I've been reading a bunch of various books/pamphlets for my theology class this semester, and one of the readings (Pope St. Clement's first letter to the Corinthians) focused a lot on the priesthood. One of the things that St. Clement mentioned reminded me about a tradition/legend I had heard about St. Joseph.
St. Clement's passage - part of chapter 43 (italics are my own emphasis);
"For, when rivalry arose concerning the priesthood, and the tribes were contending among themselves as to which of them should be adorned with that glorious title, he commanded the twelve princes of the tribes to bring him their rods, each one being inscribed with the name of the tribe. And he took them and bound them, and sealed them with the rings of the princes of the tribes, and laid them up in the tabernacle of witness on the table of God. And having shut the doors of the tabernacle, he sealed the keys, as he had done the rods, and said to them, Men and brethren, the tribe whose rod shall blossom has God chosen to fulfill the office of the priesthood, and to minister unto Him. And when the morning had come, he assembled all Israel, six hundred thousand men, and showed the seals to the princes of the tribes, and opened the tabernacle of witness, and brought forth the rods. And the rod of Aaron was found not only to have blossomed, but to bear fruit upon it."
I know this could connect with St. Joseph in a lot of different ways, but as I'm not a learned theologian or biblical scholar (obviously), I'll just get right to the legend, and the connection I found between the two.
Instead of bothering with linking up to an article on a site, and then later finding the site as faulty, I'll just give you my shortened (probably historically, factually, etc. wrong) version, though I'm sure you could probably find a better written, less faulty version somewhere;
The legend goes that there were quite a few men that wanted Mary's hand in marriage, and, as Mary was in the care of the Temple, the caretakers/priests weren't exactly sure how to choose which one should be Mary's husband. What those caretakers/priests ending up doing was having each suitor place his rod in the temple, basically repeating what Moses did with the tribes staffs. Although St. Joseph, in his humility, put his staff at the very bottom of the pile, the next morning, his staff had flowered!
Just so you know I'm not pulling this out of thin air, this legend is apparently one of the reasons St. Joseph is often depicted with a flowering staff (his purity being another reason)
Anyways, long story short, to get to my main point, I thought it was neat comparison; as the Levite's were chosen to take care of the Old Testament Temple, so St. Joseph was chosen to take care of Mary, the new Temple.
Hundreds of men were tasked with caring for a shadow of what was to come, and boom! One pure man is tasked with taking care of Mary Immaculate and God Incarnate.
Pretty bangin', if I do say so myself.
St. Clement's passage - part of chapter 43 (italics are my own emphasis);
"For, when rivalry arose concerning the priesthood, and the tribes were contending among themselves as to which of them should be adorned with that glorious title, he commanded the twelve princes of the tribes to bring him their rods, each one being inscribed with the name of the tribe. And he took them and bound them, and sealed them with the rings of the princes of the tribes, and laid them up in the tabernacle of witness on the table of God. And having shut the doors of the tabernacle, he sealed the keys, as he had done the rods, and said to them, Men and brethren, the tribe whose rod shall blossom has God chosen to fulfill the office of the priesthood, and to minister unto Him. And when the morning had come, he assembled all Israel, six hundred thousand men, and showed the seals to the princes of the tribes, and opened the tabernacle of witness, and brought forth the rods. And the rod of Aaron was found not only to have blossomed, but to bear fruit upon it."
I know this could connect with St. Joseph in a lot of different ways, but as I'm not a learned theologian or biblical scholar (obviously), I'll just get right to the legend, and the connection I found between the two.
Instead of bothering with linking up to an article on a site, and then later finding the site as faulty, I'll just give you my shortened (probably historically, factually, etc. wrong) version, though I'm sure you could probably find a better written, less faulty version somewhere;
The legend goes that there were quite a few men that wanted Mary's hand in marriage, and, as Mary was in the care of the Temple, the caretakers/priests weren't exactly sure how to choose which one should be Mary's husband. What those caretakers/priests ending up doing was having each suitor place his rod in the temple, basically repeating what Moses did with the tribes staffs. Although St. Joseph, in his humility, put his staff at the very bottom of the pile, the next morning, his staff had flowered!
Just so you know I'm not pulling this out of thin air, this legend is apparently one of the reasons St. Joseph is often depicted with a flowering staff (his purity being another reason)
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| lovely staff, eh? |
Hundreds of men were tasked with caring for a shadow of what was to come, and boom! One pure man is tasked with taking care of Mary Immaculate and God Incarnate.
Pretty bangin', if I do say so myself.
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