Today, as we continue on this, the latter half of the season of Edmond, the stronger
part, and we begin now the proximate preparation for the coming of our Lord at Bethlehem, which
our opening prayer kind of takes after St. Augustine, O beauty ever ancient, ever new.
So it's a mystery that's ever new to us, always new, that we can reflect on and ponder over
and over.
Well, today our Gospel passage continues directly from what we heard yesterday.
Yesterday was the genealogy of Jesus.
This is what St. Matthew records immediately after he presents his genealogy.
And it gives us actually very much to ponder and reflect on.
We see here at this point, this would be at the point when Our Lady had just returned
from Ein Karim and visiting her cousin Elizabeth after the birth of John the Baptist.
But Joseph had not yet begun living with Mary.
In ancient Hebraic usage, they were actually already married.
You had the ceremony.
At that point, and then the two lived separately, the bride at the home of her parents and the
spouse, the groom, at his own home for a year before they actually came together.
So we're at that point before they actually came together.
And St. Joseph has no knowledge of what has occurred in and of Mary.
Well, the evangelist presents right away and says, born of her.
Or?
The found with child through the Holy Spirit.
But St. Joseph doesn't know that yet.
Nothing has been revealed to him.
And now it comes to the time when he is to take her and she is with child.
And he has no idea how.
He does not blame her at all.
In fact, the evangelist makes that very clear by pointing out he's a righteous man.
But he does not want to expose her to shame if it's found out that she is,
that she is,
with child by St. Joseph, her husband, her legal husband, is not the father.
She is accused of adultery and stoned to death.
Again, that was part of the Mosaic Law.
So it's a question here.
He's now deciding within himself, well, then what should I do?
How should I handle this?
The child is not mine.
She could be stoned for adultery.
But she is not guilty of anything.
He doesn't question her.
Her impurity.
Her innocence.
And then he makes a decision.
Well, then he should set her aside, divorce her quietly.
And that's when the angel appears and reveals the whole thing to him.
And, in fact, he reveals exactly how that child is to come.
That is the child of the Holy Spirit.
And then he quotes, basically, he, well,
actually does quote Isaias as well.
But he tells St. Joseph, the name he's to give.
Because it was up to the father to give the name to the child.
He had already revealed it to Mary.
The angel had already revealed it to Mary.
He told her too, the one who saves, Jesus.
And so now he tells Joseph.
So when the time comes, Joseph will bring that about and actually give him that name.
Poet Joshua dużo.
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And then he goes on.
The evangelist quotes the prophet Isaiah.
Behold, the virgin, and the word used is virgin,
shall be with a child.
Meaning she's a virgin and she remains a virgin.
That's also brought out clearly in the next episode of the Annunciation,
which we'll see later this week.
But the virgin, who remains a virgin, will be with a child.
It says, conceive, remaining a virgin, and bear a son.
Remaining a virgin.
You see, perpetually a virgin.
Which emphasizes the mystery of what is taking place here.
And they shall name him Immanuel.
Whenever you see the word El at the end of a word,
that El refers to God.
So you know automatically it's something referring to God.
Immanuel.
Immanuel.
God is with us.
And then we see Joseph's response.
It's an immediate obedience.
Much as Our Lady did at the Annunciation.
Thankful.
Fiat mihi.
Be it done unto me according to thy word.
And then a peculiar line here.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son.
But that doesn't mean he did afterwards.
Very frequently, actually.
Not unfrequently.
That word.
Until it's used.
But not meaning that afterwards then the whole thing changed.
Right?
And one prominent example we can use that of David.
When they had replaced the Ark of the Covenant in the temple in Jerusalem.
In the temple tent in Jerusalem.
They brought it back to Jerusalem.
And David was celebrating and singing.
He was also a priest.
He was king, prophet, and priest.
As our Lord is.
And he's singing and he's dancing.
And his wife sees him.
And she despises him and he curses her.
When he revives at home.
And she, Scripture tells us, bears no child.
She was remained barren until she died.
Well, obviously she didn't bear children after she died either.
So that until doesn't mean automatically.
Then afterwards, yes she did.
No.
And neither did Joseph.
So we can't take that to mean that afterwards then Joseph died.
Jesus had other brothers and sisters.
No.
Jesus was firstborn and the only born.
And he tells here also the evangelist tells us.
Joseph obeyed and named the child Jesus.
And we could reflect also a little bit on that name.
Again, this is ancient Hebrew usage.
The name either meant something that you were.
Or that you were to be, or something of your substance.
Or some specific thing you would do.
It always had a significant meaning.
So this name that is given to our Lord.
In fact, we could give another example here to that of our lady.
Her name, Mary.
It's actually, it's from the Hebrew which is translated into Latin, Mariam.
Miriam, Mariam.
Which means vastness, vastness of the sea.
In fact, that's the word that will be used in that and then for seek, Mar, Mar, Maris.
The vastness, that height, the exaltation.
She's the highest.
Because she's the mother of God.
So the name Jesus.
From the Hebrew, Yeshua.
Which means literally the one who saves.
As the angel told Joseph, he is the one to save us from our sins.
He is.
The, no, that's a prologue, the, Messiah, Messiah, the Christos, he's the one, he is.
And I emphasize that the because Messiah was a term used again in ancient Hebrew, in ancient Israel.
To refer to one who was anointed.
Anointed for the work he would do.
And there were three who were anointed.
The king, the prophet, the priest.
As I pointed out earlier, David was all three.
The only other one in history.
It's all three.
Is our Lord.
And indeed he was.
But our Lord, of course, is not, is more than just a simple anointed one.
He is the anointed.
Anointed by the Holy Spirit.
He is the anointed.
He is carrying out the most sublime office.
That of our redemption.
And of course more and over and above that is the Lord.
And of course more and over and above that is the Lord.
As we've seen already in this Gospel passage.
He is born of the Holy Spirit.
Of Mary, yes.
He's son of Mary, truly.
And he is son of the Father.
He is God.
He is, well that's why it says,
Emmanuel, God with us.
He is the God-man.
He's the only one
who can say that of himself.
He is God and man.
You see the sublime mystery that's now taking place here.
That awesome mystery.
As we saw in opening prayer,
when St. Augustine would come to say,
ever ancient but ever new.
Because that,
the redemption that our Lord is carrying out here,
this mystery that our Lord is now bringing about,
didn't happen,
yes it happened at one point in time, yes.
But it's still being carried out right now,
even in our own day and age.
It's still valid for us today.
We must reflect on it.
And absorb,
take it within ourselves.
We'll see more about that later on too.
Let it become part of us.
That is, let us become
absorbed in the love
of God.
And in gratitude for
this great mystery.
This great love of God for us.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Amen.