Please press here to listen to the homily or download
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – September 8th
Readings: Mic 5:1-4a; Mt 1:1-16, 18-23.
Reading 1 (Mic 5:1-4a):
The LORD says:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah,
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
From you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel.
Whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
(Therefore, the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
And the rest of his brethren shall return
to the children of Israel.)
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God.
And they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth.
He shall be peace.
Gospel (Mt 1:1-16, 18-23):
The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the king.
David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,
Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian exile.
After the Babylonian exile,
Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
Abiud became the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.
Now 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 be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
Fr. Anthony Dinh Minh Tien, O.P.
I. THEME: Mary is the Mother of God.
In the year of 431 AD, the Church’s Council gathered at the Basilica of Mary in Ephesus to declare the dogma, “Mary is the Mother of God.” The reason for this dogma is because Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, even though accepted that Jesus had two natures, divine and human, argued that Christ’ human nature is affected by sin, so Mary is only Christ’s mother, not the Mother of God.
Today readings center around the origin of Christ. In the first reading, the prophet Micah prophesized the Messiah’s appearance about 700 years before he appears. The Messiah belongs to King David’s descendants; although he was born in time but exists before time; and although he was incarnated in human flesh, but he used God’s power to govern the humankind. In the Gospel, St. Matthew began his Gospel with Christ’s full genealogy all the way to king David and Abraham, our forefather. Even though Christ was born in the human genealogy, but not in a human way, because Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit’s power.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: “From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.”
1.1/ Micah’s prophecy about the Messiah: The prophet Micah lived about 700 BC, spoke about the Messiah’s appearance as follows: “But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.” Bethlehem is King David’s birthplace, about 7 km toward the south of Jerusalem. David belongs to Judah’s tribe. Ephrathite is the smallest clans of Judah’s tribe, settled at Ephrathah.
Micah foretold that the Messiah shall be born in the future, but “whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.” John Baptist also declared about the Messiah as follows, “The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me” (Jn 1:15b). Both Micah and John Baptist wanted to talk about the Messiah, if concerning about his origin, the Messiah exists before, but if concerning about time, he was born after. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, when the three wise men from the Oriental lost trace of the guiding star, they came to Jerusalem to ask king Herod about the birthplace of the Jewish king. King Herod gathered all high priests and scribes to search for the Messiah’s birthplace, and they found out that he shall be born at Bethlehem, Judah, according to what Micah foretold (Cf. Mt 2:5-6).
1.2/ The Messiah’s power: Though was born as a man, but “he shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord, his God; and they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.”
What Micah foretold about the reign of the Messiah was completed by Christ. God the Father has given him all powers of heaven and earth; he shall use these powers to restrain the devil and natural forces, to heal people from all kinds of sickness, and to destroy the last enemy of human beings which is the death. Then, he shall reign over all nations, people shall be at peace, and his reign shall be without end.
2/ Gospel: The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2.1/ The importance of genealogy: The Jewish tradition has a high regard for genealogy. In the Old Testament, we see many times the authors mentioned genealogies (x/c Gen 5:1, 10:1, 11:10, 27). The reason for this because they wanted to see who belongs to a perfect descendant, not to be affected by strangers. When one was affected by so many strangers’ bloods, that one can lose his privilege to be called as a Jew, God’s own people. Similarly, a priest must be able to show that he belongs to Aaron’s tribe; if a priest marries, the woman must have a clear genealogy, at least in five generations. When Ezra formed the priesthood after the exile, he refused the priesthood of the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, and the children of Barzillai because he didn’t find their genealogies in the Sanhedrin (Cf. Ezra 2:62).
2.2/ The important things of Christ’s genealogy: His genealogy was divided into three main periods; each period has fourteen generations.
(1) From Abraham to King David: Abraham’s generation marked the event in which God chose Israel and promised to give him uncounted descendants and to lead them into the Promise Land. King David’s generation marked the strong growth of Israel; this is the pinnacle of Israel’s kingdom because King David united all the twelve tribes, expanded its boundary to the furthest end. One of Jesus’ titles, “the son of David,” was mentioned fifty-eight times by different people in the New Testament showed that the Israelites concerned very much about the Messiah’s genealogy. They expected the Messiah to originate from David’s lineage to come and to liberate them from their enemies and shall govern them forever.
(2) From King David to the Babylon exile: After David’s generation, the kingdom of Israel gradually declined, beginning with the division of the kingdom into two nations. Israel’s kings and people turned their back to God and worshipped foreign gods. The northern kingdom Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians on 721 BC; the southern kingdom Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians on 587 BC. All the king and people were on exile to Babylon and lived there about 50 years until Cyrus, the Persian King, obeyed God’s command and let the Israel’s remnant to go back to rebuild their nation on 538 BC.
(3) From the Babylon exile to Christ: This period is considered as the time of expecting the Messiah whom many prophets announced shall come. Ezra and Nehemiah were responsible for rebuilding the temple and re-establish the Israel kingdom. The majority of the Jews paid attention only to the liberation of the nation from their enemies; therefore, they were expecting a powerful Messiah who shall use his power and strength to destroy all enemies and to recover the glorious position for Israel as the King David’s time.
2.3/ The generation of Christ, the Messiah: According to the genealogy, Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary. Joseph belongs to King David’s descendants and Jesus was also born at Bethlehem, King David’s birthplace. Matthew’s account clearly indicated that Mary was conceived “by the Holy Spirit’s power.” When Joseph found out that Mary was conceived before they lived together, Joseph being 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.”
(1) “He will save his people from their sins”: In opposing with people’s expectation of a powerful Messiah who shall liberate people from foreign enemies; Christ accepted the fate of a suffering Messiah who shall be died on the cross to liberate people from the power of sins and death.
(2) “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.”” The LXX version used the noun “pathernon” to indicate a virgin while the MT version used the noun “almah” which indicates either a virgin or a young woman. The Catholic tradition used both Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:18 to confirm that Mary is a virgin all of her life.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– We should believe in all the Church’s dogmas which were carefully studied and declared through councils. Don’t let heresies deceive us.
– God prepares for the humankind the plan of salvation right from the beginning. According to this plan, Christ shall be incarnated in a human body to redeem for our sins.