Mary was given as wife not to the man with most worldly advantages, but to the holiest man alive

March 9, 2022 • 2 min

#Mary #Joseph

From The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, page 150
By Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.

If any one should ask, would not a richer and more powerful spouse have been more suitable for our Sovereign Lady, the reply is not far to seek. It is not power or riches which attract the eyes of God. It is virtue, rectitude, humility, poverty, and sanctity of life.

Joseph was given to Mary as her spouse because he possessed immense treasures of grace and of holiness, such as might have excited the envy of the celestial intelligences, because his singular endowments had rendered him pre-eminent above all, and because before God he occupied a more elevated and sublime position than that of all the kings of the earth.

The Virgin was confided, not to the most powerful, but to the worthiest, not to the richest, but to the holiest; like to the Ark of the Lord, which was a figure of Mary, and was placed, not in the palace of kings, but under the lowly roof and in the charge of a simple Gethite, Obededom, upon whose house, in consequence, all the blessings of Heaven were showered.[2 Kings vi. 10, 11]

It is manifest also that Jesus, coming into the world to condemn pride, arrogance, and the ill-acquired riches of men, willed that His most holy Mother and His foster-father should give the first example of a life, poor, frugal, modest, and laborious, such as might rebuke the insolent pride of the worldly, and be an abiding example and consolation to those who are placed in a poor and humble condition of life.