We have reached what we might call the climax of the season of Advent.
Here we are presented throughout our liturgy, in every part of it, through perhaps the most
intense look outside of the actual recording of the episode in the Annunciation of the
Lord, recorded in St. Luke, of the awesome mystery of the Incarnation.
The Gospel and the First Readings are almost the same thing exactly.
Actually, the Gospel quotes right from the First Reading to show this came about in fulfillment
of that prophet Isaiah, of that phrase that is quoted in Matthew.
So Matthew himself already.
interprets that phrase in Isaiah's, in the New Testament, and we see here the New Testament
fulfilling the old, the old gives us a warp, it's a premonition, a foreshadowing, the New
Testament fulfills it, and here it's given to us, that's given to us explicitly, but
what we see, let us reflect a little bit on this awesome mystery that we are seeing presented
here.
And that is, and here I should say, by way of introduction here, I should say, St. Paul
in this First Reading, in the Second Reading, rather, to the Romans, the letter to the Romans,
already confirms, basically affirms what we are saying, that this is fulfillment of
scriptures.
Right?
This is what is set apart for the Gospel.
This is what is recorded in the Gospels.
This is what is set apart for our reflection.
And he's going to say something else here.
That will be actually, it's a phrase that is actually taken, that's Lumen Gentium, not
Lumen Gentium, sorry, Verbum Dei, in Vatican II, will merely quote, and I will come back
to that towards the end, but it is a phrase that tells us exactly what our response should
be, but let's take a look primarily at the Gospel first.
By the way, what we are reflecting here is also presented.
In the opening prayer, if you followed that, that's the same prayer we use at the conclusion
of the Angelus.
And the Angelus is the prayer, per ac par excellence, you might say, that represents
and what we reflect on each day, three times a day, the very incarnation of our Lord.
The incarnation, and together with that, and St. Paul presents that in the Romans as well,
we just heard.
Incarnation and our redemption.
St. Paul does also speak of the passion and death of our Lord, and his resurrection, which
that opening prayer summarizes the whole thing.
Now, let's take a look here at the Gospel, which is also a very important reflection.
Here we are presented with the anxiety of St. Joseph when he finds out that Our Lady
is now a child.
And in fact, the Evangelist starts out by telling us, this is how the birth of Jesus
Christ, and the Evangelist is noting, noticing, noting already that Jesus Christ is the Messiah,
the One, the One, the promised Redeemer.
But this is how the birth came about, when his mother, Mary, now here, betrothed to Joseph.
St. Luke uses the same phrase, betrothed to Joseph.
Betrothal is what we might translate to engagement, but it's actually stronger than that in ancient
times.
Because betrothal meant it, and already, the actual marriage ceremony had already taken
place.
They were already legally married.
But they had not yet come together, they were not living together in those days the bride
would return to her paternal home.
And live with her parents for one more year.
At the end of the year, the husband would come and take the bride, and take her to his
home.
And they began living then together, we call it cohabitation, they began to live together.
Here we see already, as you recall, we've already seen the episode several times already
within the last couple of weeks, the episode of the Annunciation, including I believe just
two days ago.
Once again.
We've already seen the episode several times already within the last couple of weeks, the episode of the Annunciation, including, I believe, just two days ago.
Once again.
We've already seen the episode several times already within the last couple of weeks, the episode of the Annunciation, including I believe just two days ago.
Once again.
We've already seen the episode several times already within the last couple of weeks, the episode of the Annunciation, including I believe just two days ago.
On what do St. luc say after the Annunciation?
The angel Gabriel departs from her.
Our Lady went in haste to the hill tundry of Judea, and a place called Ein Karin,
where she visited her cousin Elizabeth, whom the angel had just revealed to her,
was also carrying a child.
Elizabeth was old and barren, was allowed to never carry a child, was now carrying a child who was in her sixth month.
Our move, and what does St. Luke say?
The Edgar & Deuteronomyра tells us here, that when you've discovered the Hubble relict, you
a child was in her sixth month, because that child was St. John the Baptist. And Mary went
in haste to her. So she told no one what had just occurred within her own womb with herself.
And she had now become the mother of God. And she was now with child, with the Son of
God. She didn't tell anyone, much less St. Joseph, whom she probably didn't even have
a chance to see. She went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth. So St. Joseph knows nothing
of this. And St. Luke will tell us also, she remained there three months. She waited
to the birth of John the Baptist, and then returned. It's when she returns, and it's
now the time the Gaior is completed, when now St. Joseph should come and take her into
his own home. And what does he find? She's his child.
And he knows that child is not his. Now, here again, note what the evangelist says.
He's an upright and just man. He's a very good, holy man. He does not question her purity,
her integrity, her innocence. He's not questioning that in the least. But at the same time, if
he doesn't say it, he doesn't say it.
Actually, he's obliged to find her with child, and the child's not his own. And he has no
idea where that child comes from. Who is the father? He doesn't know. He would be obliged
to report her to the authorities, and she would be stoned as an adulteress. He doesn't
want to do that. That's why the anxiety. Now what should he do? How should he handle this
situation? He does not want to report her to the authorities. He doesn't think she's
guilty of anything. But at the same time, if he goes on, eventually it will come out that he's not the father of this child.
And she will end up with being stoned to death as an adulteress. And he gets in trouble as
well because he didn't report it. So what to do?
And here it is, at this point, Our Lady does not reveal it. She leaves it to God to do that.
Here the angel Gabriel, it's probably the angel Gabriel, comes to him in a dream. And
reveals the whole thing.
Right. And …
Right.
child is of the Holy Spirit, the virginal conception. He reveals it to St. Joseph. And
St. Joseph must have understood, but in any case, whether he did or not, is actually not
so much a consequence. But I'm sure he understood it. But the angel also tells him, she's going
to bear son, you are to name him Jesus. Because legally, he being married to Mary, he adopts
Jesus, as it were. He becomes a putative father, an adopted father. And legally then, it's the
father who gives the name to the child. That's why you see in the visitation, when St. John
the Baptist is born, they all ask Zachary, what is his name? Elizabeth is telling them,
his name is to be John. And they're all shocked. What, John? There's nobody in your house.
Nobody, no relative to that name. Where does that name come from? And they ask for signs
from Zachary, you recall. He can't speak. Yes.
He doesn't yet. He's about to be able to, but he doesn't yet. He has to tell, he writes
on the tablet. He didn't say, his name is to be. He says, his name is John. He makes
it clear. This is it. It's a legality. He's making everything absolutely legal. John is
his name. And it's that point that Zachary begins to speak once again. But I think that
episode is going to come out probably tomorrow.
So we'll leave that for reflection then. But in any case, that's what the angel is
indicating here, to make it legal. He's the legal guardian of our Lord, the Savior of
the world. All of this is explicit here, right? And he's to give him the name Jesus, Yeshua.
You've probably all heard more than once if you watch the page, The Passion of the Christ.
Yeshua. Yeshua Nazaret. Yeshua. Joshua. It's the same name. All the same name. Jesus.
The one who saves. And here again, a particular thing here, particularity. In Hebrew, you
see in the ancient days, the name given always meant either something of who you were or
the essence of what you were to do in your life. It had a significant meaning. And the
other primary example we have of that, of course, is our Blessed Lady.
She was named Mary. It comes from the Hebrew medium, or in the Latin, marum, maria. Maria.
Mar, maris, is the other word. It means vastness, height, exalt, right? The vastness of the
sea. In Latin, mar, maris means sea or ocean. It's also used for ocean, by the way, in Latin.
It's the vastness. And that's what her name signifies. Because she is so high and exalted
above all others after God. She's the mother of God. And that's what that name indicates.
Here again, the name given to our Lord, Yeshua, Jesus, the one who saves. He is the promised
redeemer.
Now we come to the end here. And then here's where St. Matthew quotes Isaiah, that this
was done to fulfill this prophecy.
That the virgin, meaning our Blessed Lady, who remains a virgin, conceives virginally
and bears, gives birth to a son, virginally, remaining a virgin. And they shall name him,
here they use the word, Emmanuel. When you see that word, El, at the end of a word, El
means God. So you automatically know when you see El, this has something, this has something
to do with God directly.
Emmanuel is with us. God is with us. And St. Matthew spells it all out here. And then
he gives the response of St. Joseph. That same phrase that St. Paul uses here, that's
also in Vatican II, the verbo, obedience. Obedience of faith. That means with whole
will, whole being, you obey. You acknowledge. You affirm.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
And that's exactly what St. Joseph did. He did exactly as the angel had commanded him.
He obeyed. And he did it in all faith, because it took faith, great deep faith, to understand
and accept that the child born of our Blessed Lady is the Son of God, is the God who is with
us, the Savior of the world.
of the world, of all of us.
And it requires that same faith,
which is exactly what Dave Erdbaum is calling for,
using the same phrase, obedience of faith.
That's what it's calling for.
That we all, in that faith,
something we cannot actually grasp fully with our senses,
we cannot grasp the God we can't see.
Not with our senses, but with our faith.
With the eyes of our faith, we can.
And that's what we're called to do.
That faith is to say, yes, I believe.
I love you.
I love the Savior. I love him.
I want him. I want to unite myself with him.
He has given himself completely to me.
That is why he came to us as man.
And that is what we see taking place here.
This is what is being brought.
He is brought to us now.
Explained to us as it were.
That he came by the power of the Holy Spirit
in the womb of our Blessed Lady.
Of the Blessed, our Blessed Lady.
We profess this in the creed we're about to do in a few moments.
Of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Meaning, he takes her substance,
his substance, his human substance, from her.
She is truly his mother.
All spelled out here.
This is the awesome mystery of the incarnation.
The incarnation.
Which is what brought about as well, this is what led to our redemption, it goes together.
But in order for us to, we must, it's faith, and we say we absolutely know all the details
of this, how could we?
But we believe it because it's revealed to us and here it is, right here, spelled out
in the Gospel.
Confirmed in the Old and the New Testament in different places.
Here we see it in two.
All spelled out for us.
We believe, we acknowledge, we affirm with our whole being, with our whole will, God
is with us.
Praise be Jesus in the air.