Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 196​

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and shall name him Emmanuel.

Scripture scholars tell us that Isaiah's prophecy about a virgin conceiving a son actually concerned a coming catastrophe. Isaiah warned King Ahab that within a few years the countryside will be devastated. Children will have to forage for food like wild animals; if they survive they will live on "curds and honey." The prophecy was about the catastrophe which Ahab's uncertain leadership would bring upon Jerusalem, and had little to do with virginity.

But it was an odd expression; Isaiah had selected an evocative image to make his prophecy of doom. It invited curious reflection and, since its inspiration had come from God, interpreters were free to make the most of it. The word of the Lord endures forever, as everyone knows; and its interpretations will change with changing times.

Matthew's use of Isaiah's cryptic prophesy, that a virgin shall conceive, is certainly mainstream. It was especially appropriate because the Church's tradition, only a half-century old as of his writing, taught that Jesus' had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. His father was God; his mother, a virgin. And Joseph was a good man, a "just man," who had been directed by an angel to take the unwed, pregnant woman into his home.

Saint Luke was familiar with the same tradition though his story is quite different. He retained its most important elements: the Savior's mother was a virgin named Mary, his father was Joseph; and he was born in Bethlehem.

As Christmas approaches we contemplate Mary's virginity. To our sexualized 21st century culture, the word is probably more powerful than it was in Matthew's day; and we have to read it carefully. I don't suppose the word implied innocent or foolish naivete. Virginity was neither a marketable commodity nor a burden to be shed as soon as possible. It certainly meant, as Saint Luke emphasized, she had no "relations with a man," although "she was betrothed. to a man named Joseph."

If her conception of Jesus had not been so mysterious, Saint Luke would not have placed that odd question in her mouth, "How can this be?" Although she would soon be married, the child was God's, and she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mary's virginity is a doorway first of all, inviting us to consider Jesus' divine nature. He is, as we declare every Sunday, "consubstantial with the Father." Although any human being can call God "father," Jesus' knowledge of God is utterly unique. There is only one begotten son of the Father. 

During the third and fourth centuries, as the Church pondered the threat of Arianism, the Scriptures would lead the bishops at Nicea and Constantinople to create a formula unlike anything Greek philosophy or Jewish religion could conceive. The truth of his relationship with the Father remains as amazing today as it was then.

The word virgin invites us also to consider our own calling. Although we are sinners and the Church is a vast assembly of sinful people, our faith is virginal. With the Scandal of the last few years -- its impact may equal that of the Great Western Schism -- I must often invoke the Virgin Mary. She is a very real person, historically verifiable though we know little of her. She is that first and true and sinless disciple who lived a life of purity from her conception to natural death. While we pray that our merciful God will find us worthy on Judgement Day, she alone is worthy to be the Mother of God. By her presence she makes the world, human flesh and the Church worthy to receive the Son of God.

When we rush with the shepherds to Bethlehem to see the child, we find her there. When we want to see him, she joyfully holds him up before us. No one can know the Lord without discovering her there ahead of us in Bethlehem, in the Temple, on Calvary and in the Cenacle. We take delight as we obey Gabriel's command to Joseph, "Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home." And Jesus' last word to the Beloved Disciple, "Behold your mother!"