18 December 2026 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20–21
Today's O Antiphon: “O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come and redeem us with outstretched arm.” Jeremiah promises: “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch… And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’”
Matthew tells the story from Joseph's side. Mary is found with child; Joseph, “a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace”, plans to dismiss her quietly. In a dream the angel tells him the child is from the Holy Spirit and gives him two tasks: take Mary as your wife, and name the child Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins”. By naming him, Joseph makes Jesus legally a son of David. All this fulfils Isaiah: “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, God is with us.” Joseph awakes and obeys, without a word recorded.
Theme: “God with us.”
The righteous Branch, Joseph's obedient faith, and the name of Jesus.
“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”” Jeremiah 23:5–6
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20–21
Apply: Pray for just leaders in our country.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
““Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”” Matthew 1:23
Apply: Pray “Emmanuel, be with us” at each meal today.
“Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” Genesis 6:22
“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.” Matthew 1:24
Apply: Do at once one thing God asks of you.
God is with us in Jesus.
Like Joseph, let us listen and obey.
Take-home resolution: Pray to St Joseph daily until Christmas.
Dear friends, today's O Antiphon prays: O Adonai, ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come and redeem us with outstretched arm.
Jeremiah announces: the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. And this is the name by which he will be called: The Lord is our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5–6).
In the Gospel we meet St Joseph. Mary is found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But an angel says to him in a dream: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife (Matthew 1:18–20).
Joseph's righteousness is not cold legalism. Even before the angel speaks, his justice is merciful: he will not shame Mary. Then, when God speaks, he obeys immediately: when Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel commanded him (Matthew 1:24).
The angel tells him to name the child Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, and calls him Emmanuel, God is with us (Matthew 1:21–23). Joseph gives Jesus his name and his place in the house of David. Without words, he serves God's plan.
Joseph is a model for fathers and for all of us: just and merciful, attentive to God's voice, quick to obey, faithful in silence. This Christmas, let us ask St Joseph to help us make room for Jesus in our homes, and not to be afraid. Amen.
Children, Joseph listened to the angel and took care of Mary and baby Jesus. Ask St Joseph to help you obey God!
O Adonai, Lord who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, come and redeem us with outstretched arm. Give me the faith of St Joseph to listen, to trust and to obey, and let Jesus be born in my home. Amen.
Yesterday's genealogy ended with a puzzle: Joseph, of David's line, is the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born. Today's Gospel explains it. An angel tells Joseph to take Mary home and to give the child his name, and so Jesus becomes a son of David through Joseph. Jeremiah supplies the promise behind the story: a righteous Branch for David, called “The Lord is our righteousness.” Joseph, the righteous man, stands at the point where that promise is kept.
Setting.
Jeremiah preached in Jerusalem in the last decades before its fall in 587 BC. In 21:11 to 23:4 he gives his judgment on the kings of Judah, whom he calls shepherds who scattered the flock (23:1–2). The last of them was Zedekiah, whose name means “The Lord is my righteousness”. Today's oracle comes straight after that judgment: God himself will give a true king.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch” (23:5)
The dynasty looked like a felled tree. God promises new growth, from the same root and by his own act: “I will raise up”.
“In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.” (23:6)
Both halves of the divided people are named. The northern kingdom had been gone for over a century; the promised king will restore all of them.
“Then they shall live in their own land.” (23:8)
Israel's oath will change. They used to swear by the God who brought them out of Egypt, and they will swear by the God who brought them home from every land. A return would be counted as great as the Exodus.
How the Church reads it.
Christians read the Branch as Jesus, the son of David, in whom God's justice comes to the earth. St Paul says that Christ “became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30): the name in Jeremiah finds its meaning in him. The Catechism teaches that the kingdom promised to David would be the work of the Spirit and would belong to the poor according to the Spirit (CCC 709).
Setting.
A Jewish betrothal in that time was more than an engagement: the couple were legally husband and wife, and only divorce could end it, though they did not yet live together. That is why Matthew calls Joseph “her husband” and speaks of dismissing her. Unlike Luke, Matthew tells the story from Joseph's side.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (1:19)
The Fathers discussed what was in Joseph's mind. St Jerome thought that Joseph, knowing Mary's chastity and amazed at what had happened, kept silent about a mystery he did not understand (in substance). Others read it as mercy toward her in a painful doubt. Both readings honour him.
“She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (1:21)
Not from Rome, as many might have hoped, but from sin. The mission is in the name. The Catechism takes this verse as the summary of the Gospel: God's mercy to sinners (CCC 1846).
““Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,”” (1:23)
The Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 has ‘almâ, “young woman”, and the Greek Old Testament, which Matthew quotes, has parthenos, “virgin”. Matthew reads the text in the light of what has happened, and the Church sees in the virginal conception the fulfillment of the promise (CCC 497).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Joseph was called so that Jesus should be born of his spouse “into the messianic lineage of David” (CCC 437). It teaches that the virginal conception is a divine work surpassing human understanding (CCC 497), and that the Church confesses Mary's perpetual virginity (CCC 499–501). St John Paul II, in Redemptoris Custos (1989), presents Joseph as the guardian of the Redeemer, a man whose obedience of faith is seen in what he does; the Gospels record no word of his.
Does “until she had borne a son” (1:25) mean Joseph and Mary later had marital relations?
No. In biblical language “until” says what happened up to a certain point and implies nothing about what came after. St Paul says that Christ “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25), and his reign will not stop then. St Jerome made this point against Helvidius. The verse protects the virginal conception, and the Church confesses Mary as ever-virgin (CCC 499–501).
Today's O Antiphon is O Adonai, the title by which Jewish reading replaces the holy Name. It recalls the Lord who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai. The name Jesus, given today, carries that same Name within it: “the Lord saves”.