March Confessions Study
2 Samuel 7:4-16/Romans 4:13-18/St Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Prior to this text St Matthew tells us that Joseph was dikaios, that is, a righteous man. Which means, firstly, that he shared the faith of his father Abraham and the faith of his father David. This was not some general optimism, but a confident trust in the Word and promises of God. He believed that by the Seed of Abraham God would bless the sons of Israel and all nations. He believed that God the Lord would raise up the Seed of David to reign upon His throne forever, despite the fact that David’s royal line had ceased and been replaced by the Herodian dynasty.
St Joseph hoped against hope that the same Lord God who raised the dead, who calls things into being out of nothing, and who gave a promised son to Abraham and Sarah, was in truth the God and Father of St Mary’s Son. And that He who was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, was the Savior of His people. St Joseph was a just man, a righteous man, because he believed what God the Lord had spoken to him. And that without the luxury of St Matthew’s spiritual insights concerning the fulfilling of the prophecy of Hosea - out of Egypt I have called My Son - and the obscure reference to the Nazarene. He had only the word of St Mary and the dreams, received in faith.
And it is according to this righteousness of faith St Joseph likewise behaved faithfully and justly in all his actions. He does not appear much in sacred Scripture, but where he does, St Joseph immediately sets about doing what God told him to do. Take Mary as your wife. Call His Name Jesus. Flee to Egypt. Protect the Child and His Mother. Return home. Go to Galilee. No arguments, no complaining, no excuses. Not a single word from St Joseph is recorded. He simply gets up and does what God calls him to do: to rise up in faith and serve his family in love.
And the Child and His Mother are most certainly his family, a gift given him by the Lord our God, setting him within the vocation of husband and father; albeit an adoptive father. But an adopted son is still truly a son and heir, not only legally but also theologically. This much is seen by the obedient submission of the Boy Jesus in the Temple at twelve years old. Remember that is was St Joseph who faithfully took his family to Jerusalem, instructing his household in the faith as he ought. Even then there was a transition, a movement out of His adoptive father’s house and care toward the House of His Father in heaven; to do His will and work. Yet, in obedience to the Fourth Commandment, to the will and Word of His Father, the Boy Jesus submits to His Mother and Joseph for they are indeed His earthly parents according to the Law.
Likewise, my brothers, is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your God and Father, for you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom you cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit of Jesus Christ His Son bears witness to your spirit that you are indeed, truly children of God, adopted by grace, yet children nonetheless. Legitimate and legal. And if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with your fathers according to the faith, Abraham and David, and above all, co-heirs with Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father, who was called out of Egypt and called to be a Nazarene.
Under such conditions - as a refuge and outsider, one who was scorned and slandered as His own adoptive father was, not doubt, as well - did the Boy Jesus grow to become a Man after His father, St Joseph’s, heart. Indeed, from His womb to His crucifixion, death, and burial, the Lord Jesus is the Son of David after His Father’s own heart. He is truly the Man after God’s own heart, for He is the Son of God from all eternity, of one Substance with the Father. Great David’s greater Son.
But Jesus of Nazareth is also a Man after the faithful heart of His adoptive and foster father, St Joseph. For St Joseph is set before you, the Church, to serve as an example, as all the saints in Christ rightly do according to their and your particular vocations. He is the strong and steady type. Faithful husband. Loving father. Righteous man.
Thus does he also serve as an example to the Child Jesus according to His humanity. Do we dare say that as true Man growing up the heavenly Bridegroom of the Church first observed and began to learn what it meant to be a husband in the faithful care of St Joseph for St Mary?
To be sure the righteousness of faith that Jesus saw exemplified in St Joseph He Himself, and He alone, has fulfilled and completed to perfection: by His life of humble obedience, by His death upon the Cross, in faith toward God and in love for all mankind, in His Resurrection from the dead as the Firstfruits of the New Creation. For He is the promised Seed of David who has become the true House of God in His own flesh and blood and whose crucified and risen Body is the Temple of God among men, in heaven and on earth, both now and forever. And whereas St Joseph was given the privilege of giving the Child of St Mary the blessed name of Jesus, there is yet no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which anyone is saved.
We give thanks and praise this day for St Joseph, whom our Lord called to care for the Child Jesus, with His Mother, so that through St Joseph God the Father took care of that precious Holy Family. That righteous man of faith is a good example for al Christians, for husbands and fathers in particular. And though we don’t practice the heterodoxy of patron saints, might not St Joseph likewise be a beneficial example to all pastors?
For the Lord has in like manner called you to care for the Child Jesus, to keep watch over His Word and His Holy Sacrament in which He gives us His Body born of Mary, protected and guarded by St Joseph. Your God and Father in heaven has called you through His Son to be a father in the faith to His Family gathered in the House and Home of His Church who is the beloved Bride of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus are you called to be strong and steady, faithful to the Word of the Lord, rising in faith to love and care for the flock of which the Lord has made you overseers.
Therefore, do not be afraid: The Lord whose Father called Him out of Egypt, who called Light out of darkness, and who raises the dead - the Lord who Tabernacled with St Joseph wherever He went - is no less with you, to save you by His grace, by His forgiveness of all your sins, to feed you on His Body and Blood. He has called you by His own great and holy Name and has established His House for you, by His Gospel, on earth as it is in heaven, so as a tender Father He provides for all your need, and as a faithful Husband, He will never leave you nor forsake you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
2 Samuel 7:4-16/Romans 4:13-18/St Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Prior to this text St Matthew tells us that Joseph was dikaios, that is, a righteous man. Which means, firstly, that he shared the faith of his father Abraham and the faith of his father David. This was not some general optimism, but a confident trust in the Word and promises of God. He believed that by the Seed of Abraham God would bless the sons of Israel and all nations. He believed that God the Lord would raise up the Seed of David to reign upon His throne forever, despite the fact that David’s royal line had ceased and been replaced by the Herodian dynasty.
St Joseph hoped against hope that the same Lord God who raised the dead, who calls things into being out of nothing, and who gave a promised son to Abraham and Sarah, was in truth the God and Father of St Mary’s Son. And that He who was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, was the Savior of His people. St Joseph was a just man, a righteous man, because he believed what God the Lord had spoken to him. And that without the luxury of St Matthew’s spiritual insights concerning the fulfilling of the prophecy of Hosea - out of Egypt I have called My Son - and the obscure reference to the Nazarene. He had only the word of St Mary and the dreams, received in faith.
And it is according to this righteousness of faith St Joseph likewise behaved faithfully and justly in all his actions. He does not appear much in sacred Scripture, but where he does, St Joseph immediately sets about doing what God told him to do. Take Mary as your wife. Call His Name Jesus. Flee to Egypt. Protect the Child and His Mother. Return home. Go to Galilee. No arguments, no complaining, no excuses. Not a single word from St Joseph is recorded. He simply gets up and does what God calls him to do: to rise up in faith and serve his family in love.
And the Child and His Mother are most certainly his family, a gift given him by the Lord our God, setting him within the vocation of husband and father; albeit an adoptive father. But an adopted son is still truly a son and heir, not only legally but also theologically. This much is seen by the obedient submission of the Boy Jesus in the Temple at twelve years old. Remember that is was St Joseph who faithfully took his family to Jerusalem, instructing his household in the faith as he ought. Even then there was a transition, a movement out of His adoptive father’s house and care toward the House of His Father in heaven; to do His will and work. Yet, in obedience to the Fourth Commandment, to the will and Word of His Father, the Boy Jesus submits to His Mother and Joseph for they are indeed His earthly parents according to the Law.
Likewise, my brothers, is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your God and Father, for you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom you cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit of Jesus Christ His Son bears witness to your spirit that you are indeed, truly children of God, adopted by grace, yet children nonetheless. Legitimate and legal. And if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with your fathers according to the faith, Abraham and David, and above all, co-heirs with Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father, who was called out of Egypt and called to be a Nazarene.
Under such conditions - as a refuge and outsider, one who was scorned and slandered as His own adoptive father was, not doubt, as well - did the Boy Jesus grow to become a Man after His father, St Joseph’s, heart. Indeed, from His womb to His crucifixion, death, and burial, the Lord Jesus is the Son of David after His Father’s own heart. He is truly the Man after God’s own heart, for He is the Son of God from all eternity, of one Substance with the Father. Great David’s greater Son.
But Jesus of Nazareth is also a Man after the faithful heart of His adoptive and foster father, St Joseph. For St Joseph is set before you, the Church, to serve as an example, as all the saints in Christ rightly do according to their and your particular vocations. He is the strong and steady type. Faithful husband. Loving father. Righteous man.
Thus does he also serve as an example to the Child Jesus according to His humanity. Do we dare say that as true Man growing up the heavenly Bridegroom of the Church first observed and began to learn what it meant to be a husband in the faithful care of St Joseph for St Mary?
To be sure the righteousness of faith that Jesus saw exemplified in St Joseph He Himself, and He alone, has fulfilled and completed to perfection: by His life of humble obedience, by His death upon the Cross, in faith toward God and in love for all mankind, in His Resurrection from the dead as the Firstfruits of the New Creation. For He is the promised Seed of David who has become the true House of God in His own flesh and blood and whose crucified and risen Body is the Temple of God among men, in heaven and on earth, both now and forever. And whereas St Joseph was given the privilege of giving the Child of St Mary the blessed name of Jesus, there is yet no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which anyone is saved.
We give thanks and praise this day for St Joseph, whom our Lord called to care for the Child Jesus, with His Mother, so that through St Joseph God the Father took care of that precious Holy Family. That righteous man of faith is a good example for al Christians, for husbands and fathers in particular. And though we don’t practice the heterodoxy of patron saints, might not St Joseph likewise be a beneficial example to all pastors?
For the Lord has in like manner called you to care for the Child Jesus, to keep watch over His Word and His Holy Sacrament in which He gives us His Body born of Mary, protected and guarded by St Joseph. Your God and Father in heaven has called you through His Son to be a father in the faith to His Family gathered in the House and Home of His Church who is the beloved Bride of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus are you called to be strong and steady, faithful to the Word of the Lord, rising in faith to love and care for the flock of which the Lord has made you overseers.
Therefore, do not be afraid: The Lord whose Father called Him out of Egypt, who called Light out of darkness, and who raises the dead - the Lord who Tabernacled with St Joseph wherever He went - is no less with you, to save you by His grace, by His forgiveness of all your sins, to feed you on His Body and Blood. He has called you by His own great and holy Name and has established His House for you, by His Gospel, on earth as it is in heaven, so as a tender Father He provides for all your need, and as a faithful Husband, He will never leave you nor forsake you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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