Mary and Joseph had but one heart and one spirit
2 min • Digitized on February 23, 2022
From The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, in file "The Life and Glories of St. Joseph", page 130
By Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.
Joseph, then, received in dowry a heart more perfect, more pure, than that of the angels, a heart full of virtues and of supernatural gifts, a heart full of God.
And with what completeness did Mary bestow it! There is no question that of all spouses the glorious Virgin could bestow herself with the most absolute entireness, for never was any so completely mistress of herself and of all her faculties as was the Mother of God.
Of all marriages, not only was that of Joseph and Mary the most holy and most perfect, but the union of heart was more intimate than it ever was in any other marriage.
Our Sovereign Lady in giving her heart united it so closely with that of Joseph that together they had henceforth, as it were, but one heart; and the virtues and heavenly favours with which these beautiful souls were enriched became, in a manner, common to both.
Speaking of Adam and Eve in Paradise, God said that they should be “two in one flesh”; but of Joseph and Mary it might be said that they were two in one spirit. “They were one spirit,” says St. Ambrose. [In Lucam.]
From the moment of their alliance the souls of Joseph and Mary possessed one same heavenly and divine life. The Holy Gospel seems to favour this idea, speaking always of Joseph and Mary with the same honour and as engaged in the same occupations.
An angel reveals both to one and the other the Sacred Name of Jesus; both have the happiness of being the first who adored the Saviour, kneeling at His crib; together they presented their Son at the altar forty days after His birth; together they received Simeon’s blessing.
Jesus served equally His father and His mother; and, to add no more, God, who had deputed one of the highest angels as His ambassador to Mary, employed this same exalted prince of Heaven to declare to Joseph the mystery of the Incarnation. Amongst all that multitude of blessed spirits who encompass the throne of the Most High, Gabriel alone received the commission to treat with Joseph as with Mary.