THE TWO FIATS WHICH THE DIVINE WILL REQUIRED TO GIFT US JESUS
“God imposed two conditions for the coming of His Son, and consequently for the absolutely unique Gift linked with this Coming – the Gift of the Holy Spirit: Joseph and Mary, two human beings, perfectly humble, simple, brave, defenceless and, nevertheless, endowed with a strength and a kind of superiority so indisputable that “The Image of the Invisible God, the First Born of all Creation” (Col 1:15), chose to be subject to them. Mary is the One in whom the Holy Spirit makes the Body of Christ come, a fact which, with time, assumes the proportions of the Church in the midst of humanity.
Joseph is the One in whom the Father conceals
Himself to welcome this Child and, in turn, to hide It, to surround It with
love, to protect It, to help It increase in every way. ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
Power of the Most High will overshadow you’ the angel said.
Joseph is the Father’s ‘Shadow’.
He is directly foreshadowed by this biblical ‘cloud’ - an exact
prolongation of the fourth patriarch. (Luke 1:35) As in the case of the ‘cloud’, it is
striking to see that these mortal enemies, whom St Paul
TO BE WITH THE ETERNAL FATHER ONE MUST BE WITH JOSEPH AS JESUS AND MARY WERE
At twelve, upon one
word spoken by His Mother, a word he does not immediately understand, Jesus
must identify ‘to be with His Father’ – His most cherished wish – with ‘to be
with Joseph’. And He disappears in this
‘Shadow’ where, surprisingly, He will grow in stature and in strength for a
period of eighteen years. I cannot help
but think that such a Mystery, this long and profound formation, would have
lasting effects on the entire life of Jesus, as well as on the Life of the
Church of all ages.”
“Discovering Saint Joseph
Chaplain at the Holy Shrine of Lourdes France
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