San Giuseppe - Redeemer of the Redeemer

Yes, you read that right, I called St. Joseph the redeemer of Jesus. I did so because he is. & it is in the Bible. Luke 2 to be exact. There we read "And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." (Luke 2:22-24)

This was in fulfilment of the the command found in Numbers 18: 15-16: "Every living thing that opens the womb, whether of man or of beast, such as are to be offered to the LORD, shall be yours; but you must let the first-born of man, as well as of unclean animals, be redeemed. The ransom for a boy is to be paid when he is a month old; it is fixed at five silver shekels according to the sanctuary standard, twenty gerahs to the shekel."

So, St. Joseph, because he was given the repsonsibility of being Jesus' legal father by God had the responsibility of obeying the Torah (aka Law of Moses) & redeeming his (& Mary's) 1st born son. Since the law also that son to be the 1stborn of he father as well, this Scripture also would seem to support the tradition that St. Joseph was not married previously. That aside, Joseph did what he was supposed to do under the Torah, redeem Jesus.

The reason the 1stborn had to be redeemed was because every 1stborn was concecrated to the Lord. In Exodus 13:2, we are told "every first born of the mother of the children of Israel and of the beast shall be mine." Initially God had intended that every 1stborn be sanctified to serve in the Temple. However fter the incident of theGolden Calf only the Levites had remained faithful & thus it fell on them to serve in the Temple instead. But all 1stborn sons were still consecrated to the Lord, thus having to be redeemed by his father.

So, as I said, calling St. Joseph the "Redeemer of the Redeemer" is rightly a title of his. This is an old title that has fallen into disuse in recent years. I suspect that the reason is because it makes those who promote the false "Spirit of Vatican II" uncomfortable.

1st of all, like all valid titles of Joseph or Mary it ultimately tells us something about who Jesus is & why He came. In this case it reminds them that Jesus was actually born not to make everyone feel good, but to call them to repentance & then provide the means by which their sins could be atoned for. That there are sins to be atoned for, that they need to be repented of is something most people don't want to hear. Esp when it comes to the area of sexual sin, straight or homosexual.

The 2nd reason is because it reminds everyone of their responsibility to obey God's law completely, not just to pick & choose as so many people want to do today.

Finally, it reminds us that we have to submit to the lawful authority of the Church & what is taught by the Church. It shows us that there are absolutes that must be accepted as truth. & that these absolutes are preserved & taught by the Church. & never seperate from it.

San Giuseppe stands as a sign for us to humbly obey the will of God in all things. He challenges us to lovingly obey what God has commanded us to do. We tightly call Jesus' heart the Sacred Heart & Mary's the Immaculate Heart. By his actions I firmly believe that we can rightly call St. Jospeh's heart the Obedient Heart & take it as an example to guide us every day of our lives.