God's way of acting surprises and makes you think!

Good morning, happy Tuesday, and many blessings.

Today, ‪September 8th‬, Feast of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel (Matthew 1:1-16. 18-23) gives us the genealogy, or birth certificate, of Jesus. By means of the list of His ancestors, the Evangelist tells the communities who Jesus is and how God acts in a surprising way in order to fulfill His promise. On our birth certificate there is our name and the name of our parents. Some people, to say who they are, also recall the names of the grandparents. Others are ashamed of their ancestors, of their families, and hide behind appearances which deceive. The birth certificate of Jesus has many names. On the list of names there is a great novelty. At that time, the genealogy indicated only the names of the men. This is why it is surprising that Matthew also mentions five women among the ancestors of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah and Mary. Why does he choose precisely these five women and not others? This is the question which the Gospel of Matthew leaves for us.

Jesus is the response of God to the expectation both of the Jews and of the pagans, but it is in a completely surprising way. In the stories of the four women of the Old Testament, mentioned in the genealogy, there is something abnormal. The four of them were foreigners, and they will conceive their sons outside the normal schema of the behavior of that time and they do not keep the requirements of the laws of purity of the time of Jesus. Tamar, a Canaanite, a widow, dresses as a prostitute of Jericho to oblige Judah to be faithful to her and to give her a son (Gen 38:1-30). Rahab, a prostitute from Jericho, makes an alliance with the Israelites. She helped them to enter the Promised Land and professed faith in a God who liberates from the Exodus. (Judg 2:1-21). Bathsheba, a Hittite, wife of Uriah, was seduced, abused and made pregnant by King David, who in addition to that, ordered her husband to be killed (2 Sam 11:1-27). Ruth, a Moabite, a poor widow, chose to remain with Naomi and adhere to the people of God (Rt 1, 16-18). Advised by her mother-in-law Naomi, Ruth imitates Tamar and spends the night together with Boaz, obliging him to observe the law and to give her a son. From their relation Obed was born, the grandfather of King David (Ruth 3:1-15; ‪4:13-17‬).

These four women question the models of behavior imposed by the patriarchal society. And thus, their conventional initiative will give continuity to the descendants of Jesus and will bring salvation to all the people. 

Through them, God realizes His plan and sends the promised Messiah. Truly, God’s way of acting surprises and makes one think! At the end, the reader will ask, “And Mary? Is there something irregular in her? What is it?  What was irregular in Mary is that she became pregnant before living together with Joseph, her betrothed, who was a just man. Jesus says, “If your justice is not greater than the justice of the Pharisees and the scribes, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” If Joseph had been just according to the justice of the Pharisees, he would have denounced Mary and she would have been stoned. Jesus would have died. Thanks to the true justice of Joseph, Jesus was able to be born.

If the Evangelist mentions only these five women together with over forty men, no doubt, he wants to communicate a message. What is this message? What does all this tell us about the identity of Jesus? And what does this say about us?

Blessings

Fr. Luis+