Just Who Is the Guy Wearing the Crown(cf Revelation14:14)??
"Then I looked and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one who looked like a son of man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, ‘Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time has come, because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.’ So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested" (cf Revelation 14:14-16).

Concerning Revelation14:14, neither the Jerome Biblical Commentary nor the New Jerome Biblical Commentary are very clear about the identity of this ‘one who looked like a son of man.’ They are not very confident about identifying this figure as either Jesus or an angel.

 Could this be Joseph of Nazareth, Ruler of the Royal Household of Christ the King (cf Luke 2:48-52), as yet unidentified, as the Old Testament Joseph was not at first recognized by his own brothers as the Pharaoh’s Prime Minister (cf Genesis 45:1-9)?

 The foregoing definition implies what is possibly the name of a "designated reaper." In being the "deputy vinedresser" to his Son the Vine, St. Joseph harvests only the good fruit, and prunes only the good Branches [ie, the "good" souls who "died to themselves" and were fruitful (cf John 12:24-25)], in order to graft them forever onto the Eternal Vine in Heaven (cf John 15:1-6).

 Joseph of Nazareth, in being the "filter" of those things harmful (ie, of no use) to the Vine, "knows" only the good fruit and the fruitful branches. He is instrumental in the "harvest of the just." (cf Matthew 7:21). The harvest of the unjust is left to what will be classified here as the "exterminating angels" to collect, and toss into the fire, all the useless material (cf Revelation 14:15-20; Matthew 7:18-20).

 Finding ‘Salvation in Surrender’
If any of what was mentioned has any basis in Truth, then it more than suffices to emphasize the importance of dying to ourselves each day, and giving an "Authentic Gift of Self" (cf Gaudium et Spes, element 24). Perhaps this is why Jesus was more than likely referring to His Heavenly Father, and also the father appointed by God ie, Joseph of Nazareth) when He said, "Father, I put my Life into your hands." (cf Luke 23:46). If Jesus, God Incarnate, needed His Father when His ‘hour’ had come, then we for sure need Saint Joseph and our Heavenly Father in constantly helping us surrender ourselves, as authentic gifts of the love that casts out fear (cf 1 John 4:18), at all times, since our ‘hour is always at hand’ (cf John 7:16).

 We need St. Joseph in order to do this ‘dying.’ To do otherwise would be a form a sado-masochistic self-annihilation or suicide which, of course, is strictly ‘verboten’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, elements 2280-2281; 2258). But, how can we, ourselves, constructively accomplish what is commanded here: "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away……if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away" (cf Matthew 5:29, 30)?? How can we possibly, as John of the Cross says, ‘arrive at a place we know not’ (ie "death to self") when we haven’t a clue how to ‘go by a way that we know not’ (how to die)? We ‘go to Joseph’ for such help. He is the one who can help grow/increase that which is "good" in the "wheat field" of our soul, "harvest" it, and "store" it in the Heavenly "granary" (cf Matthew 6:19-21). With the angels at his command, he can then deal with the material that needs discarding. He is the one that we go to in order for the angels to put to death ("cut off") those things in our soul that cause our various bodily members to sin. He is the one we need when we are in the desert of self-purification, be it during Lent or at any point in our lives.

 On March 19, 1961, Pope John XXIII, in preparing for the Second Vatican Council, placed the Council under the protection of Joseph of Nazareth. He did this, certainly knowing that there would be a great need for an intercessor that specialized in tending a "wheat field" that could, due to our human follies, have its share of "weeds" in the "wheat fields" of the various participants, benefactors and beneficiaries. Certainly, he understood that only such an intercessor as Saint Joseph would know the right time to deal with the "weeds" without destroying the tender wheat as well (cf Matthew 13:24-30). Only an intercessor like St. Joseph could help everyone accomplish in their own lives one of the major objectives of the Council, namely, to give an ‘Authentic Gift of Self’ (Gaudium et Spes, element 24; Luke 17:33; John 12:24-25) in answering their individual ‘Call to Holiness’ (cf Isaiah 43:1; Lumen Gentium, elements 39-42)

Random Accident, or Providence Speaking?
Earlier in 1961 Robert Frost, at the Kennedy inauguration, was also required to give an "Authentic Gift of Self" when, blinded by a bright sun and unable to read a poem he wrote specially for the occasion, instead recited from memory, and possibly the heart, his poem ‘The Gift Outright.’ One part, in particular, perhaps spoke directly to this age (the threshold of a new millenium):

 The words, perhaps, were prophetic, in view of the words spoken a few minutes later when the ‘generation,’ to which the ‘torch had been passed,’ was, in different words, challenged to give an "Authentic Gift of Self," or put another way, "A Gift Outright." A challenge for this generation still coming of age. A challenge for the generation that Mary, Joseph, and above all Jesus loves (cf John 21:20). A challenge to the generation, perhaps, of the Father and Mother of the King, and the King of Kings Himself. A summons to the ‘frontier’ which we ‘know not,’ and through which we must go, in order to ‘arrive at that which we know not’: ‘Finding Salvation in Surrender.’ For help here we must ‘Ite ad Joseph’ (cf Genesis 41:55).