And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not anything he had, except the food which he did eat. And Joseph was a handsome person, and well favored.
Read Chapter 39
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
However, let us now come to holy Joseph, so that we may be fed with the example of his chastity and purity as with a sort of heavenly food. This holy Joseph, then, of whom your charity heard in the present lesson, was handsome in body but more splendid in mind, because he was chaste in body and virtuous in mind. Bodily beauty shone in him, but even more so shone the beauty of his soul. Now although physical beauty is apt to be a hindrance to salvation for many men, it could not harm this holy man because the beauty of his soul governed the splendor of his body. Thus the soul should rule the body, not the body the soul, for the soul is the mistress of the body while the body is the handmaid of the soul. Therefore unhappy is the soul that is dominated by the body and makes a mistress out of a servant. Truly the soul that is subject to vices of the flesh becomes the servant of the body, because it loses the faith of its Lord and endures the slavery of sin. The soul of the patriarch Joseph...
This holy Joseph, about whom your charity has heard in this reading, was beautiful in his body but even more beautiful in his soul, because he was chaste in his body and had a chaste soul. The beauty of his body shone in him, but that of his character even more so. Therefore, even though for many people the beauty of the body is usually an obstacle to salvation, it could do no harm to our saint, because the beauty of his character ruled that of his body. So the soul must subdue the flesh, and not the flesh the soul, because the soul is the master of the flesh, and the flesh is the servant of the soul. Woe to the soul that is dominated by flesh and is changed from master to servant by neglecting the faith in the Lord and by submitting to the slavery of sin. But the soul of the patriarch Joseph securely preserved its power, and the flesh could not dominate it at all.
Bread. A proverbial expression, to show how entirely he reposed in Joseph's fidelity and prudence. (Menochius)
He was so rich, that he knew not the extent of his wealth. So Petronius says, Nescit quid habeat, adeo Zaplutus est. It may also be understood as a commendation of Joseph's disinterestedness.
That wicked beast the devil, however, seeing the good man’s standing and the fact that he emerged even more conspicuous from those very things thought to be adversities, gnashed his teeth and fell into a rage. He could not bear to see the good man becoming so much more commendable as each day passed. He dug a deep pit for him and prepared what he thought was a mighty precipice that would bring him to his ruin and a terrible storm capable of causing him shipwreck. But the devil discovered before long that he was wasting his time and only heaping coals on his own head. “Joseph cut a fine figure and was goodlooking,” the text says. Why does it describe to us his physical charm? For us to learn that he was striking not only for charm of soul but also for his person. After all, Joseph was in the bloom of youth, “cut a fine figure and was goodlooking.” Sacred Scripture tells us this about him in advance so as to teach us that the Egyptian woman was under the spell of the young man’s beauty i...
