Christians know the role St. Joseph had in our salvation. Non-Catholics may simply dismiss Joseph's role in salvation as he was merely the man that was tasked with raising our Lord. As we see in Matthew 1:18-24, Joseph was afraid to take Mary as his wife because she was with child. He loved her and did not want "to expose her shame (and) decided to divorce her quietly." The penalty for such adultery at the time was death. Had Joseph divorced her publicly, then Mary would have been stoned to death and our Lord Jesus Christ would not have been born. The role of Joseph in salvation history is more than just husband to woman who gave birth to Jesus, but that of foster father to and teacher of our Lord.
I am in the minority of lay people that prays the Liturgy of the Hours (or the Divine Office). Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are the hinges of the Liturgy of the Hours and perhaps the most well known among the faithful. I feel that the Office of Readings brings the Liturgy of Hours to its fullness in living the yearly cycle of the Church.
On Saturday's during Ordinary Time the Liturgy of the Hours gives the option for the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary. One of the options for the second reading comes from a homily by St. John Chrysostom. In this homily, St. John Chrysostom shows the symbols of our fall and salvation are "a virgin, a tree and death." In our fall "the virgin was Eve; then there was the tree; and death was Adam's penalty. And again these three tokens of our destruction, the virgin, the tree, and death, became the tokens of our victory. Instead of Eve there was Mary; instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the wood of the cross; instead of Adam's death, the death of Christ."
The virgins were actors that brought our fall and salvation to us. They both answered calls to do something. Eve was called by the devil and Mary was called by God.
The trees were instruments that gave us our fall and salvation. Consuming the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil brought about our fall. The cross was used to crucify Jesus Christ. The fruit of the cross is the Body of Christ, which we receive in Holy Communion.
The death of Adam was the penalty that was given to mankind. We were all doomed to death because of Adam. Yet when Jesus Christ was put to death and rose from the dead, all were given a chance of salvation, "even those who were born before" Jesus' death and resurrection.
A significant difference in these three symbols is that the tree that brought about our fall was alive and the tree that brought about our salvation was dead. The work of a carpenter is to build and repair structures of wood. How did the tree become a cross? Obviously someone took the wood of a tree and made a cross to crucify Jesus Christ as well as the two thieves next to him and many others that the Romans put to death. Was it simply the work of human hands that made the cross the symbol of our salvation? Anyone skilled in carpentry to make a cross for crucifixion. But to make the cross a symbol of our salvation required the work of a special carpenter.
Joseph, the foster father of Jesus Christ, was a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). As the foster son of a carpenter, Jesus likely learned the trade of carpentry. It is this skill that allowed Jesus to do with the cross something that no other carpenter could do. He took the work of the carpenters, the cross, and by allowing Himself to be put to death on the cross, He transformed the cross into the symbol of our salvation. Joseph taught Jesus the carpentry skills that allowed Him to transform wood into structures and other useful items and decorations. Without the carpentry skill learned from Joseph, could Jesus have turned the wood of the cross into the symbol of our salvation? Although Jesus, as the Son of God, could do anything, I think it was necessary that as the Son of Man He also had to learn something from His foster father, Joseph, to bring about our salvation. And that something is the carpentry skill.
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