There are many lessons we can learn from St. Joseph’s life. He teaches us many things about living out our vocation, but in particular reasoning, obedience to the law of God and obedience to civil authority.

The trial of St. Joseph teaches us that sometimes we must stand up and make good use of our reason, as God wants us to mature and learn to take important decisions. St. Joseph was surely a man of prayer and faced this trial with patience and prudence. That is why he must have prayed a lot and asked God to tell him what to do, but at the end he must have realised that he himself would have to take a decision wisely on this matter. St. Joseph was wise and must have understood that Our Lady was not with another man, so he did not accuse her of adultery. He thought to keep everything secret and to put Our Lady away privately so as not to expose and blame her for something she did not do.

St. Joseph is very importantly the model of obedience to God’s will. St. Joseph, without asking or hesitating any further, did not break the engagement and espoused Mary to live with him as his wife. One must learn from St. Joseph to always follow and obey God’s will, even if one does not think so at given circumstances, since one is often tempted by the devil to think that one knows better than God. Being the foster father of God is no easy task, and anyway, who would be worthy? God just chose St. Joseph to be the man for the task and Joseph did not run away from God’s will, as many others would have.

St. Joseph not only obeyed God’s will but also was obedient to earthly authority: the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Joseph could have made many excuses to not go to Bethlehem, his home town, to be among those counted in the census. Mary was already in the last stages of pregnancy and she and Joseph barely made it to Bethlehem before she gave birth to Our Saviour. St. Joseph teaches us to obey earthly authority unless it is telling us to commit a sin. However there is another point to make, and it is how God’s will is fulfilled partially through the commands of earthly authority. Had Caesar Augustus not issued a decree for all to go to their hometown and participate in the census, God would have had to make sure through another manner that Our Saviour would be born in Bethlehem.

In conclusion, St. Joseph is the perfect model of obedience to both God’s will and earthly authority. He is also the one we must look up to in matters of prudence and the one from whom we should learn to discern and to make decisions wisely.