A reading from the prophet Isaiah (62:1-5)
About Zion I will not be silent,
about Jerusalem I will not be quiet,
until saving justice comes forth for her like a dawning light
and her salvation burns up like a torch.
The nations will see your saving justice
and all kings your glory
and you will be called a new name
which the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
You will be a crown of splendour
in the hand of the Lord,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
No more will you be known as ‘Forsaken’
or your land be termed ‘Desolate’;
but you will be called ‘My Delight is in her’
and your land ‘The Espoused’;
for the Lord will take delight in you
and your land shall be espoused.
Like a young man marrying a virgin,
your rebuilder shall wed you
and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride,
so will your God rejoice in you.
The first reading of Christmas brings an explosion of joy and light. ‘Saving justice’ (tsedeq) in Jerusalem will be like the dawn, and ‘salvation’ (yeshu‘ah) like a torch. In post-exilic times it is still awaited, both by Israel and by the nations. New treasures will be awarded, a ‘crown of splendour’, a ‘royal diadem’, and new names will be bestowed, no longer ‘forsaken’, or ‘desolate’, but ‘my delight in her’ (hephtsi-bah) and ‘espoused’ (be‘ulah). The Lord delights in marriage to his bride, Jerusalem. God rejoicing in his people suggests the joy of the coming of the Messiah, who rejoices to be among the children of God.
Psalm 89 (88) People find their joy in the name of the Messiah, and adopt his ways of justice.
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles (13:16-17,22-25)
So Paul stood up, raised his hand for silence and began to speak:
‘Men of Israel, and God-fearers, listen! The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted our people during their stay in Egypt, and with uplifted arm led them out from there. He raised up David as a king for them, whom he attested in these words, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will perform my entire will.” From this man’s posterity, according to his promise, he brought to Israel a saviour, Jesus, whose coming was heralded by John, proclaiming a baptism of repentance to the whole people of Israel. As John was finishing his course he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not he. Look! One is coming after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to undo.”’
During his first missionary journey Paul is invited to speak in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia. Paul and Barnabas have been asked for a ‘word of consolation’, and they announce the good news. The reading offers some early verses of Paul’s long speech, which reaches its climax with the Christian kerygma of the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the verses read at this Christmas Mass Paul proclaims that from David’s ‘posterity’ (sperma), and ‘according to the promise’ (epaggelia), a saviour has been born, and that John the Baptist proclaimed ‘a baptism of repentance’, and pointed to the ‘one who is coming after me’.
The beginning of the holy gospel according to Matthew (1:1-25)
Roll of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse;
and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah;
and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers.
Then the deportation to Babylon took place.
After the deportation to Babylon,
Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary;
of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.
Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation, and from the Babylonian deportation to the Messiah fourteen generations.
The birth of Jesus the Messiah happened like this. 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. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to disgrace, decided to dismiss her quietly. He had this in mind when suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
Look, the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which means ‘God-is-with-us’. When Joseph woke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took her as his wife. He had not had intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son, and he named him Jesus.
Matthew carefully begins his gospel by placing ‘Jesus, who is called the Messiah’ at the climax of the generations descended from Abraham and David. Three sets of fourteen generations amount to six ‘sevens’, and the ‘seventh seven’, the time of fulfilment, will be the new time brought by Christ. Having completed the genealogy, the evangelist tells us ‘how’ Jesus the Messiah came to be born. The focus is on Joseph and his willingness to care for the child and his mother, and his crucial role in naming him ‘Jesus’, the one who is to ‘save’ his people. It is through Joseph that the Davidic heritage of Jesus is established. Matthew demonstrates the fulfilment in these events by quoting from the prophet Isaiah, the first of a multitude of quotations from the scriptures in his gospel.
Do I have the imagination to accept that God’s plans are different?
Both Mary and Joseph were ready for the unexpected.