Mark Sheran Leosala
First Reading
Isaiah 7:10-14
The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
"I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!"
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Second Reading
Romans 1:1-7
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,
called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,
which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,
but established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship,
to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel
Matthew 1:18-24
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.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
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.
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 conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means "God is with us."
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
The Gospel today says St Joseph was a righteous person. Righteousness describes a person who lives with consistency between what they believe, what they do, and how they treat others. Joseph’s righteousness is evident first in how he does not want to expose Mary to shame, and then in how it leads him to listen to the angel and deepen his faith response to God. He cares both for Mary and God in how he responds to the challenge he faces. Like Joseph, we live with similar challenges to the values of the gospel and how we can be more faithful to them in our current situation.
Challenges to righteousness abound in our reality. We see the lack of integrity in government officials who use their positions for personal gain or public funds for expensive overseas travel and leisure activities. Our economic system rationalizes excess profits for top executives and shareholders at the expense of worker security and basic livelihood. We prioritize development that benefits the few rather than uplifting the lives of all. We see the impact it has during calamities when lives and livelihoods are lost and we fail to build better infrastructure in response. We have failed to invest in agriculture to protect our people from inflation and threats to food security. Underemployment and lack of affordable housing add to the insecurity felt by many Filipinos. We can easily fall into hopelessness in the face of these challenges and, like Joseph’s initial response, want to divorce ourselves from them and quietly live our own lives.
Yet we see how Joseph allowed the angel of the Lord to open his heart to greater responsiveness to the challenges around him. He initially desires to distance himself from the challenge of Mary’s pregnancy and the difficulty that might come with continuing the planned marriage. The angel appears to Joseph and explains to him his role in the history of salvation and how he is being invited to love and care for her and the child who is God become human. The Lord puts before Joseph the question of what he thinks is his own good—to quietly divorce Mary—and the common good—the good of all of humanity.
Catholic Social Teaching places high value on the common good. We are invited to look after and consider the good not just of the other but also the good of all of us.
Beside the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of ‘all of us’, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society (Caritas in Veritate #7).
The common good invites us to be selfless, to think of the other and what will benefit the community as Pope Francis reminds us,
The whole is greater than the part, but it is also greater than the sum of its parts… We constantly have to broaden our horizons and see the greater good which will benefit us all. But this has to be done without evasion or uprooting... We can work on a small scale, in our own neighborhood, but with a larger perspective” (Evangelii Gaudium #235).
And a key to the common good is allowing the Lord to speak to our hearts and direct us to our place in the common good as Joseph did in today’s Gospel.
Speak with the Lord about your own situation. Where do you find yourself wanting to “quietly divorce” yourself from others? Are there people in your immediate surrounding inviting you to help them?
What is my dream for my community and my country? How is the Lord speaking to me through my dream and inviting me to make this dream more real? What are some concrete steps I can take to make this dream a reality?
In the light of Joseph’s response to the common good, how can I respond to the invitation of working for social conditions which ensure that every person and every group in society is able to meet their needs and realize their potential? What part can I play in making my community and Philippine society a more humane place to live?