CHAPTER V.

MARY OF NAZARETH AND JOSEPH HER ESPOUSED HUSBAND.

Matt. i. 16-18; Luke i. 27.

HEN the first man, the Old Adam, was created, it was by infinite power breathing spirit life into dead clay. "" 'He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." When it pleased the Blessed Trinity to renew the race of man through the Word made flesh, the New Adam was not brought into existence by a new act of creation; but God breathes the breath of life into the heart of Mary of Nazareth, unites the divine life to her pure blood, and thus forms Jesus Christ for the renewal of the fallen race. The New Adam is conceived and born of the old race, but generated by an exclusive act of infinite power and love without the co-operation of human paternity.

But God's loving condescension went even further than taking the same human nature that Adam had tainted by sin; Jesus is not merely Adam's descendant, and that of saintly men and chaste women, with the greatest of saints for His mother; but His blood is also that of apostate and idolatrous kings and shame. less harlots. By His Mother, however, that blood was passed to Him as if through a divine alembic, and cleansed till it was the immaculate blood of a perfect humanity-worthy, if such a thing were possible, to be the humanity which should be associated with the divinity. This is the full meaning of the words of Isaias: "A virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us."

Mary, Miriam, a virgin of the royal line of David, dwelt at Nazareth in Galilee. Of her birth and childhood the inspired history tells us nothing. A very venerable tradition affirms that her father's name was Heli-Joachim, and her mother's name Anna. She had an elder sister, named like herself Mary, wife of Cleophas, whose sons James and Jude afterwards became disciples of our Saviour. The fact that Zachary's wife Elizabeth was Mary's cousin, shows that she was not only of the race of David and tribe of Juda, but also had priestly blood in her veins.

The very first mention of our Virgin of Nazareth tells us that she was espoused to Joseph, like herself an obscure member of the family of David. As to Joseph, what greater praise could be given to mortal man: he was made worthy by God's appointment to be the beloved spouse of Mary of Nazareth. Both being descendants of King David, they were legally relatives. Perhaps Mary was required by the law of Moses to marry a kinsman on account of being sole heir to a little family property. Whatever this supposition may be worth, it is certain that Joseph was gifted by Heaven with the qualities which were best fitted to make him the virginal spouse of the very queen of all womanly perfection.

That Joseph was an old man, or even middle-aged, when he married Mary, there is no evidence whatever. God would not leave this sacred union open to ridicule, and people laugh at the marriage of an

"A Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the Virgin's name was Mary" (Luke i. 27).

old man and a young girl. It cannot be doubted that, if the divine purposes were to be attained, Mary's husband should be, and should plainly appear to be, something like her equal in natural qualities. His office was to give her happy companionship, lovingly to support her by his labor, to shield her from the breath of calumny; and all of this could be best secured only by a husband in the bloom of manhood. Inasmuch as it was by divine appointment that Joseph was Mary's spouse, that holy relationship would be to him the source of many graces. Among these, virginal chastity would be granted in perfection. How holy Joseph must have been-that one man of all the world whom Mary was to affectionately speak of as my husband"; of whom she should speak to her divine child as Thy father." Was there ever a saint whose love was so deep and so pure? What dignity but Mary's own ever surpassed that of Joseph, since to him was referred by men the origin of the humanity of Jesus as He was thought, the son of Joseph."

This marriage was an ideal one. We cannot for a moment doubt that Joseph in choosing Mary, and she in accepting him, following as they did a secret vocation of the most heavenly kind, were granted a perfect mutual affection. How deep the loyalty of such hearts, how perfect their devotion to each other. And how angelic a nature was Joseph's, to be a sharer in every joy and sorrow of the Mother of the Word Incarnate.

We are not left in ignorance as to the process of the espousals of Joseph and Mary, for we know that they must have followed the Hebrew custom. Joseph sought the hand of Mary first personally, and then by presents to those who stood to her in the place of parents; upon acceptance of his proposal, he

took an oath of fidelity. Then a considerable period elapsed, during which this predestined pair seldom saw each other, though the law looked upon their union as settled, the parties in such cases often being spoken of as husband and wife..

CHAPTER VI.

THE SON OF GOD BECOMES MAN.

Matt. i. 18; Luke i. 26-38; John i. 14.

Living at Nazareth,

home, or with her Mary passed her time She was by no means

It was during this interval that God chose the virgin spouse of Joseph for her unspeakable privilege of Mother of the Eternal Word. either in her deceased parents' sister, the wife of Cleophas, as a perfect Jewish maiden. a recluse, and as a daughter of the common people she sanctified the simple domestic cares and daily round of household duties. Content with these for her external occupation, her soul was absorbed in meditation of things divine. Apart from her espoused husband, she seldom thought of men and their aims and ambitions, content with praying that God's will might be done in all things, rapt in the divine love and submissive to the order of life and the humble destiny which seemed all that was allotted to her a state of soul which is the basis of even the loftiest virtues of the saints. In her interior life she conversed with God and His holy angels in the most intimate communion; her outward life was diligent attention to duty and loving converse with her kinsfolk and neighbors. How many happy hours did not Mary pass in reading the Scriptures-rejoicing in the living faith of her forefathers, the longings

of the entire race for the Messias, the glorious deeds of the mighty warriors, the sweet and meek piety of the holy women of Israel!-little dreaming that the torrent of peaceful bliss which poured into her soul was the very essence of all those virtues of the ancient days. She could not know that the supernatural favors she experienced, the ecstasies, the inner voices of God and of His holy servants, the radiant light that illumined the sacred page, that all these, usual and almost commonplace to her, were the very perfection of God's gifts, and that they were granted to her that she might be made the most perfect soul that ever lived, because she was to be the Mother of the Incarnate God.*

And now the fulness of time has come; the world is to be redeemed. The same heavenly ambassador who had appeared to the priest Zachary in the Holy of Holies is now sent to the humble maiden in her chamber-engaged perhaps in prayer, or just as likely with her needle or her spindle. In any case, God's messenger found her full of divine love and saluted

*This blending of all divine gifts in Mary's soul includes her exemption from Adam's sin. The Angel Gabriel, as we shall see, will hail her as "full of grace,' a title whose primary meaning is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Says St. Francis de Sales: "God first of all destined for His most holy Mother a favor worthy the love of a Son who, being all wise, all mighty, all good, wished to prepare a mother to His liking, and therefore He willed His redemption to be applied to her after the manner of a preserving remedy, that the sin which was spreading from generation to generation should not reach her. She then was so excellently redeemed, that though, when the time came, the torrent of original iniquity rushed to pour its unhappy waves over her conception, with as much impetuosity as it had done on that of the other daughters of Adam; yet when it reached there it passed not beyond, but stopped, as did anciently the Jordan in the time of Josue, and for the same respect for this river held its stream in reverence for the passage of the Ark of the Covenant; and original sin drew back its waters, revering and dreading the presence of the true Tabernacle of the eternal covenant." (The Love of God, Book II. chap. vi).