“Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately.”
“Now the generation of Christ was like this,” St. Matthew says, as if to say, “O wondrous mystery! O mystery unfathomable that I shall unveil to you!” Something entirely new awaits the reader of the Gospel. It was appropriate that Mary should virginally conceive within the security of espousal, for she would not be suspected of adultery and stoned for violation of the Law. O how intricately the Almighty protects His own! The world collaborated in such a way that Mary and her Immaculate Heart would be perfectly sheltered by St. Joseph, with the Lord attending to every detail to make sure it would be to the utmost splendor and perfectly fulfilling the Law. So too does the world fight for your salvation, for the elements of the earth bend to the edification and enriching of love in the faithful, but to those that are far from God, the world is simply a place, or at worst a prison. Let all things cry out the eternal love song made for you, for all things exist that you may know how loved you are. It is interesting to consider the wording here, that Joseph found she was with child of the Holy Ghost. One way of interpreting this is that the fact that she was with child of the Holy Spirit is told to the reader, but it aligns more with the dignity of Mary and St. Joseph’s relationship that it was revealed to him that it was the Holy Spirit that wrought this unexpected pregnancy. Her purity and chastity were so manifest that it would be easier to believe that Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin had conceived right before him before thinking she had committed adultery. Given his pure heart, he surely had an eye for what is and isn’t of the Lord, for “blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). So love believes all things (1 Cor. 13:7): It is a beautiful part of life to always consider the best in one’s neighbor, for the beauty that is the human soul so far surpasses all else in the world that to sit and bask in this loveliness eclipses a day at an art museum or an evening concert or time reading the finest poetry. It is you, so dear to your Maker, that are the true masterpiece of creation, and the love that is in you makes up the brushstrokes of your elegance, and your neighbor should be regarded in this same fashion. It is an attitude of love to look at someone and say, “How wonderful it is that you exist!” It is our duty as Christians to bring this mindset to everyone we meet, for if it was not wonderful that each of us was made, then why did God in His wisdom and love make each and every one of us? I digress. St. Joseph, in the presence of the great sacrament that Mary had become, had a mind to put her away, for a mystery of this sublimity would be daunting to any who set foot before it: “put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). It is the nature of love to consider the best in the other, and in doing this life finds its most beautiful expression. So St. Joseph did, and God drew him deep into the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ.