For centuries the Church has reflected on the special relationship between St Joseph and the Eucharist. The biblical parallel between the ancient Joseph (son of Jacob), who during the famine distributed to the people the grain stored up in times of plenty (Genesis 41), and the glorious Guardian of the Redeemer is well known. To the former, the Pharaoh had entrusted the administration of all his goods, to the latter God had entrusted His Son. St Leonard Murialdo, developing a concept already expressed by St Bernard and St Bernardino, wrote that Mary’s spouse “did much more than the ancient Joseph: he kept the living bread that came down from heaven; he kept it not only for Egypt and a few Israelites, but for the whole world. Yes, Joseph saved from Herod the living bread that came down from heaven, so that after 30 years it could be given as food to the apostles and, through them, to all those who hunger for eternal life and happiness. Joseph hid this wheat of the elect for 30 years: Joseph’s house was a mysterious tabernacle; his arms a pyx; his chest a paten on which Jesus slept... And this most holy body of Jesus Christ, which nourishes us for eternal life, was nourished by Joseph’s labors.”
The inclusion in 1962 of the name of St Joseph in the Roman Canon, the oldest and most important Eucharistic prayer of the Church, clearly filled a gap, as had long been requested by pastors and the faithful (the first petition to this effect dates back to 1815). It is noteworthy that this mention was introduced by St John XXIII, who repeatedly pointed to Josephine spirituality as a fundamental characteristic of the priesthood.
Among other things, the gesture of breaking bread is the same one that Jesus saw his virginal father perform so many times. “The bread that Joseph broke was ‘for’ Jesus”, noted Father Tarcisio Stramare, adding immediately afterwards: “Jesus was nevertheless well aware that ‘the broken bread’ was Him. Joseph, too, was aware of it in his heart, though he did not know when or how this would be. He had sensed it in the words addressed to Mary on the occasion of the presentation of Jesus in the temple: “A sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:35). He had feared it in his hasty flight to Egypt to avoid Herod’s assassins. He had suffered it in the anguished search for Jesus who had remained in the temple. Although with less knowledge of the divine plans than Mary, the Co-Redemptrix, Joseph too was therefore accompanied by sorrow for what was to be the Passion of Jesus and the simultaneous suffering of his own spouse. An apostle of the Eucharist such as the Frenchman Saint Peter Julian Eymard wrote about this: “He [Saint Joseph] saw through, so to speak, the coarse garment of Jesus: his faith went as far as the Sacred Heart and, illuminated by the divine light, he saw in advance all the states through which Jesus would pass, and he adored them and united himself to the grace of those mysteries. He adored Jesus in His hidden life; he adored Him in His passion and death; he adored Him from then on in the holy Tabernacle”.
Dovico, Ermes. “The Eucharist and St Joseph, model for priests.” Daily Compass. 21 July 2021. https://newdailycompass.com/en/the-eucharist-and-st-joseph-model-for-priests.
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