Catechism Links
CCC 496-507, 495: Mary’s virginal motherhood
CCC 437, 456, 484-486, 721-726: Mary the Mother of Christ by the Holy Spirit
CCC 1846: Jesus as Savior revealed to Joseph
CCC 445, 648, 695: Christ the Son of God in his Resurrection
CCC 143-149, 494, 2087: the “obedience of faith”
CCC Cross Reference:
Is 7:14 497
Ps 24:6 2582
Rom 1:1 876; Rom 1:3-4 648; Rom 1:3 437, 496; Rom 1:4 445, 695; Rom 1:5 143, 494, 2087
Mt 1:16 437; Mt 1:18-25 497; Mt 1:20 333, 437, 486, 497; Mt 1:21 430, 437, 452, 1507, 1846, 2666, 2812
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Note: O Antiphons are used between December 17th and 23rd.
Reading 1
Is 7:10-14
The Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (7c and 10b) Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
The Lord’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Reading II
Rom 1:1-7
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,
called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,
which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,
but established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship,
to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel
Mt 1:18-24
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Isaiah 7:10 – 14
Once again the Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above’. ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’
Then he said:
Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23(24):1-6
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
Second reading Romans 1:1 – 7
From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus who has been called to be an apostle, and 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 descendant of David: it is about Jesus Christ our Lord who, in the order of the spirit, the spirit of holiness that was in him, was proclaimed Son of God in all his power through his resurrection from the dead. Through him we received grace and our apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations in honor of his name. You are one of these nations, and by his call belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, then, who are God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints, may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send grace and peace.
Gospel Matthew 1:18 – 25
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 honor 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 fulfill 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 and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
4th Sunday of Advent
From: Isaiah 7:10-14
The Sign of Immanu-el (Continuation)
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[10] Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, [11] "Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." [12] But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test." [13] And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? [14] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
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Commentary:
7:10-17. Even though the king did not listen, the Lord offers him a sign that he has no reason to fear the threats made by the kings of Israel and Syria: a maiden will conceive and bear a son, who will be called Immanuel; within a few years, before the boy reaches the age of reason, the two kingdoms that Ahaz fears will be laid low, and Judah will enjoy even greater prosperity than it had prior to the Assyrian threat.
The prophet's words, which at the time and taken literally would have been easy enough for the protagonists to understand, can have further significance: and as Revelation develops this becomes clearer. Verse 14 has three elements in it which, taken separately and together, can be read as a sign of peace and salvation -- the mother, the child, and his name, "Immanuel". The mother is a maiden, that is, a young woman who has had no children previously. This could refer to the young wife of Ahaz or to some other young woman. In any event, by setting her pregnancy in the context of a sign given to the king, the point is that something quite important is involved. It is not surprising, therefore, that, to stress this, later interpreters, particularly those who translated the text into Greek in the second century BC, translated the Hebrew word for "young woman" into the Greek word for "virgin". Later, the evangelists St Matthew (Mt 1:23) and St Luke (Lk 1:26-31) indicated that the virginity of Mary was the sign that her son was the Messiah, the true God with us, who brings salvation.
The child, the son, is the most significant part of the sign. If the prophecy refers to the son of Ahaz, the future King Hezekiah, it would be indicating that his birth will be a sign of divine protection, because it will mean that the dynasty will continue. If it refers to another child, not yet known, the prophet's words would mean that the child's birth could manifest hope that "God was going to be with us", and his reaching the age of discretion (v. 16) would indicate the advent of peace; the child's birth would, then, be the sign that "God is with us". In the New Testament, the deeper meaning of these words find fulfillment: Mary is Virgin and Mother, and her Son is not a symbol of God's protection but God himself who dwells among us.
The word "Immanuel" is a prophetic indication of the revelation that the child's birth implies, just as the names of Isaiah's sons also contain revelation -- Shear-jashub, which means "a remnant shall return" (7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, meaning "the spoil speeds, the prey hastens" (8:1-3). In the New Testament, the name conveys the joyful news that Jesus is truly "God with us".
Christian tradition has treated this lsaian oracle with great reverence: "Learn from the prophet himself how all this could come to pass. Does it, perhaps, follow the laws of nature? Absolutely not, replies the prophet: 'Behold, a virgin.... What a miracle! A virgin will become a mother and remain a virgin! [...] It is fitting that he who enters into human life to save all mankind [...] should be born of a woman of perfect integrity who has given herself wholly to Him" (St Gregory of Nyssa, "In Diem Natalem Christi", 1136).
Therefore, expounding the Church's interpretation, the Second Vatican Council has this to say: "The Holy Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament, as well as ancient Tradition, show the role of the Mother of the Savior in the economy of salvation in an ever clearer light and draw attention to it. The books of the Old Testament describe the history of salvation, by which the coming of Christ into the world was slowly prepared. These earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure of the woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light. When it is looked at in this way, she is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin (cf. Gen 3:15). Likewise she is the Virgin who shall conceive and bear a son, whose name will be called Immanuel (Is 7:14; Mic 5:2-3; Mt 1:22-23). She stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from Him. With her the exalted Daughter of Sion, and after a long expectation of the promise, the times are fulfilled and the new economy established, when the Son of God took a human nature from her, that He might in the mysteries of His flesh free man from sin" ("Lumen Gentium", 55).
The fact that the oracle was spoken in a specific historical context does not mean that it does not have a more transcendental, that is, messianic meaning; in the light of salvation history, past events should be read as part of God's plan of salvation and of its climax, the advent of Jesus Christ. Only by adopting this viewpoint can we see that what happened in the Old Testament, taken as a whole and many of the stages in it, are a prophecy of New Testament events, a "preparation for the Gospel". Therefore, a Christian reading of the text, which in a way enjoys "hindsight" and gives a messianic interpretation to the Immanuel Oracle, is perfectly compatible with its literal meaning.
The words of the prophet, which find fulfillment in Christ, have been given many lovely spiritual interpretations: "This Immanuel, born of the Virgin, eats curds and honey, and asks each of us to provide him with the curds that he eats [...]. Our good deeds, our sweet and noble words, are the honey eaten by the Immanuel born of the Virgin [...]. For truly he consumes our good words and intentions and actions, and feeds us, in turn, with a spiritual food that is greater and divine. As soon as we realize that to welcome the Savior is a blessing, and open wide the doors of our hearts, we will prepare for him the 'honey' and all his feast, and he will bring us to the great feast of the Father in the kingdom of heaven, that is in Christ Jesus" (Origen, "Homilae In Isaiam", 2, 2).
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From: Romans 1:1-7
Greeting
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[1] Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God [2] which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, [3] the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh [4] and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, [5] through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, [6] including your- selves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ: [7] To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Commentary:
1-15. These opening verses of the letter are a combination of greeting, introduction of the writer and the prologue to the entire text. The passage deals with themes in no particular order -- in line with the style of some other Pauline letters, especially Romans itself.
Three matters are being covered here -- Paul's introduction of himself, and his plans to visit Rome (vv. 1, 5, 9-15); who the immediate recipients are and their particular situation (vv. 6-8, 11, 15); and, finally, Paul's purpose in writing to the faithful at Rome (outlined in his greeting -- vv. 2-4, 15 and, to a lesser degree, v. 9).
1-2. The word "gospel", which St Paul uses very often, here refers to the purpose of his vocation: he has been designated to preach the Gospel of God. This is obviously not a reference to the written Gospels; he is speaking of something complex and profound, already articulated by Christ in his preaching. Jesus said of himself that he had come to bring Good News (cf. Mt 11:15; Mk 1:14-15; Lk 4:18; etc.), as the prophets had foretold (especially is 61:1, which Jesus quoted). "As an evangelizer, Christ first of all proclaims a kingdom, the Kingdom of God; and this is so important that, by comparison, everything else becomes 'the rest', which is 'given in addition' (cf. Mt 6:33).
"As the kernel and center of this Good News, Christ proclaims salvation, this great gift of God which is liberation from everything that oppresses man but which is above all liberation from sin and the Evil One" (Paul VI, "Evangelii Nuntiandi", 8 and 9).
When he was about to ascend into heaven, Jesus charged his Apostles to proclaim the Good News (Mk 16:15; cf. Mt 28:19-20) which was to be "the source of all saving truth and moral discipline" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 7). For the Apostles this Good News was nothing more or less than Jesus Christ and his work of salvation. That is why the Gospel (which the Church is given to hand on to all generations) is centered on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, as passed on to us by the Apostles. "The promises of the New Alliance in Jesus Christ, the teaching of the Lord and the Apostles, the Word of life, the sources of grace and of God's loving kindness, the path of salvation -- all these things have been entrusted to her. It is the content of the Gospel, and therefore of evangelization" ("Evangelii Nuntiandi", 15). Thus we can say with St Thomas Aquinas (cf. "Summa Theologiae", I-II, q. 108, a.1; "Commentary on Rom." 1, 1) that the core of the Gospel has to do with uniting men and God, a union which takes a perfect form in Christ but an imperfect one in us. The superiority of the Gospel over the Old Law consists in the grace of the Holy Spirit, which Christ confers on us. Therefore, the Gospel, to which the Apostles dedicated themselves, is, at one and the same time, a series of truths revealed by our Lord, the saving power of grace and the Church-in-action.
1. In addressing the Christians at Rome the Apostle uses, of his two names --Saul and Paul -- the one he has used since his first missionary journey (cf. Acts 13:9), a Roman name indicating his Roman citizenship (cf. Acts 16:37; 22:25-28). It was in fact quite common for Jews to use two names -- a national name, Hebrew or Aramaic, and another name, Greek or Latin, for dealings with people from other countries in the Empire. We find a number of examples of this in the New Testament -- John-Mark, Symeon-Niger (Acts 13:1), Tabitha-Dorcas (Acts 9:36), et cetera.
Paul, who had been born a Roman citizen, was deeply conscious of his Jewish roots. He was of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5) and bore the name of one of the most famous members of that tribe -- King Saul, son of Kish (Acts 13: 21). He was well able to show his pride in his Jewish descent (cf. 2 Cor 11:22; Gal 1:13-14) yet was ready to become all things to all men in order to save even some (cf. 1 Cor 9:22).
St Paul wants to speak about Christ and his saving Gospel, but he cannot avoid making reference to himself and the mission entrusted to him; this he does by using three words which are full of meaning: he is a "servant" of Jesus Christ, called by God to be his "apostle" (envoy), "set apart" or designated by God to preach the Gospel. These three words tell the whole story of his vocation, and each of them encapsulates something of the mystery which Paul will expound in his epistle -- the mercy of God, who saves men, justifies them, sanctifies them and sends them out.
"Servant": this title, also used by St James (Jas 1:1), St Peter (2 Pet 1:1) and St Jude (Jud 1), comes from the Old Testament. There the great prophets and guides of the chosen people described themselves as "servants" of Yahweh (cf., for example, Samuel: 1 Sam 3:9f; Abraham: Ps 104:6; David: 2 Sam 24:10; Moses, Aaron, Solomon, etc.), and the entire people of Israel is called the "servant" of God (Is 49: 3); but most prominently there is the Messiah, the "Servant" of God to the extent of actually giving his life (Is 41:9; 42:1; 49:6; 53:11). In the world of the Hebrew religion "servant of God" is the equivalent of "worshipper of God", one who offers religious worship: this notion of servant did not carry the overtones of inhuman debasement that it had in Greco-Roman culture. When St Paul says that he is a "servant" (or "slave") of Jesus Christ he is implicitly saying that he renders him religious adoration.
"Apostle": this word designates preachers of the Gospel, particularly the twelve chosen disciples of Jesus (cf. Mt 10:24 and Mk 3:16-19) it was quite logically applied to Matthias when he became one of the Twelve (Acts 1:25). Christ himself designated Paul an apostle when he appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:16-18; Gal 1:15-16), called him to the faith and charged him with his mission to preach. By describing himself as "called to be an apostle", St Paul is saying that he is on an equal footing with the Twelve -- for example, Peter, James and John, whom he calls "pillars" of the Church (Gal 2:9) -- since he received his calling from Christ himself, as had been the case with the other Apostles (cf. Acts 9:3-18), and not from the leaders of the community of Antioch (Acts 13:2-3).
"Set apart": this refers to the mission entrusted to St Paul of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. Possibly it also refers to Paul's place in God's eternal plan; in this sense he can say that he was "set apart" ever since he was in his mother's womb (Gal 1:15; cf. Jer 1:5; Is 49:1).
St John Chrysostom comments on this verse as follows: "If Paul constantly recalls his vocation it is in order to show his gratitude. This gift, which he did not solicit, took him by surprise; he simply obeyed and followed the divine inspiration. As regards the faithful, they too, as he himself says, have been called to holiness" ("Hom. on Rom", 1).
3-4. Scholars are now confident that in Rom 1:3-4 St Paul is quoting from a Christological formula or hymn (like that in I Tim 3:16 or Phil 2:6-11) -- probably used in the very earliest Christian liturgy. In these two verses St Paul offers, as it were, a summary of Christology: Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is the Son sent by his Father God (v. 3). From all eternity he is God, equal to the Father, and in the fullness of time he has taken up a human nature which was initially capable of experiencing pain (v. 3) and was later glorified (v. 4).
The Incarnation did not involve any change, as far as the Word was concerned, either in his divine nature (which he did not shed and which did not alter) or in his being a Person distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. However, by the Incarnation he assumed a human nature, being born of a Virgin (cf. Lk 1:27, 35): and so the Son of God became the Son of David, of the lineage of David. The phrase "according to the flesh" actually emphasizes the lowliness which the Incarnation implied -- fragility, suffering, self-emptying, humiliation (cf. Jn 1:14 and note; Phil 2:7).
During Christ's life on earth prior to his Resurrection, although it was united to the Word, his human nature, especially his body, was not fully glorified. Moreover, although it is true that during that period of his life he showed his divinity by his miracles (cf. In 2:11) and by words confirmed by those miracles (cf. Jn 10:37 ff), it is also true that his human nature was to the forefront most of the time. After the Resurrection, his human body and soul were fully glorified and therefore from then on his divine nature was the more apparent. This real change which took place in Christ's human nature when he rose from the dead, and the fact that his divinity became more manifest and he was more easily recognized to be God, are captured in what St Paul says here in v. 4.
The words "according to the Spirit of holiness" can refer both to Christ's divine nature (in the same way as "according to the flesh" refers to his human nature) and to the action of the Holy Spirit, whose effects were more easily seen after the Resurrection, especially from Pentecost onwards (cf. Jn 7:39 and note on same).
5. Here St Paul refers to the mission given him by God the Father through Jesus Christ at the time of his conversion (cf. Acts 9:15) and which he mentions explicitly in his letter to the Galatians (cf. Gal 2:7). Within the world-wide mission implied in being an apostle called by Christ himself, St Paul was given a special mission of his own -- to be the Apostle of the Gentiles; he mentions this mission at the beginning of this letter to show why he should be addressing the Christians at Rome, a church which he had not founded.
The purpose and effect of the apostolic ministry is to bring about the "obedience of faith": when a person believes, he submits his mind and will to God's authority, freely accepting the truths which God proposes. Apropos of this obedience proper to faith the Second Vatican Council says: "'The obedience of faith' (Rom 16:26; cf. Rom 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) must be given to God as he reveals himself. By faith man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals' (Vatican I, "Dei Filius", chap. 3) and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by him. Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior help of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth' (Second Council of Orange III, "De Gratia", can. 7; "Dei Filius, ibid.")" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 5).
7. "Called to be saints": literally "called saints". This is not just a way of speaking: St Paul really is saying that Christians are "called" in the same kind of way as the Israelites were so open called through Moses (Num 10:14). In the Christians' case, the calling is to form the new people of God, one of whose characteristic features is holiness. Basing itself on this and other Pauline texts, the Second Vatican Council has this to say: "As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert was already called the Church of God (cf. 2 Ezra 13:1; cf. Num 20:4; Deut 23:1 ff), so too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in search of a future and permanent city (cf. Heb 13:14), is called also the Church of Christ (cf. Mt. 16:18) [...]. The followers of Christ, called by God not in virtue of their works but by his design and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have been made sons of God in the baptism of faith and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified" ("Lumen Gentium", 9 and 40).
This is in fact the basis of the "universal call to holiness". All Christians, by virtue of their Baptism, should live in line with what that means: they are called to be saints and their whole life should be a pursuit of holiness: "In baptism, our Father God has taken possession of our lives, has made us share in the life of Christ, and has given us the Holy Spirit" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By, 128). "We are deeply moved, and our hearts profoundly shaken, when we listen attentively to that cry of St Paul: 'This is the will of God, your sanctification' (1 Thess 4:3). Today, once again, I set myself this goal and I also remind you and all mankind: this is God's Will for us, that we be saints" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 294).
The formula "grace and peace" seems to be St Paul's own: it is a combination of the usual Greek greeting at the start of letters and the Hebrew shalom (peace). The Apostle uses this double greeting very often (cf., for example, 1 Cor 1:3 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; etc). It is a Christian greeting, referring to the gifts the Holy Spirit brings us. Jewish and pagan greetings wished people material prosperity or good fortune; the Apostle's are wishes for something higher -- divine benevolence, which comes in the form of the gift of sanctifying grace and the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and interior peace, which derives from reconciliation with God brought about by Christ. These gifts, according to the Apostle, come to us from God our Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Lord, who is equal to the Father. Thus we see Christian life as being inserted in the intimate life of the Blessed Trinity, for "grace and peace" came from the goodness and mercy of God, by way of the Incarnation of the Word and the Redemption wrought by him.
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From: Matthew 1:18-24(25)
The Virginal Conception of Jesus, and His Birth
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[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; [19] and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. [20] But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; [21] she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." [22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: [23] "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and His name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means God with us). [24] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, ([25] but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.)
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Commentary:
18. St. Matthew relates here how Christ was conceived (cf. Luke 1:25-38): "We truly honor and venerate (Mary) as Mother of God, because she gave birth to a person who is at the same time both God and man" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 7).
According to the provisions of the Law of Moses, engagement took place about one year before marriage and enjoyed almost the same legal validity. The marriage proper consisted, among other ceremonies, in the bride being brought solemnly and joyously to her husband's house (cf. Deuteronomy 20:7).
From the moment of engagement onwards, a certificate of divorce was needed in the event of a break in the relationship between the couple.
The entire account of Jesus' birth teaches, through the different fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 (which is expressly quoted in verses 22-23) that: 1) Jesus has David as His ancestor since Joseph is His legal father; 2) Mary is the Virgin who gives birth according to the prophecy; 3) the Child's conception without the intervention of man was miraculous.
19. "St. Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life. That is why Scripture praises Joseph as 'a just man'. In Hebrew a just man means a good and faithful servant of God, someone who fulfills the divine will (cf. Genesis 7:1; 18:23-32; Ezekiel 18:5ff.; Proverbs 12:10), or who is honorable and charitable toward his neighbor (cf. Tobias 7:6; 9:6). So a just man is someone who loves God and proves his love by keeping God's commandments and directing his whole life towards the service of his brothers, his fellow men" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 40).
Joseph considered his spouse to be holy despite the signs that she was going to have a child. He was therefore faced with a situation he could not explain. Precisely because he was trying to do God's will, he felt obliged to put her away; but to shield her from public shame he decided to send her away quietly.
Mary's silence is admirable. Her perfect surrender to God even leads her to the extreme of not defending her honor or innocence. She prefers to suffer suspicion and shame rather than reveal the work of grace in her. Faced with a fact which was inexplicable in human terms she abandons herself confidently to the love and providence of God. God certainly submitted the holy souls of Joseph and Mary to a severe trial. We ought not to be surprised if we also undergo difficult trials in the course of our lives. We ought to trust in God during them, and remain faithful to Him, following the example they gave us.
20. God gives His light to those who act in an upright way and who trust in His power and wisdom when faced with situations which exceed human understanding. By calling him the son of David, the angel reminds Joseph that he is the providential link which joins Jesus with the family of David, according to Nathan's messianic prophecy (cf. 2 Samuel 7:12). As St. John Chrysostom says: "At the very start he straightaway reminds him of David, of whom the Christ was to spring, and he does not wish him to be worried from the moment he reminds him, through naming his most illustrious ancestor, of the promise made to all his lineage" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 4).
"The same Jesus Christ, our only Lord, the Son of God, when He assumed human flesh for us in the womb of the Virgin, was not conceived like other men, from the seed of man, but in a manner transcending the order of nature, that is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the same person, remaining God as He was from eternity, became man, which He was not before" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 1).
21. According to the Hebrew root, the name Jesus means "savior". After our Lady, St. Joseph is the first person to be told by God that salvation has begun.
"Jesus is the proper name of the God-man and signifies 'Savior' -- a name given Him not accidentally, or by the judgment or will of man, but by the counsel and command of God" [...]. All other names which prophecy gave to the Son of God -- Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (cf. Isaiah 9:6) -- are comprised in this one name Jesus; for while they partially signified the salvation which He was to bestow on us, this name included the force and meaning of all human salvation" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 3, 5 and 6).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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