The divine communion of Joseph and the Infant Jesus

August 30, 2021 • 2 min

From The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, page 386
By Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.

Another powerful source of love is mutual knowledge. Without some kind of knowledge there can, properly, be no love; and, generally speaking, those love our Lord best who have the greatest knowledge of His perfections.

But to whom were those adorable perfections made known so fully as to Joseph; to whom first—with the exception of Mary—was revealed His Name of Saviour, which contains them all in compendium?

How exalted must have been Joseph’s perception of the majesty of the Incarnate Word, inclosed in the sacred womb of the Virgin, even previously to this revelation, since it was needful for an angel to descend from Heaven to prevent his withdrawing from his august spouse, as in his humility he was about to do! Such is the opinion, at least, of many holy doctors, as being the most probable, and, at the same time, the most honourable to Joseph and to our Blessed Lady.

It was given to Joseph to be the first to know and become enamoured of the riches of the Saviour in the poverty of the crib, and lovingly to adore the splendour of His glory in the obscurity of the stable.

The familiarity to which he was admitted with the Divine Babe, and all the mysteries of the Infancy, must have inundated His soul with ineffable sweetness. Mary pondered them in her heart, and so did Joseph likewise; and all were food for love.

And what shall we say of the thirty years? Who, save the Blessed Mother herself, ever enjoyed so close and prolonged an intimacy with Jesus as did Joseph? Who, then, can have equalled him in love?

Holy souls have dwelt on the thought that for many long miles during the flight into Egypt Joseph carried Him in his arms, partly to shield Him from the wintry blast in the folds of his cloak, and partly especially during the early part of the journey to conceal Him; and all that time he felt the beatings of the Sacred Heart against his own, and learned secrets which had never been confided even to the blessed spirits in Heaven.