GOD'S WORD IN DAILY LIFE
18 December/Saturday
Jer 23:5-8/Psa 72:1-13,18-19/Matt 1:18-25
by most Rev Emmanuel Kofi Fianu, SVD
First Reading Jeremiah 23:5-8
I will raise a virtuous Branch for David
See, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks –
when I will raise a virtuous Branch for David,
who will reign as true king and be wise,
practising honesty and integrity in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel dwell in confidence.
And this is the name he will be called:
The-Lord-our-integrity.
So, then, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when people will no longer say, “As the Lord lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt!” but, “As the Lord lives who led back and brought home the descendants of the House of Israel out of the land of the North and from all the countries to which he had dispersed them, to live on their own soil.”
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 71(72):1-2,12-13,18-19
In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor.
Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,
who alone works wonders,
ever blessed his glorious name.
Let his glory fill the earth.
Amen! Amen!
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Ruler of the House of Israel,
who gave the law to Moses on Sinai,
come and save us with outstretched arm.
Alleluia!
Gospel Matthew 1:18-24
How Jesus Christ came to be born
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel,
a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.
Reflection
In the First Reading, the prophet Isaiah continues the prophecy of restoration. He assures the people of days that are coming when Judah would be saved and Israel dwell in confidence. He then says that the name to be given the one who would do all this is “The-Lord-our-integrity”. This person is to come from the line of Judah which was in the genealogy we read yesterday. The Gospel Reading helps us link the unfolding event with the man who makes the lineage possible, that is Joseph.
Matthew who does not have the annunciation story as we find it in Luke 1,26-28, presents the divine choice of Mary from a different perspective. The focus of the story is the birth of Jesus but its narration had to unravel first the mystery and surprise of why Joseph is the foster father of Jesus. Whereas Luke in his narration of the annunciation focused on Mary as the recipient of the message, Matthew concentrates on Joseph. He points to the bond that existed between Mary and Joseph prior to her being found to be with child.
A betrothal in Jewish society was a more serious matter than the contemporary notion of “engagement”. A betrothal was a formal pre-nuptial contract entered into before witnesses, which gave the man legal rights over the girl and which could only be broken by a formal process of divorce. Thus, when Joseph got to know that Mary was with child before they came to live together, he knew what he should do in such a situation. Out of respect for Mary, he contemplated an informal divorce which would have spared Mary publicity. In this, Joseph showed his respect for the dignity of Mary.
The divine intervention in a dream offers us the unravelling of the mystery and surprise of the conception of Mary. God intervened to preserve the dignity of Mary by revealing to Joseph that the child Mary was bearing in her womb was by the Holy Spirit. She was to give birth to a son who is to save his people from their sins. Being a devout Jew, Joseph understood the revelation and did not hesitate to take Mary to his home. In this development of affairs, it could rightly be said that Joseph was “the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah” (Matt 1,16). In this story, we observe how God protects his own from all forms of humiliation. It also shows how he carries out his plan by intervening in human history in extraordinary ways.