Inscribed picture of St. Joseph's Church in Nazareth.
http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/StJosephChurch.html
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| A painting of Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and the young Jesus in the carpenter's workshop. Early traditions identified the site of the church as the place of the carpenter workshop of the Holy family. |
Magnificat
com, with thanks.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY
By FATHER MAURICE ZUNDEL. Father Zundel (+ 1975) was a Swiss mystic, poet, philosopher. liturgist, and author.
Joseph
There is not a word too many or too few.
In one movement we are brought
to the heart of the Mystery: just so it had suddenly confronted Joseph. But we
know what the issue was, and Joseph at that time did not.
He loved Mary. From the first moment of their first meeting
he had felt that she was unique and that God was entrusting her to him. Was he
now called upon to sacrifice her as Abraham had had to steel himself to the
immolation of Isaac?
The wound in his heart was immeasurable.
The plain fact was there. No denial, no tenderness could alter it. Her very innocence
made his anguish more poignant. Another must be guilty, who should take the
responsibility for what he had done.
Joseph could not speak of it to her,
since she had chosen to be silent. Any word would have been an outrage. Silence, his silence, should give
him back his liberty, for it attested his utter confidence in her.
Thus he came to his decision. And he
slept the sleep that relaxes the body but not the soul's pain.
Only if we could concentrate in one
heart all the admiration, devotion, fervour that Christian souls were to feel
through all generations towards Mary could we form any idea of the love she
must have inspired in Joseph, could we divine the immensity of the drama
being acted in that hour.
What Dante sang of Beatrice, Joseph
could have said in the richest fullness of meaning:
He sees perfectly all salvation
Who sees my Lady among women.
More than any other he felt that human
nature was ennobled by her. If he had dared to enter into the espousal, it was
to guard the treasure-the treasure which now seemed irremediably lost. ...
Meanwhile Mary watched in prayer, suffering
in his suffering, living all the agony that her sealed lips could not abate in him.
The yes that bound her soul to Joseph's
was all the more irrevocable in that it engaged her fidelity to God, who was
the strong foundation of their union.
Father Zundel (+ 1975) was a Swiss mystic, poet, philosopher.
liturgist, and author.
