Gospel: Matthew 1:16,18-21,24

 

The passage of today’s Gospel is taken from the first chapter of Matthew which forms part of the section concerning the conception, birth and infancy of Jesus. The center of all this account is the person of Jesus. The Gospel reveals a theology of the history of Jesus, and so getting close to the Word of God we should get the message which is hidden under the veils of the account without losing ourselves, as Paul so wisely advises us “in foolish speculations”, avoiding “those genealogies…  and disputes about the Law, they are useless”.

 

This text is connected to the genealogy of Jesus, which Matthew arranges with the intention of stressing the dynastic succession of Jesus, the Savior. To Jesus are conferred all the rights inherited from the lineage of David, of “Joseph, son of David” His legal father. 

 

For the Biblical and Hebrew world legal paternity was sufficient to confer all the rights of the lineage in question. That is why from the beginning of the genealogy, Jesus is designed as “Christ the Son of David” that is, the anointed one of the Lord Son of David, with whom all the promises of God to David His servant, are fulfilled

 

“An Angel of the Lord“ appeared to Joseph to reveal to him God’s design. In the Gospels of the infancy frequently the Angel of the Lord is mentioned as the heavenly messenger. Many are the references to the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament where originally the angel represented the Lord himself who guided and protected His people being close to them.