Details, Details

On this Feast of St. Joseph, we probably should consider some of the details that are often overlooked in our celebrations of parades and St. Joseph Altars. 

In the tiny village of Nazareth, where everyone would have known everyone else's business, Mary would have returned from visiting her cousin Elizabeth three months pregnant.  Joseph had not yet taken her into his house, and according to Deuteronomy 22, Mary could have been stoned for infidelity after betrothal.  Her family could have rejected her, and there would have been no honorable way for a woman to support herself in that day.  Joseph would not publicly repudiate her and put her to shame, so he had decided to quietly divorce her -- until an angel revealed to him in a dream that the child was the Son of God. 

Now, Joseph has to decide whether to share in Mary's disgrace:  if he takes her into his house, and the baby is born 6 months later, he is "admitting" to the Village that the baby is his.  Even though betrothal gives the right of union before marriage, it is not customary until the man can provide for the woman.  And everyone knows that Mary has been visiting her cousin for the previous three months, so there will always be a question of who the father really is.  Later, during Jesus' public ministry, the Pharisees say to him, "We are not born of fornication; our father is Abraham" (Jn. 8:41).  Their word would have been a not-so-subtle reference to his birth and Mary's pregnancy.

In Anne Rice's book on the childhood of Jesus, she imagines the leaders of the Nazareth synagogue hesitant to allow the child into the synagogue, for suspicion that he is a bastard.  Mary, of course, did not have to attend the Sabbeth service, but could remain at home.  Joseph would have taken the child with him to Sabbeth worship, and as Joseph was a just man, I'm sure the leaders would not have easily opposed him.

No wonder in God's great Providence, Mary and Joseph would have welcomed Jesus in Bethlehem rather than in Nazareth, where the villagers might have shunned all of them for a time.  And after the birth, Mary and Joseph go down into Egypt, their journey and establishment there provided for by the Gifts of the Magi.  So, once again, by the time the three arrive back in Nazareth, no one really knows exactly when the child was born.  The families and villagers can without question or shame welcome Mary, Joseph, and Jesus into their midst, despite any questions that might have remained. 

Joseph was willing to take Mary under his care, no matter what the future might bring -- He could not know that God had provided ahead of time for all the minute details, including saving all of them from embarrassment and shame.  I'm sure that he and Mary both sang the Magnificat for the rest of their lives when they realized the great Providence of the Most High God who stooped to care for His people, even to the smallest detail of life!