Gospel in Art: Her husband Joseph was a man of honour

St Joseph and the Christ Child in the Carpentry Workshop. Fresco by Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988), 1963 Fresco at Church of San Lorenzo, Firenze © Christian Art

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 18 December 2023
Matthew 1:18-24

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.' Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us.' When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.

Reflection on the fresco

In today's reading we see how warmly Matthew writes about Joseph. As he was engaged to Mary, she was found, quite unexpectedly, to be pregnant. But Joseph, 'being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity', planned to dissolve his betrothal quietly. But an angel appeared to him and joyfully explained what the situation was: 'Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit'. What we see on full display in Joseph is how understanding, considerate, compassionate he is towards Mary, even before Jesus was born.

As I was a furniture specialist at Sotheby's before my ordination to the priesthood, I love the art of carpentry. The Gospels mention Joseph as a "tekton" in Greek, often translated as a carpenter or craftsman. Imagining Saint Joseph teaching Jesus the craft of carpentry is a way for us to reflect on the earthly life of Jesus and the ordinary, human experiences he shared with his own family. We can well imagine how Joseph lovingly showed Jesus how to make a chair, how to select the right woods, how to cut everything to the perfect size so the table could fit together, etc….Learning a trade with patience, love for the different kinds of wood that nature gave us, charging honest prices, delivering on time, would all have been very valuable father-and-son moments Joseph and Jesus shared and discussed.

Today's artwork displays this earthly father-son relationship. It is a large fresco on the walls of Church of San Lorenzo in Florence. It is almost as if we are there standing in the workshop with Joseph and Jesus. But there is more going on in this fresco than just depicting a nice shared moment between father and son. The wood beam at the front already foretells Jesus' fate when he will be crucified on the wooden cross. The connection between the wood in Joseph's workshop and the wood of the cross on which Jesus was crucified is a profound aspect of our Christian faith, accentuating the powerful connection between Joseph's earthly labour and the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross. The humble work of a carpenter in a small workshop reflects the hidden and humble life that Jesus lived before his public ministry. Just as Joseph's carpentry work was often unnoticed, Jesus' hidden years before the start of his ministry were largely unnoticed too.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's Reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-1-18-24-2023/