A Reverent Silence

After the Annunciation In spite of what has been said, the critical question still stands: why didn’t Mary reveal to Joseph such important news that affected him directly?

No! It was not a trick. As I intuit the situation, it was a question of a reverent silence in the presence of a stupendous mystery. Here is the definitive answer to that baffling silence. Mary was absorbed in thought and profoundly affected by the mystery of the Incarnation.

By means of an interior connection, unequivocally delivered, He spoke to him. Joseph, put those fears of yours aside. Mary is not one of those ordinary women of the streets. She is the Chosen One of all women, and of all times. The Lord, your God, has had His eyes on her and called her Lovely. Mary has done no wrong. That which is growing in her is from the direct and singular action of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, take her quietly to your house, and guard her solicitously as she is the living sanctuary of your God (Matthew 1: 20-24).

It must have been with the utmost tenderness that Joseph approached Mary from that moment on. If, because of the words of Matthew in his first chapter, we can get a look at the way Joseph had guessed that Mary was different, this ultimate revelation ought to have cemented our impression.

From this moment on Joseph’s respect for Mary had to be complete. A man who is sensitive for all things divine, as he was, must have treated Mary with a spirit saturated with reverence, affection, and admiration. In the heart of a man powerfully “touched” by God, merely human bonds were transcended and sublimated and so, from then on, Mary was much more than an attractive lady but a holy sanctuary of the living God.

Extracted from the book “The silence of Mary” by Father Ignacio Larrañaga