MARY AND JOSEPH AT NAZARETH

This screeching of plane and saw; it is Joseph in his workshop: the crack of raw lumber, the ring of a broken vase; Mary is there. Morning, noon, and evening they pray together, sometimes they sing; they eat from the same plate at the same table, they divided chores between them...

And one day, suddenly...Mary and Joseph look at each other, he guesses the truth, and she sees that he has guessed. She says nothing and he says nothing. "But Joseph her husband, being a just man, was minded to put her away privately." [Matt. 1:19]

Behold the first thrust to that pure heart, the prelude to the Seven Sorrows of the divine office. Behold the humiliation which serves as a stepping stone for her whom we call Queen of Heaven and Queen of Angels. Notice how she ushers God into the world: in secret, as an intruder, under suspicion. And watch this righteous man who must be sacrificed, first victim of Him who said that He had not come to bring peace, but the sword. What can she do? Her lips are sealed; it is not in her power to breathe the Word which is there within her.

He who becomes the friend of God must be prepared for surprises. It is not Judas, it is my love, my beloved wife, bound to me by a tie stronger than marital love, who has betrayed me. In his pain, he hurriedly devises a plan.

There is something strange in the atmosphere; some new element has been introduced which works against the carrying out of that decision he reached so sorrowfully. Joseph has now the feeling that if he sent this woman away, it would be he and not she who would be excluded.
And then occurs the event of which we are told in the Gospel: An angel appears to him in a dream, the angel of the Annunciation, we may be sure. And it is the very scene of the Annunciation, for all the explanation he is given! Good God, he has understood!

A day, two days pass. And on the third day Mary does not rise from the table; she lingers there, looking at her husband. She does not look at his eyes, she looks at his lips. His eyes are closed and tears are rolling down over his grey beard. His lips are moving, they begin silently to form that first salutation which passed from the mouth of the Angel to that of a priest: Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
 
~Paul Claudel in I Believe in God