The Silent Worker
THE SILENT WORKER Mario D’Couto In 1961, Pope St. John XXIII wrote, “In the Holy Church’s worship, right from the beginning, Jesus the Word of God made Man, has enjoyed the adoration that belongs to Him, incommunicable as the splendour of the substance of His Father, a splendour reflected in the glory of His saints. From the earliest times, Mary, His Mother, was close behind Him, in the picture in the catacombs and the basilicas, where She was devoutly venerated as ‘Holy Mother of God’. But Joseph, except for some slight sprinkling of references to him here and there in the writings of the Fathers of the Church for long centuries remained in the background, in his characteristic concealment almost as a decorative figure in the overall picture of the Saviour’s life. It took time for devotion to him to go beyond those passing glances and take root in the hearts of the faithful and then surge forth in the form of s...