(Guido Reni, Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus in his arms, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, 1635)

Sunday, 21 December 2025

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR A

Commentary on the Sunday Gospel

Mt 1:18-24

We have reached the last Sunday of Advent, accompanied by the Laudato Si’ Journey, which gives us a glimpse of the scene in the cave in Bethlehem. Today’s story focuses on Joseph, a silent and incredibly fascinating figure in the Holy Scriptures. What does Joseph’s example tell us today? How can we welcome God’s humanity through Mary and the Church?

We are in the first verses of Matthew’s Gospel, just after the genealogy that showed how the blood of God incarnate is the blood of humanity, with its hopes and fragilities, in the course of history: from Abraham, through David and the exile, to Jesus. Now we see this blood flowing in the veins of humanity. It is a very delicate passage, made up of silences and pain, which restores to us the greatness of this figure from the Bible, an example of responsibility and care for our common home.

“Thus was Jesus Christ conceived.” This expression acts as a hinge between the genealogy and the story of Joseph. How did it all happen? Through the work of the Holy Spirit, through God’s love, humanity, beginning with Mary, receives this immense gift. Mary is the first to receive the gift, and she welcomes it into her life. It is not Mary’s desire, but she is chosen, and in her freedom she could accept or refuse. In the same way, Joseph could refuse or accept, in his freedom, because there was still time, they were not yet married.

To accept or to refuse. From the very first verses of Matthew’s Gospel, we are all called to this dilemma that has always accompanied the whole of humanity: to welcome God’s gift, or to be indifferent? At first, Joseph, being a just man and expecting the just reward for his actions, sees that this gift does not belong to him. It was too great a gift, and it had been given to Mary, not to him. The first condition for welcoming God is to recognise our humility: knowing that we do not deserve the immensity of God’s gift allows us to generate it as it presents itself to us, outside our schemes and images. The second is generosity: the greater our sense of God’s generosity, the more easily we will welcome his gift, aware that we do not deserve it. It is as if, after working for an hour, someone paid us 10 million; it would be too high a wage, so what would we do, refuse it?

“While he was considering these things”, that is, while Joseph was looking for human solutions, an angel appeared. A herald appeared. What, then, does the angel represent? We, in Joseph’s situation, as we seek human solutions to the problems of our common home, have before us a herald: the Word of God. It appears in dreams, when we have no control over our bodies, in our daily deaths.

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid!” are the angel’s first words. In the dream, God always asks for a true relationship, not based on fear. Often, however, our relationship with God is dominated by terror, by the judge who will condemn us, by our unworthiness of the gift. Fear, therefore, always distances us from faith, as happened to Adam who, out of fear, hid himself in the Garden of Eden.

God does not ask Joseph to take Jesus, but to take Mary as his wife. This is a very subtle aspect, this precise request, which tells us so much about our faith and our relationship with the Church. Faith is apostolic; it arises from a story. For this reason, we cannot accept God’s gift outside the path of the Church, outside the poor, outside the cry of our common home.

Joseph never speaks. In all the texts concerning him, he never opens his mouth; there are no quotations. We have no certainty about any words this righteous man may have uttered, except for one: ‘Jesus’. God saves. We are certain that Joseph uttered this word, because ‘she will give birth to a son, and you shall call him Jesus‘. In Jewish culture, giving a name was the main form of relationship with creation, the form of ‘dominion’ that God grants to men. Adam was the first to ‘impose names’ on all creatures. Giving a name expresses the fatherhood accepted by Joseph.

“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel commanded him.” The conclusion of today’s story explains how Jesus was begotten. In the previous genealogies, there is a numerical problem, because the first – from Abraham – and the last – up to Jesus – do not consist of fourteen generations, but thirteen. This tells us that we do not know how Abraham was begotten, and we do not know how Jesus was begotten. Only with Joseph’s attitude can we beget Jesus, can we welcome God’s immense gift in wounded humanity. This opens us up to fully savour the mystery of Christmas that we will experience in these days.

Let us pray to the Lord that on this Sunday he may help us to welcome the infinite gift of himself, like Saint Clare of Assisi, who said: “Place your eyes before the mirror of eternity, place your soul in the splendour of glory, place your heart in Him who is the image of the divine substance, and be transformed entirely through contemplation into the image of His divinity” (FF 2888).

We wish you a happy Sunday!