Quomodo Joseph voluit dimittere Mariam, et quomodo Deus permittit suos tribulari
Joseph's Grief and Hidden Purpose
Joseph is deeply grieved by Mary's pregnancy, and the text explains God's hidden reasons for arranging their marriage and praises Joseph's restrained, righteous response.
Now when the Lady and her husband Joseph were living together, and Joseph realized that she was pregnant as Jesus grew in his mother's womb, he was deeply grieved beyond measure. Pay close attention here, because you will be able to learn many beautiful things.1 If you wonder why the Lord wanted his mother to have a husband, since he always wanted her to be a virgin, the answer is given: on account of three things — namely, so that she would not be disgraced as a pregnant woman, so that she might benefit from a husband's service and companionship, and so that the birth of the Son of God might be hidden from the devil.2 So Joseph watched his wife time and again, and he grieved and was troubled, and he showed her a distressed expression, and he turned his eyes away from her as though she were a wrongdoer, suspecting her of conceiving through adultery.3 See how God allows his own to be afflicted with tribulations and to be tested for their crown. But he was thinking about sending her away secretly. Truly it can be said about this that his praise is in the Gospel. For it is said there that he was a just man — and indeed he was of great virtue.✦4
Shared Suffering and Silent Trust
Both Joseph and Mary endure painful uncertainty with restraint and humility, until an angel reveals the truth to Joseph and their trial gives way to consolation.
Since it is commonly said that a wife's adultery brings a man the deepest shame, grief, and rage, Joseph nevertheless restrained himself with great self-control and was unwilling to bring charges. He patiently endured this grave wrong, not avenging himself but, overcome by devotion, choosing to believe the best — yet he still wanted to send her away quietly. But the Lady did not pass through this without tribulation either. She was weighing the situation and saw that he was troubled, and because of this she herself was also deeply distressed. Nevertheless she remained humble and silent, concealing the gift of God. She would rather be thought contemptible than publicly reveal God's sacred secret, or say anything about herself that might be taken as boasting. She was asking the Lord, however, to deign to set things right and to remove this tribulation from herself and from her husband. You see what great tribulation and anxiety they endured — but the Lord provided for them both. He therefore sent his angel, who said to Joseph in a dream that his wife had conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that he should stand by her confidently and joyfully.✦ And so, when the tribulation had passed, great consolation returned.
Patience in Trial Brings Consolation
The text draws a devotional lesson from Joseph and Mary's experience, urging patience in tribulation since God sends calm after the storm, then describes their joyful, chaste life together.
That is what would happen for us too, if we knew how to hold on to patience in our tribulations: for after the storm, God brings calm. And you should not doubt this, because he does not allow tribulations to reach his own except for their benefit. Joseph asked about this wondrous conception, which the Lady carefully related to him. So Joseph remains, standing with joy alongside his blessed wife. And more than words can say, he loves her with a chaste love and faithfully bears the care of her, and the Lady remains confidently with him, and they live gladly in their poverty. So the Lord Jesus remains enclosed in the womb until Matthew's account. f 1, 19 et seq. For nine months, in the manner of others.
Enclosed for His Service
The text moves from Joseph's patient endurance to a sustained exhortation to embrace interior and exterior enclosure, humility, and purity of heart for God's service.
He stands kindly and patiently endures, and awaits the due time. Have compassion for yourself, that you have come to such a depth of humility. We ought therefore to pursue this virtue earnestly, and we should never swell with exaltation or with concern for our own reputation, when the Lord of majesty has bowed himself so low. And for this second benefit — his enclosure of us for so long — we could never worthily make satisfaction to him.5 But at least let us acknowledge this in our hearts, and give thanks to him with our whole affection, because he has deigned to take us from among others — so that we might repay him even this little, and stand enclosed for his service.6 For this is his gift, not our merit — and indeed it is a very great thing, most acceptable and worthy of reverence.7 For we are enclosed not for punishment but for protection, and placed in the most secure stronghold of religious life — and the venomous arrows of this most wicked wave, or the storms of a turbulent sea, will not be able to reach it unless by our own recklessness.8 Let us strive then, with all our strength, our minds withdrawn and abstracted from all passing things, to be free for him with purity of heart — because bodily enclosure profits nothing or little without interior enclosure.
Christ's Compassion from the Womb
The chapter closes by inviting the reader to suffer with Christ, who endured grief for sinners from the very moment of his conception, and to meditate lovingly on this mystery.
Again, you should suffer with the Lord Jesus in this: that he is in continual affliction — and has been from the very beginning of his conception right up to death. This is because he knew that the Father, whom he loved supremely, was being abandoned by sinners on account of idols, and dishonored; and out of the compassion he had for the souls created in his own image, whom he saw as wretched, virtually all of them condemned, he felt a grief greater than any bodily suffering could have been. For it was to take away that suffering that he endured the other. See how beautiful the dishes set before you here: if you want to taste their sweetness, chew them over carefully, and often. Monday
Read the original Latin
Cum autem simul habitarent Domina et sponsus ejus Josepb, et crescente Jesu in utero matris perpendens Joseph ipsam gravidam esse, doluit ultra modum. Altende hic bene, quia multa pulchra discere poteris. Si dubitas quare Dominus voluit matrem suam habcre virum, cum semper vellet eam virginem esse; respondetur: Propter tria, ut scihcet ne gravida infamaretur, ut viri ministerio et societate fruerelur, et diabolo partus Filii Dei occultaretur. Conspiciebat ergo Joseph conjugem suam semel et pluries, et dolebat et turbabatur, et eidem vultum ostendebat turbatum, et oculos avcrtebat ab ea tanquam a mala, suspicans eam ex adulterio concepisse. Vides quomodo Deus permittit suos tribulationibus vexari, et tentari ad ipsorum coronam. Cogitabat autem eam occulte dimittere. Vere de hoc dici potest, quod ejus laus est in Evangelio. Dicitur enim ibi, quod eTdLt ^ vir justus, magnas namque virtutis erat.
Cum enim communiter dicatur, quod quasi summae verecundiee, doloris et furoris sit viro adulterium uxoris, tamen ipse virluose se temperabat, et accusare nolebat, patienter hanc magnam pertransibat injuriam; non se vindicans, sed pietate victus, credere volens, occulte volebat eam dimittere. Sed nec Domina pertransivit absque tribulatione; perpendebat enim et videbat eum turbatum, et de hoc etiam ipsa turbabatur. Humiliter tamen tacebat et occultabat donum Dei. Potius volebat reputari vihs, quam ipsum sacramentura Dei propalare, et de se aliquid loqui, quod ad jactantiam putaretur pertinere. Rogabat autem Dominum, ut ipseremedium apponere dignaretur, et hanc sibi et viro suo tribulationem auferret. Vides quam magna tribulatio et anxietas erat eis; sed Dominus providit utrique. Misit ergo angelum suum, qui dixit Joseph in somnis, quod uxor ejus de Spiritu sancto conceperat, et ut confidenter et gaudenter staret cum ea. Unde, tribulatione cessante, redit consolatio magna.
Sic et nobis contingeret, si in tribulationibus patientiam habere sciremus: nam Deus post tempestatem tranquillum facit. Nec dubitare debes, quia non permittit eas ad suos venire, nisi pro utilitate eorum. Qusesivit Joseph de hac conceptione mirifica, quce ei Domina diligenter narravit. Remanet ergo et stat Joseph gaudens cum sua conjuge benedicta. Et ultra quam dici possit, eam casto dihgit amore, et curam ipsius fideliter gerit, et Domina cum eo conlidentcr raoratur, et in sua paupertate la^tanter vivunt. Stat ergo Dorainus Jesus reclusus in utero usquc Matih. f 1, 19 et seq. ad menses novem, more aliorum.
Stat benigne ac patienter sustinet, et expectat tempus debitum. Compatere sibi, quod ad tantam humilitatis profunditatem devenit. Multum ergo deberemus hanc afiectare virtutem: nec unquam deberemus ad elationem, vel ad nostri reputationem tumescere, quando tantum se inclinavit Dominus majestatis. Et de hoc secundo beneficio hujus tam prohxae pro nobis reclusionis, nunquam ei digne possemus satisfacere. Sed saltem corde hoc cognoscamus, et gratias eidem toto affectu agamus, quod nos ex ahis assumere dignatus est, ut vel hoc modicum rependamus eidem, ut reclusi stemus ad servitium suum. Ipsius quippe beneficium est hoc, non nostrum meritum, et quidem permaxiraum, multumque acceptabile ac venerabile est. Non euim ad poenam, sed ad tutelam reclusi sumus, et in arce religionum tutissima collocati, ad quam hujus nequissimim undi venenosee sagittae, vel tumultuosi maris procellae, nisi nostra temeritate, attingere non poterunt. Conemur ergo toto posse, mente reclusa et abstracta ab omnibus caducis, eidem cordis puritate vacare, quia corporalis reclusio nihil aut parum sine mentali prodest.
Eidem etiam Domino Jesu in hoc compatere, quod est in continua afflictione, et fuit a suae conceptionis primordio usque ad mortem, ex eo, scilicet quod Patrem, quem summe diUgebat, cognoscebat propter idola rehnqui a pec-catoribus, et inhonorari, et ex compassione, quam habebat ad animas ad imaginem suam creatas, quas cernebat miserabiliter, quasi universaUter damnati, et erat sibi major poena, quam fuerit passio corporalis. Nam propter hanc tollendam sustinuit illam. Vides quam pulchra fercula hic tibi propinata sunt: si vis eorum sentire dulcedinem, ea rumina diligenter, et seepe. SEGUNDA FERIA
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.1.19 — And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly.
- ↩Matt.1.20 — But as he was considering these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.'
Notes
- 1 ↩Altende is a scribal variant of attende (pay attention); normalized reading translated.
- 2 ↩habcre = scribal variant of habere; scihcet = scribal variant of scilicet; fruerelur = scribal variant of frueretur. All normalized forms translated.
- 3 ↩avcrtebat is a scribal variant of avertebat (he turned away); normalized form translated.
- 4 ↩eTdLt appears to be garbled or corrupted text in the source, possibly a marginal gloss or abbreviation. The most plausible intended sense is translated; the surrounding clause is clear.
- 5 ↩The form prohxae is corrupt (possibly prolixae, 'long-protracted'); translated from the most plausible intended sense.
- 6 ↩The form ahis is corrupt (possibly aliis, 'others'); translated from the most plausible intended sense.
- 7 ↩The form permaxiraum is corrupt (possibly permaximum); translated from the most plausible intended sense.
- 8 ↩The forms nequissimim, undi, and venenosee are corrupt (possibly nequissimi, undae, venenosae); translated from the most plausible intended sense.
Meditationes Vitae Christi (Pseudo-Bonaventure), Castilian court context companion
A scene a day, for life
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