Because of her unique relationship with Jesus, it’s easy to forget the humanity of Mary, mother of our Lord. We should not forget that she needed to rely on people around her in daily life. Mary’s uniqueness of experience must have also brought with it a kind of loneliness that God alone fully understood. I don’t think Joseph’s role in Mary’s life is discussed enough. Joseph’s love and care for Mary is an example of how God rescues us by giving us each other.
The last stanza of Madeleine L’Engle’s poem “O Sapientia” emphasizes this particularly well:
With Joseph I was always warmed
and cherished. Even in the stable
I knew that I would not be harmed.
And, though above the angels swarmed,
man’s love it was that made me able
to bear God’s love, wild, formidable,
to bear God’s will, through me performed.
In the historical churches of Western Europe, a short chant is sung the week leading up to Christmas, and each chant is based on a name of Christ. These chants are known collectively as the O Antiphons*. O Sapientia (O Wisdom) is the first O Antiphon, and it reads:
O Wisdom,
coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other,
mightily and pleasingly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
In his wisdom, God gave Mary Joseph. In wisdom, God gives us the joy of human love, which points to both his finished work of rescue, and his promise to rescue us continually.
*This article includes recordings of the O Antiphons sung by Lay Vicar William Balkwill in Westminster Abbey.