7. … The Son of Mary is also Joseph’s Son by virtue of the marriage bond that unites them: “By reason of their faithful marriage both of them deserve to be called Christ’s parents, not only his mother, but also his father, who was a parent in the same way that he was the mother’s spouse: in mind, not in the flesh.”(13) In this marriage none of the requisites of marriage were lacking: “In Christ’s parents all the goods of marriage were realized-offspring, fidelity, the sacrament: the offspring being the Lord Jesus himself; fidelity, since there was no adultery: the sacrament, since there was no divorce.”(14)
Analyzing the nature of marriage, both St. Augustine and St. Thomas always identify it with an “indivisible union of souls,” a “union of hearts,” with “consent.”(15) These elements are found in an exemplary manner in the marriage of Mary and Joseph. At the culmination of the history of salvation, when God reveals his love for humanity through the gift of the Word, it is precisely the marriage of Mary and Joseph that brings to realization in full “freedom” the “spousal gift of self” in receiving and expressing such a love.(16) “In this great undertaking which is the renewal of all things in Christ, marriage-it too purified and renewed-becomes a new reality, a sacrament of the New Covenant. We see that at the beginning of the New Testament, as at the beginning of the Old, there is a married couple. But whereas Adam and Eve were the source of evil which was unleashed on the world, Joseph and Mary arc the summit from which holiness spreads all over the earth. The Savior began the work of salvation by this virginal and holy union, wherein is manifested his all-powerful will to purify and sanctify the family – that sanctuary of love and cradle of life.”(17)
How much the family of today can learn from this! “The essence and role of the family are in the final analysis specified by love. Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God’s love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church his bride.”(18) This being the case, it is in the Holy Family, the original “Church in miniature (Ecclesia domestica),”(19) that every Christian family must be reflected. “Through God’s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families.”(20)
Pope John Paul II
Redemptoris Custos
On the Person and Mission of Saint Joseph
In the Life of Christ and of the Church
13. St. Augustine, De nuptiis et concupiscentia, I, 11, 12: PL 44, 421; cf. De consensu evangelistarum, II, 1, 2: PL 34, 1071; Contra Faustum, III, 2: PL 42, 214.
14. St. Augustine, De nuptiis et concupiscentia, I, 11, 13: PL 44, 421; cf. Contra Iulianum, V, 12, 46: PL 44, 810.
15. Cf. St. Augustine, Contra Faustum, XXIII, 8: PL 42, 470f.; De consensu evangelistarum, II, 1, 3: PL 34, 1072; Sermo, 51, 13, 21: PL 38, 344f.; St. Thomas, Summa Theol., III, q. 29, a. 2 in conclus.
16. Cf. Discourses of January 9, 16, February 20, 1980: Insegnamenti, III/I (1980), pp. 88-92; 148-152; 428-431.
17. Paul VI, Discourse to the “Equipes Notre-Dame” Movement (May 4, 1970), n. 7: AAS 62 (1970), p. 431. Similar praise of the Family of Nazareth as a perfect example of domestic life can be found, for example, in Leo XIII, Apostolic Letter Neminem fugit (June 14, 1892); Leonis XIII PM. Acta, XII (1892), p. 149f.; Benedict XV, Motu Proprio Bonum sane (July 25, 1920): AAS 12 (1920), pp. 313- 317.
18. Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (November 22, 1981), 17: AAS 74 (1982), p. 100.
19. Ibid., 49: loc. cit., p. 140; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Genhum, 11; Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem,11.
20. Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (November 22, 1981), 85: loc. cit., pp. 189f.
