December 19, 2010
Reflection on the Gospel Reading
This is how the birth of
Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was
betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child
through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her
husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son
of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this
child has been conceived in her. She
will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people
from their sins.”
All this took place to
fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear
a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke, he did as
the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
Sunday’s Gospel passage sets the stage for the
Nativity. Its focus is Saint Joseph, and
his vocation as the foster-father of Jesus. Consider Joseph’s vocation in light of the two
names by which his foster-child is described here: Jesus and Emmanuel.
The name “Jesus” means “God saves”, while “Emmanuel” means “God with us”. Taken together they dispel
two contrary beliefs: that God will save
us only from a distance; and that God comes into our midst only to condemn
us. Instead, these two names together
confirm that God is with us in order to save us.
In Joseph’s dream, the angel of the Lord commands two things of Joseph. The first is not to be
afraid to take Mary… into [his] home. The second is to name [Mary’s son] Jesus. Both of these commands imply acceptance. Generally, they imply acceptance of God’s
providential Will. Specifically, they
imply acceptance of Mary and Jesus as his own.
In spite of the apparent shame caused by Mary—because she
accepted God’s Will at the Annunciation—God calls Joseph to protect Mary as her
husband, and to stand with her in accepting with patience the unfolding of
God’s Providence.
In spite of Mary’s apparent betrayal of her
betrothal to Joseph, God calls Joseph to name Mary’s son. This act itself, independent of the name
Joseph would give the child, is significant.
This act had legal significance in the culture of Joseph, and by this
act, Joseph would have been claiming the child as his own. With this claim, Joseph undoubtedly would
have invited shame upon himself, as many would have seen this act as an
admission that he had fathered a child outside of a fully ratified marriage.
Part of the irony of this passage, then, is that
Mary and Joseph, by their submission to God’s providential Will, foreshadow the
life of Jesus. Mary and Joseph are
scorned and cast aside as sinners precisely because of their faithfulness to
what God wants to accomplish in Christ. Jesus
will not only be rejected as a sinner on Calvary: in the words of Saint Paul, He will be made
sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him [2 Corinthians 5:21].
