4the Sunday of Advent

Gospel Reflection

Matthew 1:18-24

St. Paul begins his letter to the Christians in Rome giving his credentials as an apostle who was “specially chosen to preach the Good News that God promised long ago through his prophets in the scriptures. This news is about the Son of God who, according to the human nature he took, was a  descendent of David.” Many years before St. Paul wrote, another man was also specially chosen and received this very same message of good news before it was known to anyone, apart from Mary of Nazareth. This man was Joseph, a carpenter, who had betrothed her. Both were of the lineage of the great king David, from whom prophets like Isaiah (first reading) foretold the Messiah (Christ or “Anointed One”) would descend. Many of the Church Fathers (early bishops and theologians) have testified to the belief that Mary had made a vow of virginity as a young girl or child. Such vows were hardly common among Jewish women of the time, who both naturally and religiously sought marriage as a way marked out by God and the manner in which the People of God, children of Abraham, would insure their own future and the coming of the promised Saviour. A young woman like Mary, whose parents were long deceased, would need, in the mind of her close relations, a suitable spouse. Joseph was thought to be the right man. Certainly, Mary, in all fairness, would not have tried to hide her own very personal and unusual commitment from her future spouse. At some point of time she spoke to Joseph of the inspiration that had led her to her life’s decision. He heroically accepted that his marital love for her must follow the special path of honouring her virginity. When she mysteriously conceived, the event brought Joseph to a new critical point. God intervened to assure him that he was to meant to have an indispensable role in the great salvation event of Christ’s coming. The angel Gabriel told Joseph: “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.” We are only a couple of days away from Christmas. Think about what sort of man Joseph must have been: manly, resourceful, deeply thoughtful and with a super-natural  understanding of life. He has no doubt influenced many men—fathers and husbands, priests and religious– in developing a virtuous masculinity. For single persons, he, like Mary, helps them understand that, with God’s grace, celibacy and virginity are possible and rewarding paths. For married people he develops an awareness of the many ways, apart from intimacy, in which marital love can and ought to be shown. For all of us St. Joseph can be, in the view of Teresa of Avila and other saints, a master teacher of interior life. The great Teresa called him “my father and lord.” St. Josemaria used as a personal watch word the recommendation “Ite ad Ioseph” (go to Joseph). Now as we near the marvellous feast of Jesus’ birth, we can ask him to help us pray near the Christmas Crib, looking at the Christ Child and realizing that He is God with us, Immanuel, and both God and man for us. There also at the Crib we can continue to learn from Mary and Joseph about the dignity God calls us to as his sons and daughters in Christ.