Joseph understands Mary's silence

A shadow has crept into Joseph's happiness. Mary is now lost to him: he will be alone, and she too will be alone forever. All this is so unexpected, so mysterious and so incredible that Joseph doesn't know what to do. But this is where his holiness and spiritual wisdom come to the fore. It is then that he reacts as a just man, who is fully attuned to God's will.

This greatness of Joseph's soul is rooted in God, and God comes to his servant: He reveals His plan to him. From then on, everything becomes clear to him. Joseph understands Mary's silence, and grasps with a single intuition of faith what God expects of her, and what God expects of him. God brings them together once again, to place them both at the heart of salvation history.

She will give the Messiah her flesh and her features; he, the son of David and a carpenter, will be there to legally give him a name in the royal line of David.

Utmost respect for others, docile acceptance of God's initiatives: such were Joseph's reactions to the mystery of Mary's maternity.
And this is how we in turn should approach the mystery of God's action in ourselves, in others and in the world. This is how we must position ourselves, in faith, with regard to the coming of the Son of God.

Mary's maternity was shrouded in silence from the beginning, like all God's great works, and no one will ever be able to pierce the silence that veils Jesus' incarnation. Like Joseph, we must enter into it with the ‘yes’ of adoration.

Mary's maternity has no other explanation than God's love for the world and his infinitely-free choice of a woman who will be intimately associated with his work of re-creation. And since it was God himself who made this choice, since it was He who loved, willed and prepared Mary, let us not be afraid to welcome her into our home, to make room for her in our memory, in our prayer and in our hearts - yes, in our hearts, for everything that comes to us through her will bear the mark of the Holy Spirit.

Jean Lévêque, Carmelite, Province of Paris

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