December 18th, 2007: Scripture Reflection

Dear Readers, I just returned early this morning from Rome. I left
December 5 . I was not able to keep up with the daily meditations except
in writing in my journal but did not have access to a computer on a regular
basis. Moreover, there were many important meetings I had to attend for the
Marian Library's International Marian Research Institute which is now
finishing its 33 year! I was the only one present who had been with the
Institute from its inception and thereby could offer a historical and
personal perspective for the meetings with the Servite President of the
Marinum in Rome and with the Congregation of Catholic Education. We are
looking forward to working out a plan for the continuation of the Institute
in accordance with the Statutes of the Marianum and ours and also in
working with the requirements of the Congregation of Catholic Education.
Continue to pray for its success especially during this important coming
year 2008:

December 18th Readings: Jeremiah 23:5-8. Psalm 72:1,12-13.18-19. Matthew
1:18-24:

Joseph is the person who models for us a beautiful Advent response to the
will of God during this sacred season of preparation and waiting for the
coming of the Lord. Only Matthew gives us some insight into the person of
Joseph and the passage we have for today is the most informative. It is a
type of midrashic reflection on the prophetic thought of Isaiah found in
chapter 7. The Hebrew Prophets often point to the mystery of the coming
of the Messiah. It is a perfect meditation on the problem Joseph faces as
a righteous person who is struggling with the pregnancy of his wife to be,
Mary of Nazareth. Like his namesake Joseph the Patriarch he is blessed
with dreams and the one he has on this occasion is the most important of
his life. This is the way in which Matthew our Evangelist describes his
situation. He as an upright man was under great stress and through is own
tender loving of Mary would be blessed with a breakthrough experience given
in a dream which has the Angel of the Lord addressing him, "Joseph, son of
David, have no fear about taking Mary as your wife." Joseph being of the
Messianic line of David could be the one who ushers in the Messiah. His
wife Mary could also be of that lineage though she probably was of the
priestly line of the Levites and of Aaron. Both possibilities are given
by the Tradition and by the scholars; of course, according to their own
research and opinions! The tenderness of Joseph is what strikes me in his
wrestling with Mary's pregnancy. He is told it is by the Holy Spirit (he
probably understood this as the power of God to do all things even those
which seem impossible. Matthew continues to help us the readers by leading
us to his interpretation of a Messianic text which our Tradition also reads
as implying the virginity of Mary: "The virgin shall be with child and
give birth to a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, a name wich means
"God is with us." It is Matthew who is telling us this and we are not
within the dream of Joseph and the Angel who is unnamed. The text is a
difficult one for the exegetes or biblical experts but for us the faithful
it is one of the most beautiful texts in the New Testatmen about the
tenderness of human love working its way through difficulties. Christmas
is the time of such tender love manifested in the child born of Mary. The
world has never been the same since this event which lives on and helps us
through the difficult times of today. What better way to show us the
tender love of a God who brings together this Holy Family. We learn from
this passage that Joseph had a home by the opening lines "before they live
together." Then when we read the story of the Magi or the Wise Men coming
from the East we have what is the best insight of taking Mary into our own
homes both in heart and mind. One scholar puts it this way, " ...the
child with Mary his mother: the Magi offer a model of sound mariology as
worshippers of Christ in a marian context." Let us not forget that this
happened in the home of Joseph. The same exegete, Father Benedict Viviano,
O.P. also explains the idiomatic use of "Until" in verse 25 the ending
verse of our passage. "The idiom ("until") neither affirms nor denies the
perpetual virginity of Mary. In naming the child, Joseph acts as a legal
father. But it is paradoxical that he names him Jesus rather than Emmanuel.
The context suggests that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Emmanuel
prophecy." (New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 635). This is the
beautiful Creche scene offered by Matthew about Joseph who often is
depicted as perplexed, distant, or dumbfounded. Matthew gives us the
biblical foundations for righteous Joseph who combines the virtues of the
Patriarch Joseph with those of his own God-gifted tender love for the woman
of his dream. Amen.