AN "IN THE FLESH" IMAGE OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT WORK 'IN THE WORLD'

Along with the common portrayal of Joseph holding an infant Jesus, is the one portraying Jesus and Joseph [the two craftsmen (Proverbs 8:30)] working together in the workshop.

This is perhaps an "In the Flesh" example of the Trinity at work in Heaven and on Earth. The father loves the son. The son loves the father. Through this love, they are able to understand each other's needs and style, and they minister to those needs in accomplishing their work. This (Holy) Spirit of love is by its very nature a creative love that manifests itself in the building of things useful for life in the world.

The "customers" lovingly return (ie, reimburse) this complete self-giving, expressed by the father and the son through their work, so as to nourish the household, and continuously renew this father-son team so that it can continue the work in an even more glorious fashion.

Their relationship, and their labor of love, is a means of continuous becoming, so that their base of "customers" grows, and they even hire additional people who want to help with the work. This is largely because many of the "customers" feel that the only way to adequately "repay" them is to work for them, and become part of the team. Before long, they have an extended community of labor and love which, in this case, is mercifully synonymous.

The hired workers (let us for the moment call them "craftsmen-in-training") eventually become like family (ie, 'Brethren') as they grow in their work, and come to understand the minds of Jesus and Joseph, and thus Jesus and our Heavenly Father (cf John 15:15; Matthew 12:50; John 5:19).

Where is Mary in all this? She is the Spouse and Temple of the Holy Spirit. She is the "Daughter of Zion." The Hebrew word for "daughter" is essentially the same word for "house": bt/byt. She is therefore perhaps not in this scene (the portrayal of Jesus and Joseph working together) for the simple reason that it is only through the eyes of her Immaculate Heart that we can even behold this scene of Jesus and Joseph to begin with, and thus truly understand their working relationship, as well as the Holy Trinity in general. Through consecration to her Immaculate Heart, hopefully the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened (cf Ephesians 1:18) w/r this working relationship.

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