Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
We must not be afraid to welcome Mary into our hearts as well. She is accused of being one sinner among many, but the angel constantly vindicates her. She is full of grace. She is overshadowed by the Spirit through whom her child is conceived.
Joseph shows us how to trust. He shows us how to believe God even when to do so is not our natural or first response. Through him we see how to welcome God's plan of salvation given to us through Mary.
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.
Joseph is the first one to learn the name above every other name (see Philippians 2:9) besides which there is no other name given under heaven by which we may be saved (see Acts 4:12). It is because he first pronounces this name in fidelity to the angels that we are able to call upon it now.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
“The LORD our justice.”
Jesus is savior. He is therefore our justice. He is therefore the one who brings back all the exiles from the land of their banishment. He brings the children exiled from the garden to a new and better paradise.
As the LORD lives,
who brought the descendants of the house of Israel
up from the land of the north”–
and from all the lands to which I banished them;
they shall again live on their own land.
This name is not spoken into the darkness and heard at a distance. Rather, Jesus is born precisely to be with us, to be near to us in a way which is entirely new even for the omnipresent divinity.
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.”
And he remains with us, even unto the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20). He is near to rescue the poor when he cries out and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. Because his time is at hand true justice and fullness of peace are possible. In our world, in this busy season, they do not always seem possible. Even so, the Savior is able to do these things. He wants to begin within our hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment