4th Sunday of Advent / A 19/12/2010
Matthew 1, 18-24 (p. 178)
The 4th Sunday of Advent is always for us a direct preparation for the feast Christmas and the mystery of the incarnation. Why the liturgy the word we heard one of the Gospels of St. Matthew in childhood or Luke. Mark begins his Gospel with the public ministry of Jesus and John in his prologue celebrates the coming of God among us without referring to all the Christmas event. We hear the prologue of St. John at the Mass of Christmas Day. This year we meditate with Matthew's annunciation to Joseph, who is somehow the counterpart of the Annunciation in Luke.
This story, like all the Gospels of Childhood, puts us all in close contact with the supernatural: the angel of the Lord appeared Joseph in a dream for him to reveal the plan of God and his vocation as husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of the child born of her. The supernatural, because it is different from our everyday experience, can awaken within us a lot of reactions: from disbelief to fear ... We are in the purely divine, an area in which the laws of nature are no longer binding because everything is possible with God for the salvation of our humanity. God knows very well that his action in the course of human history may scare us or ask us greatly. Also his angel carries a reassuring message: "Fear not! "It's the same message sent by Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. And Mary herself, the all-holy, was upset or disturbed by translations when she received a visit from the archangel. This is understandable when we perceive the distance between God and us. And we know from experience that the angels do not come see us on a regular basis to disclosures we make ... The supernatural reminds us that God is the Wholly Other. Faced with this irruption of the supernatural in her life by means of a dream, Joseph, he does not seem troubled, "He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and and took his wife. "
the center of the annunciation to Joseph, there is a supernatural reality: Mary, Mary, a son by the action of the Holy Spirit. That is what we call the virginal conception of Mary not to be confused with the Immaculate Conception, the dogma that Mary was preserved from original sin at conception and every sin in his life. Of course the virginal conception has a strong theological meaning: it is not for the sake of circumventing the laws of nature that God decides that his son would come among us by being born of a virgin. And even less because human sexuality would be a bad thing in itself! God chose for His Son a virginal conception to tell us who is the child Jesus. Virginal conception tells us in effect on the identity and mission of this baby will be born in a manger in Bethlehem. This baby is unique in the history of our humanity is both truly God and truly man. God really alone because his Father is God and that through the action of the Holy Spirit he was born. Truly man because Mary is his mother and takes her humanity. By being born of a virgin impregnated by the Spirit God, Jesus is the sign of a new creation, a re-creation. From Him and with Him a new humanity is possible that humanity will draw more originated only natural laws, those of the flesh, but also spiritual laws, those of the Spirit. The virginal conception of Mary announces our second birth, our birth and the Spirit of God, the day of our baptism. At Christmas, Joseph takes Jesus as his own son. In baptism God adopts us and makes us his son. Finally
if God uses the supernatural because it is God and that his work is beyond anything we can imagine, this is not to emphasize the distance between Him and us is to somehow abolish it! This is the meaning of the mystery of the Incarnation. God the Son is truly one of us, in this child named Jesus He married our humanity to unite with her and that forever. Without the "yes" by Joseph and Mary this wonderful union between divinity and humanity would have been impossible. Note therefore that God can act in a supernatural way, but he needs us to carry out his plan of love and reconciliation. During the days until Christmas still keep in our memory and our hearts in this beautiful name Emmanuel 'God with us, God among us, God among us. Ponder it in our daily prayers by putting us as Joseph at the disposal of God for that even today he is known as the Father near each of its children, particularly the most despised and most abandoned.
0 comments:
Post a Comment