Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ...Jesus was born miraculously from the virginal espousals of Joseph and of his true and legitimate spouse. He was born in Joseph's house, not by a legal fiction, but by a divine ordinance. Joseph, therefore, is more than the putative or reputed father of Jesus; and, if the Church calls him so, it is, says the learned Estius, to exclude the idea of natural generation.1 On the night of the Nativity he entered practically on all the essential prerogatives and attributes of paternity imparted to him by God, which, as the Blessed Canisius, a profound theologian who was at the Council of Trent, observes, are chiefly three: affection, care, and authority.2 He had paternal affection; for, as the Abbot Eupert assures us, the Holy Spirit, who formed the members of Jesus of Mary's blood, infused into Joseph's heart the most tender love for the 1 Lib. iv. Sent. dist. xxx. sect. x. 2 Tract, de B. V. Deipara, lib. ii. cap. xiii. Divine Infant who was about to be born.1 Also the Eternal Father, who begets His Son from all eternity, willing, in a certain sense, to share with Joseph His paternity of Jesus born in the fulness of time, caused, as it were, a spark of the infinite love which He bears to His Divine Son to descend into the bosom of Joseph; and this new paternal affection, joined to his already boundless charity, began from this moment to kindle in his heart such a flame of love towards Jesus that, next to that of Mary, its like was never found among men, nor ever shall be, not even among the angels themselves. His solicitude and care for this Divine Son were inexpressible; for no father ever did so much or endured so much for his children as did Joseph for Jesus. And, finally, he had paternal authority. This is why Jesus was always submissive and...