Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR A FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT - 19.12.04 Is 7,10-14; Rom 1,1-7; Mt 1,18-24 Jesus is ‘Emmanuel’ = ‘God is with us’ We
live in Christ, who is with us always. This Sunday, Matthew alerts us to the fact that Jesus is us with us
always: he is our Emmanuel, our ‘God-with-us’, who gives us life & nurtures our minds to receive the Spirit
who prepares us for his coming. Today’s text makes us reflect on the
circumstances of Jesus birth. We are shocked at the news that Joseph, a man of
integrity, finds Mary, his fiancee, with child ‘from the Holy Spirit’. Our
agnostic & unbelieving minds, create jump to conclusions about Mary’s
pregnancy & a possible illegitimacy of Jesus. Indeed, the fact that Jesus
was conceived out of wedlock, has for centuries convinced many Jewish &
Pagan authors, to bring ridicule on Mary, who was suspected of rape from a Roman
soldier, and to bring derision on Jesus as if he was the child of a harlot. To
us believers, this is slander and unheard-of blasphemy. It is sad but true that not only 2000 years ago, but even today in the
Middle East, if an unmarried woman who falls pregnant, she deserved death
penalty for dishonouring her family. Even today in traditional families,
children must be born in wedlock or their mothers face the danger of being
killed, stoned or murdered in some brutal way. For them, the loss of virginity
is a crime which brings shame on the family & must be punished by death. At
the time of Joseph, unmarried mothers and adulterous women were killed by
stoning. So if Mary lived, it was thanks to Joseph who married her before she
gave birth to Jesus, who became legally Joseph’s son. Jesus
is our Emmanuel = our ‘God-is-with-us’. Away from Matthew’s text, people spend a lot of
time speculating on the historical circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy. We see
how dangerous it was for Mary & Joseph to say yes to God & allow God’s
Son to be born ‘through the Holy Spirit’ We ask many questions: why would
Joseph want to spare publicity or shame or ridicule to Mary? did he know about
the virginal conception and feel inadequate to deal with such a mysterious
happening? What kind of relationship did Mary & Joseph have ‘before they
came to live together’?.. But when we turn to Matthew himself we discover
that, not for one moment, does he show concern for consequences of Mary’s
pregnancy, as if both Mary & Joseph would be in danger. Contrary to any
cultural expectations or fears of bringing shame on his or her family, Matthew
presents Joseph as a man of destiny, chosen by God, to be a perfect parallel to
the Joseph of Old Testament, who was sold into Egypt, to save his clan:
both had a father named Jacob - went to Egypt - had dreams about future -
were chaste - were disinclined to bring shame & dishonour. Joseph simply
accepted Mary as spouse. But, what Matthew is really interested in telling us,
apart from the virginal conception of Jesus, is an insight in the Incarnation:
‘The virgin will conceive & bear a son, who is to be called Emmanuel, =
‘God-is-with-us’. When the Angel appears, he tells Joseph to give the child
the name ‘Jesus’ which means saviour, but also to give him a 2nd name,
namely Emmanuel, meaning ‘God is with us’. This 2nd name given at the start
of his Gospel(1,23), matches well with the last words of the Matthew’s Gospel,
when Jesus says : ‘I am with you till the end of time’ (29,20). Central to
Matthew’s Gospel therefore is the doctrine of Jesus’ presence among us, till
the end of time. At the beginning, Jesus is announced as saviour who is
‘God-with-us = Emmanuel’, at the end we are left with the statement, that
Jesus is present with us always; so no one should wait for an immediate return
of Jesus as if ‘the end is at hand’. ______________________________________ |
