Mary chose Joseph as her spouse freely and deliberately

February 20, 2022 • 2 min

From The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, in file "The Life and Glories of St. Joseph", page 127
By Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.

We must remember that, although our Lady numbered only fourteen years at the time of her espousals, she had a mind fully enlightened; prudence, in her, had not waited for mature years, and God had infused into her from her tenderest infancy all that knowledge which is ordinarily acquired by study or experience.

She, therefore, perfectly understood that she ought not to commit herself to the guidance of one who was not gifted with consummate prudence, for she knew that the head of the woman is the man, and God, who had liberated this Sovereign Virgin from the power of sin and of hell, had not emancipated her from obedience to this law.

It would be reprehensible in her to confide herself to the charge of any one who was not most discreet and faithful, or trust her purity to a spouse who was not himself as pure as the heavenly spirits, or take any man to be the intimate companion of her life whose own standard was not of the most exalted virtue.

She knew, in short, that in taking a husband she was taking a superior, a confidant of her thoughts, a depositary of her secrets, a witness of her actions. He must, therefore, be eminently prudent, faithful, and chaste; in a word, he must be eminently holy.

She knew also that she enjoyed perfect freedom as regarded her consent. The priests and doctors proposed to her a husband, but they could not command her to accept him. It did not appertain to them to do so. God alone can command a maiden contracting matrimony to choose such a one and no other for her spouse.*

Nor are the relatives of the Virgin likely to have brought any influence to bear upon her in the choice she made. Relatives generally think a good deal of temporal interests, and Joseph was but a poor artisan.

The acquiescence, therefore, of this Sovereign Lady in taking Joseph for her spouse must be regarded as the result of her own free election. Let us see, then, all that is implied herein.