A Reflection for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary
“Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid…” (Lk 1:20)
After we have fun a feast just like the Nativity of Mary, marking an event resembling Mary’s own birth that should have happened but that will not be independently narrated in Scripture, the lectionary selections for the readings get a bit figurative. The readings “rhyme with” the event being celebrated slightly than describing it directly.
Among the many options for the readings today, we’ve got a primary reading from Micah that prophesies Bethlehem because the origin for the “ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old” though Bethlehem itself is “too small to be among the many clans of Judah.” And a Gospel option for today, if someone opts for the longer form, is Matthew’s version of the genealogy of Jesus, leading from Abraham as much as Joseph. (The indisputable fact that Jesus will not be biologically descended from Joseph didn’t trouble Matthew when he put the genealogy together, and I like to recommend that it not trouble us either.)
Often, once we hear this genealogy a while in Advent, a homilist will indicate that though a lot of the genealogy is a cascade of “became the daddy of,” there are 4 women named within the list before we get to Mary. And people 4 are all connected to situations where God’s windfall works through complicated circumstances. They include Tamar, whose long and strange story is told in Genesis 38; Rahab, who assisted the Israelites sent to scout in town of Jericho; Ruth, who selected fidelity to her adopted people and mother-in-law Naomi; and the unnamed wife of Uriah, who through David’s sin and betrayal of her husband becomes the mother of Solomon.
So one reading of this genealogy, where Mary becomes the fifth woman named, is that she stands at one other providential intervention within the history of Israel and David’s line, where God will uphold the covenant in an unexpected way. But that reading, after all, advantages from hindsight’s perfect vision.
The challenge to us is fidelity in small things, not knowing upfront where our Bethlehems are, and fidelity in complicated things, not knowing upfront which seeming detours from the plan are going to wind up recorded as pivotal moments.
But for the people in those moments, God’s fidelity needed to be trusted because it happened, not only celebrated in hindsight—which is why the angel has to say “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary your wife into your own home.” Perhaps for Mary and Joseph, the memory of God’s complicated yet fruitful fidelity to Israel and the road of David was a reassurance that God was being similarly faithful to them in frightening and confusing circumstances.
There have been plenty of places aside from Bethlehem “too small to be among the many clans of Judah”; there are a lot of other complexities in the road from Abraham to David to Joseph that didn’t merit an interruption in Matthew’s genealogy and should not have merited recording in any respect. Those we find out about aren’t simply because they were foreordained, prophesied and planned out by God’s windfall, but in addition because they were the moments when confused and frightened people, within the midst of those events, trusted God and muddled through even complicated and sometimes sinful circumstances without knowing upfront how God’s fidelity would work things out.
Or to say this one other way: As much as faith in windfall and “God having a plan” could also be a comfort, it’s also a challenge, because God’s plan is daring and strange enough that only hindsight has a probability to see it clearly. And the challenge to us is fidelity in small things, not knowing upfront where our Bethlehems are, and fidelity in complicated things, not knowing upfront which seeming detours from the plan are going to wind up recorded as pivotal moments.
As we have fun Mary’s birth today, may she and Joseph be a model of such faith and courage for us, and should we hear with them the angel’s comfort and challenge: Don’t be afraid.