MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #103

"Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye destruction by the works of your hands. For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things that they might be.." (Wisdom 1:12-14)

And Jesus also was invited, and his disciples, to the marriage. . . . After this, he went down to Capharnaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples: and they remained there not many days. (John 2:2; 2:12)

ST. JOSEPH is not mentioned in this story, nor in any part of our Lord's public life, even in His Passion. He had already died a blessed death in the arms of Jesus and in the presence of the Blessed Virgin. Therefore the Church invokes the faithful foster-father of Jesus as the patron of a happy death. We ask him for his intercession, that we, like him, may leave this world, united to Jesus by sanctifying grace, and especially united to Him in Holy Communion.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)