December 18, 2012

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
Lectionary: 194

Reading 1 from the Holy Book of Jeremiah
Jer 23:5-8

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
"The LORD our justice."

Not many people are familiar with this prophecy from the book of Jeremiah.  I think most people are familiar with Isaiah's prophecy of the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ when he said:

Isaiah 7:14
King James Version (KJV)
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Immanuel means, God with us.

Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD,
when they shall no longer say, "As the LORD lives,
who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt";
but rather, "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 verse compares Jesus to Moses.  Moses brought the people out of Israel.  But Jesus is greater than Moses:

Hebrews 1
King James Version (KJV)
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19

R. (see 7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous deeds.
And blessed forever be his glorious name;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

As Advent continues, the Psalms continue to announce the coming of Our Lord.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
Mt 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

St. Matthew reports that Jesus Christ was born by the action of the Holy Spirit in Mary's virginal womb.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.

St. Joseph, at first assumed that his wife had stepped out on him and committed adultery, since he had nothing to do with the conceiving of the Child.

Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.

But God sent an angel, the Angel Gabriel, to whom we owe a great debt of honor, to St. Joseph in a dream.  St. Gabriel then informed St. Joseph that Our Lord was conceived in the Virgin's womb by the will and action of God through the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins."
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."

Isaiah's prophecy is here recorded as being fulfilled by the conceiving of the Son of God in the Virginal womb of Our Lady.

When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.

And St. Joseph obediently observed the Will of God which was delivered to him by the Angel.

What can I say about St. Joseph?
Like Zechariah I become deaf and dumb in my attempt to put into words the glory which is due this holy man.  Can you imagine that amongst all the men which existed in all of time, he was elected by God to be the guardian and protector of His Son?  In previous readings, we heard Elijah proclaimed great and then St. John the Baptist.  But their glory pales in comparison.  This man can be counted the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

All heads bow in reverence.  God be praised through our great forefather and Saint, Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth.

Sincerely,

De Maria