When I was in fifth grade here at Guardian Angels, we had what you might call an “all-saints fair” when we learned about the saints.  They still have something like that at GA these days.

As a fifth grader that year, I was proud to play Saint Joseph. Mom had sewed up a robe out of some brown material, a robe we kids used for years in all kinds of costumes, and I asked my Dad to provide me with the tools of his namesake Joseph. Maybe as carpenter Joseph, I would carry a big hammer or a hatchet or a jagged saw, or I could go as a modern Joseph with a power saw and goggles….

No, Dad gave me a tool that was unfamiliar and unglamorous to me & a bit mathematical.

The identifying clue for St. Joseph was this humble carpenter’s square that I brought here from its peg on Dad’s workbench in the garage. As today’s bright student servers John & Johnny from 7th grade here at GA could tell you, it looks a lot like the symbol for 90 degrees in geometry, the angle also known as a ____ angle. Yes a right angle.  It’s very useful tool for carpenters like Joseph as they build things like proper stairsteps, and chairs and tables that don’t wobble, and as they join together boards & rafters.  
  

For me that right angle symbolizes a lot more than the carpenter’s technical skill. Up to his dying day, Dad tried to do what was right, when it came to his body, his health, his family, his friends, his career, his church, his city, his country & all the causes he supported in this world.

This little right angle tool also reminds me of the cross.  While it’s not a perfect cross, it’s a reminder of the cross of Jesus on the long road to Calvary and crucifixion...and a reminder of Dad’s difficult road in the last 20 months without Mom...a road he trod with less falls than Jesus, thanks to the faithful, vigilant caregivers & family at his side.

Next time you look at the statue St. Joseph, look for his saint ID card, that right angle that he carries right next to his heart. It kind of blends in on the white statue but it’s central without being showy.   Our Dad Joseph wasn’t the square some of us kids might have thought he was at times in the 1970s, but that right angle was central. He was a righteous man, a godly man, not a perfect man, but a man who tried so hard to do the right thing.  Two months after an early graduation from Notre Dame in Oct, 1943, Dad began working in a secret city of 70,000 people in Oak Ridge, TN, on a project that, unbeknownst to most of those 1000s, would provide the uranium fuel for a terrible weapon, the atomic bomb, that ended World War II in a terrible way.  After the war, Dad never spoke of that time but very consciously chose a life and career that would be life-giving & world-saving, ultimately bringing the family to Cincinnati in the early years of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

On the memorial prayer card we made for Dad, you can see the Holy Family, which seems fitting as we close out the Christmas season and fitting for the life Dad led. If you haven’t already done so, please pick up a card on your way out, and try to find Joseph’s right angle in the picture of the Holy Family.  The child Jesus is tagging along beside the hard-working Joseph in the carpenter’s shop, like all of us kids who followed and learned from our dad.  Like our mom, Mother Mary presides and works lovingly in the all-embracing background.   And the carpenter’s square, the right angle guide, lies inconspicuously conspicuous in the center foreground of the picture.

May we forever honor the memory of our Joseph as we try to follow that guide and do the right thing, though it may be unglamorous and difficult, as we fight the good fight (Dad actually boxed to raise $ for the missions in Bangladesh while at ND), as we run the race (as far as our knees will take us), and as we strive to keep the faith through all the ups and downs of life...  Amen

--spoken by Chris Farrell at memorial mass

Roses brought to altar at offertory procession by grandchildren and great grandchildren were placed at the statue of St. Joseph after mass.