ADONAI AND LEADER OF ISRAEL


18 DECEMBER

Jer 23:5-8; Ps 72:1-2,12-13,18-19; Mt 1:18-24

Mary was found with a Child

Today’s first reading is from the book of Jeremiah the prophet. Our attention goes to the prophecy concerning the House of David and his dynasty, which Yahweh promised to establish forever by raising the Son of David, who would live and act with integrity. Because his life and actions would flow from fear of the Lord, he will live forever, and his dynasty will never pass away. “See, the days are coming—it is the Lord who speaks—when I will raise a virtuous Branch for David, who will reign as true king and be wise, practising honesty and integrity in the land.” Since death is a result of sin, his sinless life from God would establish him in immortality. It is in this sense that Yahweh would be the one to raise the faithful Branch. The prophecy is in accord with the promise made to David through Nathan to build him a House and establish his dynasty forever. A lesson for us here is that nothing is of any lasting value without God’s intervention or support. Without God, human nature is nothing. So, we must build our lives on the word of God to live a fulfilled and lasting life. God established David because he devoted his interest and preoccupation to God throughout his life. Through his steadfast faith in God, he became a reference point in the plan of God for salvation. Thus, he collaborated with God in his salvation plan for Israel.

The fulfilment of God's promise to David brought salvation and glory to Israel. “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel dwells in confidence. And this is the name he will be called: The Lord-our-integrity.” Because God will build the new House for David, he will make it accommodate all peoples who would enter the new kingdom through a life of faithfulness to the word of God. The faithful Branch would be the Lord of all the nations and peoples, and not just of the people of Israel. Though God would bring back the people of Israel from all the nations God physically dispersed them, the prophecy has a mystical undertone due to the Messianic content. Through the Son to be born of David’s House, the faithful would enter their everlasting inheritance, which is restricted neither by time nor space. The Messianic kingdom is never territorial but a mystical kingdom that would engulf every other kingdom on earth. Because the Messiah lives sinless, he embodies the word of God. The psalmist praises God for the wonder he promised and would accomplish through the Messiah. “Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, who alone works wonders, ever blessed his glorious name. Let his glory fill the earth.” The more we contemplate the word and work of God in our lives and history, the more we understand that God accomplishes all for his glory and our salvation.

The Gospel contains the story of Mary’s conception of Jesus Christ. The conception was through the Holy Spirit, helping us to understand the prophetic message that God will establish a House for David. God put aside the natural way of conception to take on our nature as he promised. “This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” The union of our nature with the divinity of the Eternal Word of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary achieved a new brand of humanity or a renewed human nature. Divine power alone achieved the new House of David called the City of Emmanuel. “Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’” Everyone found in the city must be born of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the addition of divine presence in our minds and hearts makes us members of the mystical City of God.

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who are weighed down from of old by slavery beneath the yoke of sin, may be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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