In the Christmas Octave, Joseph of David has attracted special prayer at our Manger.Vespers Antiphons highlight the Joseph of David, (Jacob was the father of Joseph).
And meanwhile the Pope highlights a focus on Joseph, "THE CONCEPTION AND BIRTH OF JESUS ACCORDING TO MATTHEW.
"In contrast to Luke,
Matthew relates it exclusively from the perspective of Saint Joseph, who as a descendant of David
represents the link between the figure of Jesus and the Davidic promise. "
Jesusof
Nazareth
The
Infancy Narratives
Joseph
Ratzinger
Pope
Benedict XVI
Translated by Philip J. Whitmore Chapter
III p.38
The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem
....
THE
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH OF JESUS ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
After considering Luke's
annunciation narrative, we must now turn our attention to the tradition handed
down in Matthew's Gospel regarding the same event. In contrast to Luke, Matthew
relates it exclusively from the perspective of Saint Joseph, who as a descendant of David represents the link between
the figure of Jesus and the Davidic promise.
Matthew
begins by telling us that Mary was betrothed to Joseph. According to the prevailing Jewish law, betrothal already
established a juridical bond between the two parties, so that Mary could be
called Joseph's wife, even though he
had not yet taken her into his home-the step which established the married
state. While betrothed, "the woman still lived in her parents' home and
remained under the patria potestas. After a year, her husband would take
her into his home, thereby sealing the marriage" (Gnilka, Das
Matthiiusevangelium) p .. I7). Now
Joseph had to come to terms with the
fact that Mary "was with child of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 1:18)'
With regard to the child's origin, Matthew is anticipating
something here that J oseph does not yet know. J oseph has to assume that Mary
has broken their engagement, and according to the law he must dismiss her. He
has a choice between a public juridical act and a private form. He can bring
Mary before the court or he can issue her with a private writ of divorce. Joseph decides on the latter option, in
order not "to put her to shame" (1:19). Matthew
sees in this choice an indication that [oseph was "a just man."
The
designation of Jose ph as a just man (zaddik) extends
far beyond the decision he takes at this moment: it gives an overall picture of
Saint Joseph and at the same time it
aligns him with the great figures of the Old Covenant-beginning with Abraham,
the just. If we may say that the form of piety found in the New Testament can
be summed up in the expression Ha believer," then the Old Testament idea
of a whole life lived according to sacred Scripture is summed up in the idea of
Ha just man."
Psalm
1 presents the classic image of the "just" man. We might well think
of it as a portrait of the spiritual figure of Saint Joseph. A just man, it tells us, is one who maintains living
contact with the word of God, who H delights in the law of the Lord" (v.
2). He is like a tree, planted beside the flowing waters, constantly
bringing forth fruit. The flowing waters, from which he draws nourishment,
naturally refer to the living word of God, into which he sinks the roots of his
being. God's will is not a law imposed on him from without, it is "joy."
For him the law is simply Gospel, good news, because he
reads it with a personal, loving openness to God and in this way learns to
understand and live it from deep within.
If Psalm 1 sees it as the mark
of the just man, the "happy man," that he lives by the Torah, the
word of God, the parallel passage in Jer 17:7
calls
"blessed" the one "who puts his trust in the Lord, whose hope is
the Lord." This text brings out more strongly than the psalm the personal
character of righteousness-the trust in God that gives man hope. Although
neither passage speaks explicitly of the "just" but rather of the
"happy" or the "blessed," we may still regard them, with
Hans-Joachim Kraus, as providing the authentic Old Testament image of the just
man, and so we can learn from them what Matthew means when he describes Saint Joseph as "just." .
This image of the
man with roots in the living waters of God's word, whose life is spent in
dialogue with God and who therefore brings forth constant fruit-this image
becomes concrete in the event recounted here, as well as in everything we are
subsequently told about Joseph of Nazareth. After the discovery that Joseph made, his task was to interpret' and apply the law
correctly. He does so with love: he does not want to give Mary up to public
shame. He wishes her well, even in the hour of his great disappointment. He
does not embody the form of externalized legalism that Jesus denounces in Mt
23
and that Paul opposes so
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strenuously. He lives the law as Gospel. He seeks the path that
brings law and love into a unity. And so he is inwardly prepared for the new,
unexpected and humanly speaking incredible news that comes to him from God.
Whereas the angel "came" to Mary (Lk
1:28),
he merely appears to Joseph in a dream-admittedly
a dream that is real and reveals
what is real. Once again this shows us an essential quality of the figure of
Saint Joseph: his capacity to perceive the divine and his ability to discern. Only a man who is inwardly watchful for
the divine, only someone with a real sensitivity for God and his ways, can
receive God's message in this way. And an ability to discern was necessary in
order to know whether it was simply a dream
or whether God's messenger had truly appeared to him and addressed him.
The message
conveyed to [oseph is overwhelming, and it demands extraordinarily courageous
faith. Can it be that God has really spoken, that what Joseph was told in the dream
was the truth-a truth so far surpassing anything he could have foreseen?
Can it be that God has acted in this way toward a human creature? Can it be
that God has now launched a new history with men? Matthew has already said that
Joseph "inwardly
considered" (enthymethintos) the right way to respond to Mary's pregnancy. So we can well
imagine his inner struggle now to make sense of this breathtaking
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dream-message: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Mt
1:20).
Joseph
is explicitly
addressed as son of David, which also serves to indicate the task assigned to him in this event: as heir to the Davidic promise, he is to bear witness to God's faithfulness. "Do not be afraid" to take
on this task, one that might well
arouse fear. "Do not be afraid"-the very words that the angel of the annunciation had spoken to Mary. By means of this same exhortation from the angel, Joseph is now drawn into the mystery
of God's incarnation.
After the message about the child's conception through the power of the Holy Spirit, Joseph is
entrusted with a further
task: "Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their
sins" (Mt 1:21). Together with the instruction to take Mary as his wife, Joseph is asked to give a name to the child and thus legally to adopt it as his. It is the same name that the angel indicated to Mary as the name of the child: Jesus. The name Jesus (Jeshua) means "YHWH is
salvation." The divine messenger who spoke to Joseph
in the dream explains the nature of this salvation: "He will save his people
from their sins."
On the one hand, then, a lofty theological task is assigned to the child,
for only God can forgive sins. So this child is immediately associated with God, directly linked with
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God's holy and saving power. On the other hand, though, this definition of the Messiah's mission
could also appear disappointing. The prevailing expectations of salvation were primarily focused upon Israel's concrete sufferings on the reestablishment of the Davidic kingdom, on Israel's freedom and independence, and naturally that included material prosperity for this largely impoverished people. The promise of forgiveness of sins seems both too little and too much: too much, because it trespasses upon God's exclusive sphere; too little, because there seems to be no thought of Israel’s concrete suffering or its true need for salvation.
So this passage already anticipates the whole debate over Jesus' Messiahship: has he now redeemed Israel, or is everything still as it was before? Is the mission, as lived by Jesus, the answer to the promise, or is it not?
Certainly it does not match the immediate expectations of Messianic salvation nurtured by men who felt oppressed not so much by their sins as by their sufferings, their lack of freedom, the wretched conditions of their existence.
Jesus himself poignantly raised the question as to where the priority lies in man's need for redemption on the occasion when the four
men, who could not carry the paralytic through the door because of the crowd, let him down from the roof and laid him at Jesus' feet. The sick man's very existence was a plea, an
urgent appeal for salvation, to which Jesus responded in a way that was quite contrary to the ex-
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pectation of the bearers and of the sick man himself, saying: "My
son, your sins are forgiven" (Mk 2:5).
This
was the last thing anyone was expecting. This was the last thing they were
concerned about. The paralytic needed to be able' to walk, not to be delivered from his
sins. The scribes criticized the theological presumption of Jesus' words: the
sick man and those around him were disappointed, because Jesus had apparently
overlooked the man's real need.
I consider this
whole scene to be of key significance for the question of Jesus' mission, in
the terms with which it was first described in the angel's message to Joseph. In the passage concerned, both
the criticism of the scribes and the silent expectation of the onlookers is
acknowledged. Jesus then demonstrates his ability to forgive sins by ordering
the sick man to take up his pallet and walk away healed. At the same time, the
priority of forgiveness for sins as the foundation of all true healing is
clearly maintained.
Man is a relational
being. And if his first, fundamental relationship is disturbed-his relationship
with God-then nothing else can be truly in order. This is where the priority
lies in Jesus' message and ministry: before all else, he wants to point man
toward the essence of his malady, and to show him-if you are not healed there,
then however many good things you may find, you are not truly healed.
In this sense, the
explanation of Jesus' name that was offered to Joseph in his dream already contains a fundamental
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clarification of how man's salvation has to be understood and
hence what the Saviour's essential task must be.
After the angel's annunciation to Joseph of the virginal conception and birth of Jesus, Matthew adds two further statements that
complete his narrative.
First he shows that
these happenings had been foretold by the Scriptures. This is a characteristic
feature of his Gospel: for all essential events, to adduce a "proof from
Scripture"-to make it clear that the words of Scripture anticipate these
events and inwardly prepare the way for them. Matthew demonstrates that the
ancient words come true in the story of Jesus. But at the same time he shows
that the story of Jesus is true: that is to say, it proceeds from the word of
God, by which it is sustained and brought about.
After the
Scriptural quotation, Matthew brings the story to a close. He recounts that Joseph awoke from sleep and did as the
angel of the Lord had instructed him. He took Mary home as his wife, but did
not "know" her until she had given birth to the Son. This underlines
once more that the Son is begotten not from him but from the Holy Spirit.
Finally the evangelist adds: "He called his name Jesus" (Mt
1:25).
Once again Joseph is presented to us, in quite
practical terms, as a "just" man: his inner watchfulness for God,
which enables him to receive and understand the message,
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leads quite spontaneously to obedience. Even if hitherto he had
puzzled over his various options, now he knows what the right course of action
is. Being a just man he follows God's commands, as Psalm 1 says.
At this point, we must examine the proof from Scripture that
Matthew presents, which has become the object (how could it be otherwise?) of
extensive exegetical debate. The verse is as follows: "All this took place
to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel,' which means, God with
us" (Mt 1:22£; c£ Is 7:14). This prophetic saying, which Matthew makes into one of the key
Christological statements, we will first attempt to understand in its original
historical context, and then we will try to see how the mystery of Jesus Christ
is reflected in it.
....... Come to the manger every day for lessons
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16 Dec 2012
HE AND i, Gabrielle B. Christmas grace. 1947 December 25 - "You mustn't be afraid of aiming at perfection, since I am with you and I have lived it, and since it gives Me great joy to look after you. You see you are not alone; ...
At Bethlehem do you think that Joseph could forget this two treasures for a single instant? His whole heart was centred on them.
Be like him. (...)
Sink down deep into the thought of My humility as a little child.
I became humble for your sake.
Would you like to come to the manger every day for lessons?
Every day right up to the Purification?
I give you a rendezvous there.
Call it a rendezvous of love.
My love wants to bestow on you My adorning jewels.
These are My virtues and they are so powerful that even the worldly admire them.
But you must let yourself be adorned.
You must turn your will to your highest good."
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