https://archive.org/stream/admirablejoseph00dejeuoft/admirablejoseph00dejeuoft_djvu.txt
Insisting that he should rise, she pros-
trated herself at his [Joseph's] feet, although he made
every effort to hinder this, but it was not pos-
sible; for in humility she was invincible. Then
she said to the saint: “It is I, my spouse, who
ought to beseech your pardon for the pain and
sorrow that you have had to endure on my
account, therefore I beg you will forget them.”
Our blessed Lady, for the consolation of her
9
98 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH.
LP
husband, continued: “I could not reveal to you
the hidden mystery which the Most High had
enclosed within me, because it was my duty to
await the expression of the will of the Lord.
Thus my silence should not be considered as
arising from any want of esteem for you, for in
all things I regard you as my master and my
husband. I am, and I always shall be, your faith-
ful servant; but do not make any change in the
demeanor which you have always preserved
towards me. The Lord has not elevated me to
the dignity of being His own mother to be
served, but to be the servant of all, and of you
especially. This is my office: it is but just
that you should leave it to me, since the Most
High has so ordained in giving me your protec-
tion.
St. Joseph, by these reasons and many others
which were of a sweet efficacy, found his spirit
enlightened in a singular manner. He received,
through this purest of creatures, extraordinary
divine influences, and, entirely renewed in heart,
he replied: “You are blessed among women;
you are blessed among all nations. May the
creator of heaven and earth be glorified by
eternal praises, for that He has chosen you for
His dwelling. In you alone He has accomplished
the promises that He made to our fathers and to
LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. V9
the prophets. Let all generations bless Him that
He has not exalted himself in any creature as
in you, and that, being the vilest of men, He has
chosen me to be your servant.” -
CHAPTER. ¥V.
ST. JOSEPH ASKS PARDON OF TIE HOLY MARY IIIS SPOUSE—
NE RESOLVES TO SERVE HER IN ALL THINGS WITU PRO-
FOUND RESPECT,
T. JOSEPH, after the discovery of his error,
waited until our blessed Lady should come
forth from her retreat. As soon as he thought
it was time, he opened the door of the little
chamber occupied by the mother of the heav-
enly King, and, throwing himself at her feet, he
exclaimed, with humility and profound venera-
tion, ‘ My spouse, Mother of the Eternal Word,
behold your servant prostrate before you. By the
same Lord whom you bear in your most chaste
bosom, I pray you to pardon my presumption.
Sure I am that none of my thoughts can be
hidden from your wisdom, nor from the divine
light which you have received. Great was my
blindness to think of deserting you; but you
know that I did it in ignorance, because neither
the secret of the great King had been revealed
LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 97
to me, nor the greatness of your dignity. Forget,
I entreat you, the many deficiencies of a vile
creature who offers his heart and his life in your
service ; I will not rise from your feet until you
have pardoned my folly—until I shall have re-
ceived your forgiveness and your benediction.”
The august Mary listened with mingled feel-
ings to the humble words of her spouse. She
rejoiced in the Lord to learn that St. Joseph
was informed of the mysteries of the incarnation,
and that he revered them with such profound
faith and humility. But she was troubled by
the resolution he had taken to change his con-
duct towards her, and with the respect and sub-
mission with which he addressed her. Knowing
‘how much she ought to esteem humility, she
was disturbed by the apprehension that St.
Joseph, recognizing in her the mother of the
Lord, would deport himself in all things as her
inferior. Insisting that he should rise, she pros-
trated herself at his feet, although he made
every effort to hinder this, but it was not pos-
sible; for in humility she was invincible. Then
she said to the saint: “It is I, my spouse, who
7ought to beseech your pardon for the pain and
sorrow that you have had to endure on my
account, therefore I beg you will forget them.”
Our blessed Lady, for the consolation of her
9
98 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH.
LP
nasband, continued: “I could not reveal to you
tne hidden mystery which the Most High had
enclosed within me, because it was my duty to
await the expression of the will of the Lord.
Thus my silence should not be considered as
arising from any want of esteem for you, for in
all things I regard you as my master and my
husband. I am, and I always shall be, your faith-
ful servant; but do not make any change in the
demeanor which you have always preserved
towards me. The Lord has not elevated me to
the dignity of being His own mother to be
served, but to be the servant of all, and of you
especially. This is my office: it is but just
that you should leave it to me, since the Most
High has so ordained in giving me your protec-
tion.
St. Joseph, by these reasons and many others
which were of a sweet efficacy, found his spirit
enlightened in a singular manner. He received,
through this purest of creatures, extraordinary
divine influences, and, entirely renewed in heart,
he replied: “You are blessed among women;
you are blessed among all nations. May the
creator of heaven and earth be glorified by
eternal praises, for that He has chosen you for
His dwelling. In you alone He has accomplished
the promises that He made to our fathers and to
LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. V9
the prophets. Let all generations bless Him that
He has not exalted himself in any creature as
in you, and that, being the vilest of men, He has
chosen me to be your servant.” The saint was en-
lightened by the divine Spirit after the manner of
St. Elizabeth; but the light and knowledge which
St. Joseph received were, in a certain sense, more
admirable, because of his dignity and ministry.
The august Mary replied by the Magnificat
and other new canticles; and while chanting
them, inflamed by the divine fire, she was rapt
in a sublime ecstasy, and, lifted up from the
earth in a globe of brilliant light which en-
circled her, she was transformed as in a glory.
St. Joseph was filled with admiration and Joy
inconceivable at this view of his holy spousr
for he had never yet seen her surrounded with
such glory and excellence. She appeared to
him quite transparent, and, at the same time, he
discovered the integrity and virginal purity of
our queen and the mystery of her dignity. He
saw, also, and recognized in the chaste bosom of
Mary the holy humanity of the Infant God and
the union of the two natures in the person of
the Word. He adored the Infant God with
profound humility, acknowledged his true Re-
deemer, and offered himself to His service with
fervent acts of divine love.
100 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH.
The Lord regarded him with great favor, and
distinguished him among all men, for He ac-
cepted him as His reputed father and gave him
the title. And to render him conformable to
this new and honorable name, He imparted to
him all the knowledge and divine gifts to which
Christian purity can or ought to aspire.
If it were a proof of the magnanimity of the
glorious St. Joseph that he did not die of jeal-
ousy, it is also a subject of admiraticn that he
was not overwhelmed by the joy which he felt
on this occasion. In the first case his holiness
appears, but ‘in the second he received such
augmentations of graces and gifts from the Lord,
that, if His divine Majesty had not dilated his
heart, he could not have been able to receive
them. He was entirely renewed and enlightened
so as to converse worthily with her who was the
Mother of God, and, conjointly with her, to dis-
pense all that concerned the incarnation and the
charge of the Word made man. It was also .
manifested to him, in order that he should recog-
nize the obligation imposed on him to serve his
holy spouse, that all the gifts he had received
from the Most High were received through her —
and for her. He knew that the gifts he had re-
ceived before his espousals were bestowed because
the Lord had chosen him for this office, and that
LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 101
those which he now received were because she
had merited them for him. And as our blessed
Lady had been the instrument by which the
Lord had wrought the sanctification of John the |
Baptist, and his mother, St. Elizabeth, she was |
the organ, also, by whom St. Joseph received
the plenitude of grace. This most happy spouse
knew all this, and he responded to it like a faith-
ful and grateful servant.
The holy evangelists made no mention of these
ereat mysteries, nor of many others which were
known to our blessed Lady and St. Joseph, be-
cause, for many reasons, they were not suitable
to be made known to the Gentiles on their first
conversion. These things were reserved, by the
impenetrable judgments of Providence, for times
which the divine wisdom judged more suitable,*
or when the Church should have need of the
intercession and support of our holy Queen.
The faithful St. Joseph, after having been made
aware of the dignity of his spouse, and the
mystery of the incarnation, conceived so lofty
an esteem for her, that, although he had been al-
ways pure and perfect in his life, he now became
as a new man. He resolved henceforth to
change his conduct, and to redouble his ven-
* Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say to you: but you
cannot bear them now.”—St. John, xvi. 12.
Q*
102 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH.
eration towards our blessed Lady. This was in
comformity with the wisdom of the saint, and
due to the excellence of his spouse, for he was
servant, and she mistress of the universe. St
Joseph knew all this by divine illumination.
Now, to satisfy the desire he had to honor het
in whom he recognized the Mother of God,
when he spoke to her, or passed before her, if
alone together, he bent the knee. He would not
suffer her to wait on him, nor that she should
occupy herself in other humble offices, such as
sweeping the house, cleansing the vessels, and
many other things which he thought derogatory
from the dignity of our queen.
But our saintly Lady, who was the humblest
of the humble, and whose humility was not to
be overcome, prayed St. Joseph not to pay her
such honors as to bow the knee to her. This
veneration, she said, was doubtless due to the
Lord, whom she bore in her bosom; but while
He remained there, the person of Christ could
not be distinguished from her own. The saint,
yielding to her humble desires, rendered this
worship to the Lord, who was in the bosom of
Mary, and to her as His mother, only when un-
perceived by her.
They had also humble disputes respecting!
their servile employments. St. Joseph could
LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 103
not consent to allow our amiable Mistress to
perform them, and strove to prevent it On her
part, she did what she could, but waile she was
retired in her oratory the saint found time to do
many things, and thus our sweet Lady was frus-
trated in her desires to be the servant. At these
times she addressed her meek complaints to the
Lord, and prayed him to oblige her spouse not
to hinder her in the exercise of humility.
This virtue is so agreeable at the tribunal of
God, that we ask for no common grace whea
we pray for it; for humility imparts a cer
tain greatness to all things, and inclines God to
clemency. The Divine Majesty hearkened to
the request of our blessed Lady, and his guar-
dian angel said, interiorly, to the blessed St
Joseph, “ Do not frustrate the humble desires of ©
her who is above all creatures in heaven or on
earth. Permit her to serve you in external
things, and preserve for her in your interior the
greatest reverence. Render to the Word made
man, in all times and in all places, the homage
that is due to Him. You can, meanwhile, assist
his Mother, and honor ee the Lord of the
universe who is within her.”
Having received these orders from ‘the Most
High, St. Joseph no longer refused her humble
exercises to our sweet Lady. Thus both offered
104 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH.
to God the sacrifice of their will. The most
pure Mary, in practising her profound humility,
and faithful obedience to her spouse; and St.
Joseph, by obedience to the Most High, with a
holy confusion to see himself served by her
whom he recognized as mistress of the universe
and mother of the Creator,
Thus our saint was compensated for the hu-
mility which he could not exervise; for to see
himself served as he was humiliated him far
more, and obliged him to abase himself still
more profoundly in contempt of himself. In
these dispositions St. Joseph meditated upon the
Lord, whom the august Mary bore in her chaste
bosom, adoring and rendering to Him honor and
glory. Then, in recompense for his sanctity
. and his respect, mingled with fear, the Infant
God, made man, sometimes manifested himself -
in an admirable manner. He saw Him in the
bosom of His most pure Mother, as through a
luminous crystal. Afterwards, our incomparable
Lady conversed more familiarly with her blessed
spouse upon the mysteries of the incarnation,
for she knew that he was now informed of the
secrets of the hypostatic union of the two natures,
divine and human, within her virginal bosom.
No tongue can relate the celestial discourses
that were held between the blessed Virgin and
LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 105
St. Joseph.- And who can describe the effects
produced on the gentle and pious heart of this
holy man, on finding himself the spouse of her
who was the veritable motber of his Creator,
and to see her performing for him the duties
of a simple servant ?
If the Almighty enriched the house and the
person of Obed-Edom with such plenteous bene-
dictions for having received the ark of the Old
Testament, what benedictions would He not
bestow upon St. Joseph, to whom He had eon-
fided the true ark, and the Legislator himself
who was enclosed within it?
The happiness and the fidelity of this saint
were incomparable, not only because the living
Ark of the New Testament abode in his house,
but because he guarded it like a faithful and
prudent servant. The Lord placed him over
His family, also, that he should provide for it
according to its necessities as a faithful admin-
istrator. Let all nations acknowledge him,
bless him, and publish his praises, since the
Most High has never done for any other what
He has done for this incomparable saint. In
view of mysteries so august, I will glorify this
adorable Lord, and confess Him as holy, just,
merciful, wise and admirable in all His won.
drous works.
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