Something occurred to me while praying the rosary today. Meditating on the joyful mysteries (54-day novena) I thought of Mary's parents, Anne and Joachim. What did they think about their young daughter, suddenly pregnant, engaged to be married, but not married yet. What did they know, believe, or trust in at her story of how this came to be? I wonder how that all went down and then having their young daughter race "in haste" miles away to another town to a cousin who is expecting miraculously to the next 3 months. Did Anne go with her? Did Joachim allow this? But wait! What about Joseph? Where did he figure in all this? The bible doesn't fill in these blanks. All we do know is that Joseph is wondering what do to about Mary and considering divorcing her quietly. He must have loved her very much and a tender heart to begin with to want to care for her still and protect her from public humiliation and possible brutal treatment.
History aside, in modern times, the scenario would be much different, her parents would be disbelieving of the "tale" their young daughter tells them about how she got pregnant and would want to know the name of the young man. Nowadays, there would be no 'shotgun marriage" because we know that they don't work out, so we would demand that the man take responsibility for the medical costs and possible raising of the child....or not.
As for the sudden trip away for 3 months to serve a cousin who is married and pregnant at an older age, well, doesn't' Mary have a job? Shouldn't she be even more serious about her job now that she will have another mouth to feed? Three months is a long time to be away from home and the responsibilities she should be more concerned with. Besides her responsibilities, she also had maternity checkups that she needs to have each month to make sure all is well with the baby. A visit like this is not necessary in modern times as this cousin will have her own doctor appointments and responsibilities to take care of on her own. Facetime, Facebook, and the cellphone would be enough for them to connect and be sisters-in-the-mission together. Person to person, isn't how we do things now, unfortunately.
It seems hard to believe now that some of the things that happened in biblical times actually were ok to do. It seems hard to image that some of the things that the ancients did made sense. But it did, things were different then, life was so much simpler then.
Anyway, I just had some ramblings to share. Blessings!
No comments:
Post a Comment