Bossuet: "Joseph shares Mary's silence"

Joseph, to whom the Angel had told such wondrous things, and who had seen the miracle of virginal childbirth, shares Mary's silence and her secret. Neither of them speaks of what they see every day in their home, or derives any human profit from so many marvels.

As humble as she is wise, Mary allows herself to be regarded as a common mother, and her Son as the fruit of an ordinary union. The great things that God does within his creatures naturally produce a silence, an astonishment, and a divine quality that eliminates all words. For what could we say, and what could Mary say, that could match what she felt?

So one keeps God's secret hidden, unless He Himself animates the tongue and impels it to speak. Human advantages are for nothing if they are unknown and the world does not appreciate them (1). But what God accomplishes has an inestimable value of its own, which we should want to savor only with Him.

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704)

Ed. Urbain et Levesque, t. III.