Gospel (Mt 1.18-24)
18 Here's how was the birth of Jesus Christ: His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph her husband, who was right and did not want divorce, decided in secret. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, an angel appeared in his dream the Lord and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, because what is conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. 21 she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. "
22 All this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "Here , the virgin shall conceive and bear a son who will be called Immanuel, which means God with us. 24 awoke, Joseph did as the angel the Lord and took with him his bride.
"This is as it was the birth of Jesus." So begins the Gospel passage today, but instead of talking about the birth, said the announcement to Joseph, the virginal motherhood of his wife.
Luke, unlike Matthew, said the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary and Joseph remembers only marginally.
The temptation to merge the two accounts as if they were reports of two journalists, it's great, but it is dangerous: it inevitably puts us in the face of questions which difficult, if not impossible to answer, as we shall see shortly.
Both Luke and Matthew refer to real events, though difficult to define in detail, but do not write news pages, do theology: Jesus as a present, after the Easter and in the light of the Spirit, the Christian communities of the end of the first century have come to know him.
Let's see how Matthew structures his story and what message would you give.
In Jesus' marriage took place in two stages. The first was in the contract between the couple in front of parents and two witnesses, and after this signing, the boy and the girl were husband and wife, but were not going to live, wait another year, during which they could not meet.
This interval was used to the two families for a better knowledge and the newlyweds to mature: there is indeed married very young, 12-13 years, the girl, the boy 15-16. This was to be the age of Mary and Joseph.
After a year of waiting, was a party, the bride was carried to the house of her husband and the two began living together.
It was during this period that took place the annunciation to Mary and her pregnancy through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew emphasizes this done from the beginning of his story, to prevent slips doubt that Jesus was created by the intervention of a man.
spirit, this story does not represent the male element ( ruah -spirit in Hebrew is feminine), indicates strength, a breath of the divine creator. "You send forth your spirit, they are created, and renew the face of the earth" - says the Psalmist (Ps 104:30) probably think that the spirit of God hovered over the water at the beginning of the world (Gen 1:2).
The virginal conception, which is also explicitly mentioned by Luke (1.26 to 39), is not intended to emphasize the moral superiority of Mary, nor, even less, is a depreciation of sexuality. It is introduced to "reveal" a fundamental truth for the believer: Jesus is not only man, he comes from, is the same Lord who has taken human form . To help us understand this truth, statements of both Matthew and Luke, God has used a creative act.
What happened next is not easy to establish and raises several questions. It seems incredible that Joseph, despite his righteousness, you think to take drastic measures to Mary, without even consulting him. How could he suspect that he had been unfaithful? In the sense that Joseph was "right", perhaps because he wanted to be separated from Mary? There was no law requiring a divorce from an unfaithful wife. After all, it would be a nice gesture that Joseph was going to do, even if it was done in secret. How is it that Mary did not say anything to the announcement that Joseph had had from the Archangel Gabriel? Or, if I said, because Joseph did not believe him?
someone replies to these questions: Mary must have told her husband that his son was waiting for God had no reason to keep secret a fact that he was entitled to know. The question then Joseph was not about fidelity or infidelity of the bride, but on his role in this extraordinary event. How could he naming a child is not his? It would not be unduly meddling in God's plan? Not knowing how to behave, had planned to pull aside and wait for God did know his will.
While he was meditating these things, God revealed his plan and the mission to which he called: he had to give the name of Jesus, so Mary's son in law would come into his family, he would become a descendant of David According to the flesh "as Paul said in the second reading.
This explanation is interesting and certainly contains elements acceptable - as, for example, the fact that Joseph is called "right" because he had decided to step aside for not hinder God's plan that he could not understand - but it is limited to be an assumption on which the Gospel text gives only a fragile foundation.
You better not groped to find answers to questions in the Gospel, we ask that we legitimately, but that Matthew was not interested.
He had not bothered to give us information or to meet our curiosity. The only thing he wanted was that we realized that the son of Mary was the heir to the throne of David, promised by the prophets.
The conclusion of the story is solemn. The whole song seems to have been written to demonstrate the fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son who will be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us" (v. 22 -23).
We have already seen what was the literal meaning of this prophecy: the announcement of the birth the son of Ahaz, Hezekiah. He was really a "Emmanuel," a sign that God was protecting his people and the dynasty of David, but did not answer all the expectations that were pinned on him and not even realized the promise of happiness, prosperity and peace described by Isaiah. It was "a prodigy of counselor, an invincible warrior, a father forever, a prince of peace ..." (Isaiah 9:5-6).
Here's what you mean Matthew: Jesus is the one who has fulfilled these prophecies, he is the son of the virgin announced by the prophet. He is truly the 'Emmanuel "God with us." He will be given an everlasting kingdom, and in him will be fulfilled all the hopes of Israel.
This is the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. The theme of 'Emmanuel "also returns at the end of the book. In the last chapter it is said that after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples on the mountain of Galilee, he sent them all over the world to make disciples of all nations, and added: "Here I am with you (Here I am ... are the 'Emma') every day until the end of the world "(Mt 28:20). The reference to "God with us" opens and closes all the work because of Matthew - the Evangelist tells us - in Jesus, God has made, and it remains always on the side of man.
In this conclusion of the song returns to the theme of "virgin" . We have already explained the meaning of the virginal conception of Mary. We want to remind other implications of this biblical term.
For us "virgin" means "admirable, worthy of consideration." In the Bible, however, has a different meaning. A woman's virginity before marriage was appreciated, but she remained a virgin for life only showed an inability to draw to itself the gaze of a man. Worthy of praise in Israel was a married woman who had children, the virgin was considered a tree without fruit, deserving of pity (Is 56.3-6).
This term is used often in the Bible, in a figurative sense, to define an "despicable. The expression Sion virgin does not mean: "Jerusalem, pure, immaculate, unblemished," but "poor, despised, lifeless" (Jer 31.4, 14.13). The land of Israel by the Assyrians destroyed by Amos is compared to the virgin who could not achieve his dream of being a mother: "She fell, never to rise more, the virgin of Israel, is lying the ground, no one does it raise "(Amos 5:2). Even Babylon, the bloody, is cursed by the prophet: "You will be reduced to powder, virgin Babylon" (Is 47.1).
And Mary? ... He speaks of himself as if it were the "virgin Zion," despised and worthless ("... watched the meanness and poverty of his servant ") and acknowledges that everything that has happened in her is of the" Powerful ", which great things done for her (Lk 1:48-49).
Virgin Mary is proof of the greatness and power of God, who alone knows the uterus sterile take his life.
When we celebrate the "virginity" of Mary, we rejoice because we check in her what the Lord can do with the "virgin" with those who have no value, with those who can submit only their own poverty and simplicity. From Mary, the Lord has made into a masterpiece. An artist like him can do just works, regardless of the paucity and poverty of the material that is available. Every man is destined to become his masterpiece.
In this season of Advent, the Virgin Mary invites us to contemplate what the Lord has done in her and believe in the victory of life, even when you only see signs of death.
The term virgin in the Bible takes on a more metaphorical meaning: the person who loves with an undivided heart.
Infidelity of Israel is likened to prostitution (Jer 5:7), and its contamination with the idols is considered adultery, a division of the heart in the Lord, the Bridegroom, and the idols of the nations , her lovers (Hosea 2).
Virginity is the symbol of total love for the Lord.
is in this sense that Paul uses the term when he writes to the Corinthians: "I feel for you with the jealous God, since I promised you to one husband to introduce as a chaste virgin to Christ "(2 Cor 11:2).
Maria has certainly made this perfectly well ideal of virginity.
is for all Christians, the supreme model of total and undivided love for God
Fernando Armellini (biblical scholar)
" Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife "
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