In
the fullness of time, God chose to send His Only- begotten Son to earth
by means of a family – a family of Judea. The head of that family was a
man whom Scriptures calls “Just” (Matt.1:19). It also gives the
genealogy of this “Just Man”, Joseph by name, he was “of the house of
David” (Luke 1:27), though he was impoverished and exercised the
profession of a carpenter. His bride was the youthful Mary, offered by
her parents to the Temple as a small child; she had been raised among
the things of God and educated in the Holy Writ. She also descended from
King David.
Given their ancestry, Joseph and Mary were a Judean prince and princess.
By
a special providence of the Most High, these two holy people were
betrothed, though Mary had made a vow of perpetual virginity, which
Joseph meant to honor in their marriage. Evidence of their mutual
agreement to this effect is the fact that when the Archangel Gabriel
appeared to Mary and announced that she was to bear a son, she asked the
question foremost in her mind: “How shall this be, since I know not
man?” (Luke1:34) – a question, otherwise nonsensical, in a person
entering the married state.
Mary’s
question was not the result of doubt but of a simple need to
understand. And thus, when she was told that the child she was to bear
would be Jesus, the Son of the Most High, and that this marvel would
occur through the work of the Holy Spirit, she gave her Fiat, “…and the
Word was made flesh” (John 1:14).
And Joseph and Mary were
married and lawfully constituted a family, in the eyes of God and men.
And when Joseph learned of the mystery within Mary, we can imagine him
falling to his knees, and adoring the God Child in the world’s first
tabernacle.
And as true foster father, he lived to serve the God made man who called him “father”.
In
the virtuous, cross-embracing example of the Holy Family, and later by
constituting marriage between a man and a woman a Sacrament, God has
exalted the Christian Family, giving it the means to be the mainstay of
every wholesome society, the “hub” of true culture, and the nest of
sanctity.
Photos by: Ralph Hammann
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