonds of sin and set him over the Holy Family as its head.[1]