Sunday  Matthew 1:1-25 (ancestors of Jesus listed)

VENERABLE AUGUSTINE: Matthew, by beginning with Christ’s genealogy, shews that he has undertaken to relate Christ’s birth according to the flesh. But Luke, as rather describing Him as a Priest for the atonement of sin, gives Christ’s genealogy not in the beginning of his Gospel, but at His baptism, when John bare that testimony, Lo, He that taketh away the sins of the world. (John 1:29.) In the genealogy of Matthew is figured to us the taking on Him of our sins by the Lord Christ; in the genealogy of Luke, the taking away of our sins by the same; hence Matthew gives them in a descending, Luke in an ascending, series. But Matthew, describing Christ’s human generation in descending order, begins his enumeration with Abraham.

Monday   [The Birth of Christ starting with Gabriel’s appearance to Mary…March 25)

In appearing to Her, the Angel called Her “full of grace,” i.e., having found favor with God (see verse 30) — God’s special love and benevolence, His help that is essential for holy and great deeds. The words of the Angel bewildered Mary by their extraordinary nature, and She commenced to ponder over them. Having calmed Her, the Angel foretells the birth of a Son from Her, Who will be great not like John, but much greater because He will not simply be full of God’s blessed gifts as John, but He Himself will be the Son of the Almighty. Why is the Angel saying that the Lord will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob? Because the Jewish kingdom in the Old Testament was predetermined to prepare people for a spiritual, eternal Kingdom of Christ and to slowly transfigure into it. Consequently, David’s kingdom as such is one in which God Himself placed kings, which was ruled according to God’s laws, in which all forms of civil life was permeated with the idea of serving God, which was found in an uninterrupted link with the New Testament Kingdom of God.

Tuesday

Mary’s question, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” — would have been completely incomprehensible and would have made no sense, if She hadn’t given a promise to God, to remain a Virgin forever. The Angel explained that Her promise would not be violated, as She will give birth to a Son without a husband, by extraordinary means. The Holy Spirit, “the power of the Almighty,” will bring about this seedless conception; i.e., the Son of God Himself (see 1 Corinthians 1:24) will overshadow Her, will enter Her like a cloud akin to that which overshadowed the tabernacle, as expressed by Isaiah (19:1), “upon a swift cloud.” While the Blessed Virgin did not demand any proof, the Angel himself in confirmation of the authenticity of his words pointed to Elizabeth, who had conceived a son in her old age by the will of God, to Whom nothing is impossible. The Holy Virgin knew through the books of the prophets that not only glory awaits Her and Her Divine Son, but also grief. Nevertheless, completely obedient to God’s will, She replied: “Behold the Virgin servant of the Lord! Let it be to Me according to your word.”

The Annunciation is celebrated on the 25th of March. Having accepted the glad tidings, the Blessed Virgin said nothing to Joseph, and as St. John Chrysostom explains, She was justly afraid that he may not believe Her and think that through Her warning, She is trying to hide a transgression.

Wednesday

(Luke 1:39-56).

The Holy Virgin hurries to share Her joy with Her relative Elizabeth, who presumably lived in Judea in a town named Juttah, situated close to the sacred city of Hebron. Elizabeth greeted Her with the same extraordinary words that were uttered by the Angel: “Blessed are You among women” — and added: “And blessed is the fruit of your womb!” — Although, as Her relative, she should have known about the promise given by Mary to remain chaste. Following this, Elizabeth exclaimed: “But why is this granted to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth immediately explains the meaning of her words, in that the child she was carrying “leaped in the womb” no sooner than she heard Mary’s greeting. Undoubtedly, under the infusion of the Holy Spirit, the child in Elizabeth’s womb sensed the other Child — He, before Whose arrival into the world, humanity would have to be prepared by him. That’s why he produced such an unusual movement in his mother’s womb. The reaction of the child to the Holy Spirit was imparted to his mother, and she, through the grace of foresight, instantly recognized what joyous tidings Mary conveyed. That’s why she glorified Her as the Mother of God with the same words as that of Archangel Gabriel. Elizabeth beatifies the Blessed Virgin for Her faith with which She received the Archangel’s tidings, contrasting this faith with Zacharias’ disbelief.

Thursday

From Elizabeth’s words, the Blessed Virgin Mary understood that the mystery revealed to Elizabeth was from God Himself. Amid feelings of rapture and emotions at the thought that the time for the long-awaited Messiah and the liberation of Israel has arrived, the Holy Virgin praised God with a marvelous song. This song is now constantly sung in Her honor during matins: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and My spirit hath rejoiced in God My Saviour . . .” She wards off any thoughts of personal worthiness and praises God because He has been attentive to Her humility. In a prophetic prescience, She foretells that for this mercy from God, She will be glorified by all generations and that this mercy of God will be extended to all that are fearful of the Lord. She subsequently praises God that the promise given to the Fathers and to Abraham has been fulfilled and that the Kingdom of the Messiah, anticipated so much by the Israelites, has come— that His humble followers, despised by the world, will soon triumph, be uplifted and filled with goodness, while the proud and powerful will be disgraced and vanquished. It’s apparent that the Holy Virgin, not having waited for the Forerunner’s birth, returned home.

Friday

(Matthew 1:18-25).

Saint Matthew informs us that soon after the Holy Virgin’s betrothal with eighty-year-old Joseph, “before they came together,” i.e., before the consummation of their marriage, Mary’s condition of being with child became clear to Joseph. Being righteous (and this means just and merciful), Joseph did not wish to expose Her seeming transgression before the public, so as not to subject Her to the shameful and agonizing death called for by the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 22:23-24), and intended to release Her without announcing the reason. As soon as he thought this, the Lord’s Angel appeared to him and explained “that which is conceived in Her is of the Holy Spirit” and not the fruit of a clandestine sin. The Angel further announces: “And She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The name Jesus, Joshua in Hebrew, means Savior. So that Joseph has no doubts about the veracity of what was said, the Angel quotes Isaiah’s prophecy that witnesses to the fact that this great miracle of the seedless conception and birth of the Savior of the world by the Blessed Virgin was preordained in God’s pre-eternal counsel: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son . . .” (Isaiah 7:14). There is no need to imagine that the prophecy had not been fulfilled because the prophet had said “and shall call His name Immanuel,” whereas the Newborn was named Jesus. Immanuel is not a personalized name but a symbolic one meaning “God is with us.” So when this miraculous birth from a Virgin takes place, people will say “God is with us” because it is in this identity God came down to earth and lived among mankind. This is only a prophetic indication of Christ’s Divinity — indication that this extraordinary infant will not be an ordinary person, but God.

Saturday

Convinced by the Angel’s words, Joseph “took to him his wife,” that is, rejected his intention to send Her away and left Her to live in his house as a wife “and did not know Her till She had brought forth Her Firstborn Son.” This does not mean that he “knew” Her after the birth of Jesus and began living with Her as a wife. Saint John Chrysostom rightly notes that it is simply not credible to submit that such a righteous individual as Joseph would decide to “know” the Holy Virgin after She had so miraculously become a mother. While in Greek the word “zos” and in Church Slavonic “dondezhe`” mean “until” this cannot be interpreted in the way that those who do not honor the Holy Virgin do — Protestants and sectarians — as though Joseph did not “know” Her before Christ’s birth and then he did. He absolutely never “knew” Her. In the Holy Scriptures the word “zos” is used in the narration on the concluding stages of the Flood: “And he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until (“zos”) the waters were dried up” (Genesis 8:6) — but the raven never did return afterwards. Or again, in the words of our Lord: “I am with you always, even to (“zos”) the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). As the Blessed Theothilact rightly observed, this doesn’t mean that Christ would not be with us after the end of the age. Definitely not, as it is especially then that He would be with us!

Jesus is named “Firstborn” not because the Blessed Virgin had other children after Him but because He was born first, and, being that, was her only child. In the Old Testament, God decrees that “all the firstborn” are to be consecrated to Him, irrespective of whether the family will have further additions or not. And if the Gospel mentions “brothers of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 13:55, John 2:12, and others), it certainly doesn’t mean that they were His brothers by birth. As tradition witnesses, Joseph’s children were from his first marriage.