Friday in the Third Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2020

Matthew 1:18-25

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 be with child 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. He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.

Piecing together the account of the Annunciation in the Gospel of St. Luke with this reading from that of St. Matthew, it seems likely that after the departure of the angel, the Blessed Virgin told St. Joseph, to whom she was espoused, about Gabriel’s visit and her conception of the Son of God by the Holy Spirit.  As a “wise and prudent virgin”, she understood well that he needed to know what was happening.  After telling him, she travelled “in haste” to the hill country to see her relative Elizabeth and (perhaps especially) her husband, the priest Zechariah.  Gabriel had pointed Mary towards Elizabeth and her miraculous conception as though she could learn from her and Zachariah how to prepare for the Birth of the Son of God.  Luke tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth and her husband for “about three months”.  It is during this time that the events described in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass take place.  Joseph is alone with an incredible, imponderable secret and he agonizes over his new role in the life of Mary and her Child.  

Matthew tells us simply, “She [Mary] was found with child through the Holy Spirit.”  She was “found” with child.  Who “found” her with child?  St. Jerome, answering for all the Fathers, says that her pregnancy was “found by none other than by Joseph, who knew all, as being her espoused husband.”  How could he have found that she was with child “through the Holy Spirit?  The Venerable Bede tells us, “Mary told him.”  The next verse is badly translated here: “Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.”  According to the Greek, and checked with the understanding of the earliest Fathers who commented on this passage, it should read: “Joseph her husband was a righteous man and, not desiring to reveal her [mystery], intended to release her privately.”  If Joseph had suspected Mary of committing adultery, as a “righteous” man he would have told the authorities.  Jerome comments: “In the law it was commanded that not only the perpetrators but also those conscious of the crime to be guilty of sin (cf. Leviticus 5, 1).  How then could Joseph hide the sin of his wife if it is written that he was ‘just’?”  Jerome adds, “But this gives evidence of Mary, that Joseph knew her chastity and, marveling at what had taken place, he kept silent of the mystery he did not understand.”  The angel in Joseph’s dream both confirms what he knows and also tells him what this means for him: “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.”  Joseph had meant to release her from their espousal and to step away from the Mystery, lest he interfere unwittingly in it.

Next, the angel tells Joseph that this Child will indeed be his legal Son: “She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  According to Jewish custom, a man publicly accepted the child borne by his wife as his own by naming it.  Here, the angel tells Joseph that he will be the Child’s legal father even while the Child was divine — his name in fact given by God, his Father from all eternity.  “You are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  This sentence does not make much sense in English, but makes good sense in Hebrew, a sign that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew: “You are to name him Yeshua [Salvation] because yisha [he will save] his people from their sins.”  Joseph, then, is to be an important part of the life of Mary and Jesus, and yet much will remain a mystery to him on which he can only gaze and marvel.  For this reason, if for no other, he will live chastely with Mary and act as a priest maintaining the sanctity of his temple.

As we draw nearer to the great feast of our Lord’s Nativity, let us gaze in prayer at the wonder of this man, this woman, and this God.