The participation of St. Françis de Sales in the promotion of the cult of Saint Joseph highlights the emotional relationship between Jesus and his earthly father
On March 17, 1611, St. Françis de Sales evokes this “great Saint, who so often pampered our Savior and who so often rocked him”, a theme he had already addressed in a letter of 1609 to Jean-Pierre Camus: I find nothing sweeter in my imagination than to see this heavenly little Jesus in the arms of this great Saint, calling him a thousand and a thousand times: Papa, in his childish language and from a filially loving heart
The very emotional tone that Françis de Sales gives to the relationship between father and son, quite surprising if we consider the history of the “feeling of childhood” in the seventeenth century, should rather be referred to the the status that the founder of the Visitation gives to Saint Joseph from a spiritual point of view: Joseph shared with Jesus an intimacy which makes it possible to ensure that he leads towards him.
The letter of March 17, 1611, already quoted, presents Joseph as able to help “in the advancement of [love] towards [the] Redeemer” and to bring “inner peace”.
The episode of the trip to Egypt particularly caught the attention of Françis de Sales, who made it in a way the archetype of the spiritual life, so much was it granted to Joseph to share with Mary the privilege of a total stripping. – of oneself and of the world – opening up to the exclusive contemplation of Jesus. This is particularly emphasized in the letter of May 19, 1616 to St Jane de Chantal: What satisfaction to Saint Joseph and to the glorious Virgin going to Egypt, when most of the way they saw nothing but the sweet Jesus! It is the end of the Transfiguration, my very dear Mother, to see neither Moses nor Elijah, but only Jesus.
Like Joseph and Mary, then recommended the founder of the Visitandines, “we must have our affection so simply and absolutely united to God that nothing is attached to us”
Source:
La Visitation, saint François de Sales et la dévotion à saint Joseph
Bernard Dompnier