By Christopher West.<\/p>\n
With St. John Paul II\u2019s help, I\u2019d like to clear up a common misconception about St. Joseph, whose feast day is March 19.<\/p>\n
In a little-known address given on Aug. 21, 1996, Pope John Paul II spoke about the difficulty for many of accepting \u201cthe sublime mystery\u201d of Joseph and Mary\u2019s spousal communion. How could a man with the erotic desires of youth have honored Mary\u2019s vow of perpetual virginity?<\/p>\n
One way of dealing with this \u201cdifficulty,\u201d wrote John Paul II, was \u201cto think of Joseph as advanced in age and to consider him Mary\u2019s guardian more than her husband.\u201d This idea has entered deeply into the consciousness of Christians throughout the centuries, reinforced by countless artistic depictions of St. Joseph as old and grey.<\/p>\n
St. Joseph, through deep inner purifications, came to experience the fullness of eros.<\/p>\n
But this approach to the \u201cdifficulty\u201d fails to recognize the real possibility of sexual virtue, the real possibility of inner transformation. Imagine the heights of virtue available to Joseph living 24\/7 with the Incarnate Word and the Immaculate Conception!<\/p>\n
When the Church gives Joseph the title \u201cMost Chaste Spouse,\u201d this does not mean he was fearful or prudish with regard to his masculinity and Mary\u2019s femininity. It means, to use St. John Paul II\u2019s expression, that Joseph, through deep inner purifications, came to experience the \u201cfullness of \u2018eros,\u2019 which implies the upward impulse of the human spirit toward what is true, good, and beautiful, so that what is \u2018erotic\u2019 also becomes true, good, and beautiful\u201d (TOB 48:1).<\/p>\n
Virginity and eros are only \u201ccontradictory\u201d ideas in light of our lack of virtue, in light of the disintegration that came with original sin. St. Joseph is a model for all of us in what it means to overcome that disintegration and live eros as the power to love as God loves.<\/p>\n
As St. John Paul II maintains, we overcome the \u201cdifficulty\u201d of Joseph and Mary\u2019s virginal marriage by \u201csupposing that he was not an elderly man at the time,\u201d but by recognizing that \u201chis interior perfection, the fruit of grace, led him to live his spousal relationship with Mary with virginal affection.\u201d And \u201cvirginal affection\u201d does not mean \u201chands off \/ stay away.\u201d It means, \u201cCome close, let me hold you, let me honor you.\u00a0 I will never violate your promise to God.\u201d<\/p>\n