In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah speaks to King Ahaz. Isaiah tells the king that God will give a sign that a child will be born and he will be named Emmanuel. The Anchorage Bible Dictionary tell us that this is a symbolic name meaning “with us [is] God,” found in Isaiah and cited in today’s Alleluia from Matt 1:23.
Today’s Gospel tells us that Joseph did what the Angel of the Lord told him in a dream and took Mary into his home to be his wife. 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.”
Fr Ron Rolheiser asks: “Who exactly is this Joseph? He is that quiet figure prominently named in the Christmas story as the husband of Mary and the stepfather of Jesus, and then basically is never mentioned again.
But what do we really know about him?
Joseph of the Christmas story writes his own history: he is presented to us as an “upright” man, a designation that scholars say implies that he has conformed himself to the Law of God, the supreme Jewish standard of holiness. In every way he is blameless, a paradigm of goodness, which he demonstrates in the Christmas story by refusing to expose Mary to shame, even as he decides to divorce her quietly.
Fr Rolheiser helps us understand the customs of that time: “The background, in so far as we can reconstruct it, to the relationship between Joseph and Mary would have been this: the marriage custom at the time was that a young woman, essentially at the age of puberty, would be given to a man, usually several years her senior, in an arranged marriage by her parents. They would be betrothed, technically married, but would not yet live together or begin sexual relations for several more years. The Jewish law was especially strict as to the couple remaining celibate while in the betrothal period. During this time, the young woman would continue to live with her parents and the young man would go about setting up a house and an occupation so as to be able to support his wife once they began to live together.
Joseph and Mary were at this stage of their relationship, legally married but not yet living together, when Mary became pregnant. Joseph, knowing that the child was not his, had a dilemma: if he wasn’t the father, who was? In order to save his own reputation, he could have demanded a public inquiry and, indeed, had Mary been accused of adultery, it might have meant her death. However, he decided to “divorce her quietly,” that is, to avoid a public inquiry which would leave her in an awkward and vulnerable situation.
Then, after receiving revelation in a dream, he agrees to take her home as his wife and to name the child as his own. Partly we understand the significance of that: he spares Mary embarrassment, he names the child as his, and he provides an accepted physical, social, and religious place for the child to be born and raised. But he does something else that is not so evident: he shows how a person can be a pious believer, deeply faithful to everything within his religious tradition, and yet at the same time be open to a mystery beyond both his human and religious understanding.
Raymond Brown puts it like this: the hero of Matthew’s infancy story is Joseph, a very sensitive Jewish observer of the Law. … In Joseph, the evangelist was portraying what he thought a Jew [a true pious believer] should be and probably what he himself was.
In essence what Joseph teaches us is how to live in loving fidelity to all that we cling to humanly and religiously, even as we are open to a mystery of God that takes us beyond all the categories of our religious practice and imagination.”
Fr Rolheiser said about Joseph: “But he does something else that is not so evident: he shows how a person can be a pious believer, deeply faithful to everything within his religious tradition, and yet at the same time be open to a mystery beyond both his human and religious understanding.” We find a new approach to Emmanual from a priest in the UK.
Fr Tom Kleinschmidt, an Oblate of Mary the Virgin (OMV) and the parish priest of St. Boniface’s Southampton, wrote about today’s readings: “When we go through challenges, we might often find ourselves asking God: “Please give me a sign that I will get through this. Give me a sign that all will be well. Give me a sign that you have not forgotten me.” In these last days of Advent God is reminding us of the sign he gave to Ahaz, which was fulfilled in Mary. He is “Emmanuel, God with us”. When the angels appeared to the shepherds of Bethlehem, he told them: “This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”.
Advent and Christmas remind us once again that God is truly with us in the nitty gritty routine of daily life. …. Though remaining true God, he has become true man and immersed himself in our human experience. He comes close enough to touch our wounds, close enough to walk our streets, close enough to cry our tears. In the Eucharist the same Jesus, who once lay in a manger, is now humbly hidden in the Host. St. John Vianney once said that if we truly understood the Eucharist, we would die of joy. God is with us so completely that He becomes our food, our Bread of Life.
God’s desire to remain with us did not stop at Bethlehem. It reached its summit in the Eucharist. At every Mass, that same Child of Bethlehem, now risen and glorified, comes again in the hidden form of bread and wine. The Eucharist is the sign God is now giving to show that He is truly with us – Emmanuel made present. St Teresa of Calcutta used to often say: “When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then; when you look at the tabernacle, you understand how much He loves you now.” If the angels, who appeared to the shepherds of Bethlehem, were to appear to us, they would say: “This will be a sign for you. You will find Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, hidden under the appearances of bread and wine.”
In a noisy world that often forgets God, He remains silently with us, waiting in every tabernacle, whispering in the depths of our hearts: “Do not be afraid. I am with you.” When we receive Jesus at Holy Communion, God-with-us becomes God-within-us. Every moment we spend before the Blessed Sacrament is a moment spent in the heart of Emmanuel. He fills us with Himself so that we can carry His presence into the world.
In a few minutes, we will receive the Holy Eucharist; Emmanuel, God-within-us. Like Joseph ,we receive Jesus, only in bread and wine transformed. The Eucharist gives God’s love to us to share with everyone we meet.
St Joseph, pray for us.
