20 December 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
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“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.” Matthew 1:24
The last Sunday before Christmas turns to St Joseph. Mary is found with child “from the Holy Spirit”, and Joseph, “a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” Then an angel speaks in a dream: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife… She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Joseph wakes and does exactly what he is told. He never speaks a word in the Gospels; his faith is obedience.
The Old Testament readings show God at work in marriages and families. Rebekah is asked, “Will you go with this man?” and answers, “I will”; Isaac loves her and is comforted. Hannah, childless and mocked, pours out her soul before the Lord in the Temple; the priest Eli thinks she is drunk, but God hears her and gives Samuel. In both stories God's will is discovered and accepted in prayer.
Paul tells the Ephesians: “Understand what the will of the Lord is… be filled with the Spirit… giving thanks to God the Father at all times.” Joseph is the model: he does not know everything, but he discerns God's will and acts on it.
Through Joseph, son of David, Jesus is legally inserted into David's line; Joseph names him, gives him a home, protects him. On the threshold of Christmas the Church asks fathers, and all of us, to learn Joseph's silent, courageous obedience.
Theme: “He did as the angel of the Lord commanded.”
The annunciation to Joseph; God's will discovered in families, from Rebekah and Hannah to Nazareth.
“And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.”” Genesis 24:58
“Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” Matthew 1:19
Apply: Pray together as a couple or family for God's will this week.
“But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD.”” 1 Samuel 1:15
“But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “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.”” Matthew 1:20
Apply: Tell God honestly what troubles you.
“He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD.” Proverbs 18:22
“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: Pray to St Joseph for the fathers in your family.
Joseph took Mary and Jesus into his home.
Let us do the same this Christmas.
Take-home resolution: Pray to St Joseph every day until Christmas.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this last Sunday before Christmas the Church turns our eyes to St Joseph. Mary is expecting a child, and Joseph knows it is not his. He is a righteous man, and he does not want to shame her, so he decides to dismiss her quietly.
Then God speaks to him in a dream: “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.” And the Gospel says simply: Joseph woke up and did as the angel commanded. Not a word of complaint. Not a single word at all.
The Old Testament gives us two more pictures of God working in families. Rebekah is asked, “Will you go with this man?” and she says, “I will.” Hannah, childless and mocked, pours out her soul before the Lord, and God gives her Samuel. God's will is found in prayer and accepted with trust.
St Paul says: “Understand what the will of the Lord is.” Joseph did not understand everything. But he understood enough to obey. That is the faith Christmas asks of us: not to have all the answers, but to do what God asks.
Fathers, look at Joseph: he protects, he provides, he obeys, he loves in silence. Families, look at Joseph: he takes Mary and Jesus into his home. This Christmas, let us not be afraid to take Jesus and Mary into our homes. St Joseph, pray for us. Amen.
Children, do you know who took care of baby Jesus? His mother Mary and St Joseph!
An angel told Joseph in a dream: “Don't be afraid! Take care of Mary and the baby.” Joseph woke up and did it right away.
Let's be like St Joseph: quick to obey and kind to our family. Say together: “St Joseph, help me obey God!”
Lord God, you entrusted your Son to the care of St Joseph. Give us his faith, his silence and his courage, so that we may welcome Jesus and Mary into our homes this Christmas. Amen.
On the last Sunday before the feast of the Lord's birth, the season of the Annunciation comes to its final announcement, to St Joseph. The four readings show God at work in families and in marriages, and they all ask how a person recognizes God's will and says yes to it. Rebekah's family says, "The thing comes from the Lord", and she says, "I will". Hannah pours out her soul in silence and goes away at peace. Paul tells the Ephesians to find out what pleases the Lord. Joseph wakes from a dream and takes Mary home. In each case God's plan comes into an ordinary home by way of someone's quiet consent. The key words are discerning, consenting and receiving.
Setting.
This is the end of the longest chapter in Genesis. Abraham is old, and Sarah has died (Genesis 23). So that the promise may continue, Abraham sends his senior servant back to his homeland to find a wife for Isaac among his own kin. At the well the servant prays for a sign, and Rebekah gives water to him and to his camels (24:12–20). When he has told this to the family, today's reading begins.
Gifts from the groom's side and a long send-off were the normal custom. It is less expected that her family should ask the young woman herself. The veil in v. 65 belongs to the custom of a bride coming to her husband.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you anything bad or good.” (24:50)
"Anything bad or good" is an idiom: we have nothing to add. When God has clearly spoken, even a careful family steps back.
“And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.”” (24:58)
She is going hundreds of miles to marry a man she has never seen. The whole chapter has been about God's guidance, but it pauses here for a young woman's own word. God's plan does not go around human consent; it waits for it.
“Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming.” (24:63)
The two look up at the same moment (vv. 63–64). The servant's long journey and Isaac's quiet evening meet in a single scene.
“Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” (24:67)
This is the first time the Bible says that a man loved his wife. Love comes here after the marriage, and it does not depend on a first romance. It is the love that brings comfort after grief. The tent of Sarah, empty since chapter 23, has a mother in it again.
How the Church reads it.
The Fathers often read this chapter as a figure: Isaac for Christ, Rebekah for the Church or the soul, the well for the word of God. Origen preaches on Rebekah at the well in his homilies on Genesis, and St Ambrose wrote a whole book, On Isaac, or the Soul (both in substance). The Catechism teaches that the exchange of consent is the indispensable element that makes a marriage (CCC 1626). Rebekah's "I will" is not yet the sacrament, but it does show God's respect for a person's own word.
Setting.
This is the time of the Judges, before there was a king. Israel's central sanctuary, with the ark, is at Shiloh, and its priests are not doing well (2:12–17). The nation needs a new beginning, and the story opens not with a battle but with a childless woman. In this she stands with Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Samson's mother. Each time God's new work starts in a place where human hope has run out.
Having two wives was permitted in that society, but the Bible shows what it did. Peninnah has children and Hannah has none, and the wound is reopened every year at the feast.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” (1:8)
Elkanah truly loves her, and he cannot reach her. A note on the text: v. 5 is obscure in Hebrew. NRSV says that he gave her "a double portion", and POC says only one portion. Either way the wound remains.
“She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant,” (1:11)
Three times she calls herself "your servant". NRSV's next words about a nazirite follow other ancient witnesses; the traditional Hebrew text, which POC is closer to, says that she will give him to the Lord all his life, and that no razor will touch his head. What she asks for she will give back. She prays for a child, and at the same moment she lets him go.
“Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk.” (1:13)
In her time people usually prayed aloud. The official priest of the sanctuary misjudges the most real prayer offered there that day. It is a comfort to anyone whose prayer has been misunderstood.
“I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.” (1:15)
She corrects the priest respectfully and without bitterness. This is how a person of faith speaks to authority when it is wrong.
“Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.” (1:18)
Nothing has changed yet; she is not pregnant. Only her prayer has been handed over. This is the peace of having truly left something with God.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism names Hannah among the holy women of the Old Covenant whose mission prepared for that of Mary (CCC 489). Her song (1 Samuel 2:1–10) lies behind the Magnificat, and Mary's words about God looking on the lowliness of his servant (Luke 1:48) echo Hannah's. St Cyprian holds her up as a model of prayer, praying not with loud demands but quietly from the heart (in substance; On the Lord's Prayer 5). Jewish teachers too learned rules of prayer from her (Talmud, Berakhot 31a).
Setting.
In the second half of Ephesians, Paul moves from what God has done to how the Church should live. Chapters 4–5 use the verb "walk" again and again (NRSV often says "live"). Today's passage comes between the call to imitate God (5:1) and the teaching on Christian households (5:21–6:9). The readers live in a pagan world, and Christian life was visibly different from what went on around them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light” (5:8)
Paul does not say that they were in the dark but that they were darkness, and that they are now light. The change goes all the way through, and behaviour must catch up with what has already happened.
“Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” (5:10)
This verse gives the Sunday its theme. Rebekah's family, Hannah and Joseph were all doing just this, in very different ways.
“Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (5:14)
This is probably a line from an early Christian hymn, and many think that it was sung at baptism. St Clement of Alexandria preserves what seems to be more of it (in substance; Exhortation to the Greeks 9).
“making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” (5:16)
Paul has no illusions about the world. He does not advise escape from evil days, but good use of them.
“Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (5:21)
This verse closes today's reading and opens the teaching on the household that follows. Before anything is said to wives, husbands, children or slaves, all are told to be subject to one another.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the baptized, enlightened by Christ, are to walk as "children of light" (CCC 1695), and that Baptism is called enlightenment (CCC 1216). It quotes v. 19 on the place of song in the Church's worship (CCC 1156), and it sees greed for money as a form of idolatry (CCC 2113). The Holy Qurbana is where this passage is lived in the most concentrated way: the Church sings to the Lord in the Spirit and gives thanks to the Father in the name of Jesus (v. 20).
Setting.
Matthew has just given the genealogy of Jesus, from Abraham to "Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born" (1:16). The Greek of "of whom" is feminine: Jesus was born of Mary, not of Joseph. So the genealogy leaves a question, and these verses answer it: how does Jesus belong to the line of David? Through Joseph, who receives him and gives him his name.
Among Jews of that time, a betrothal was more than our engagement. It was legally binding; the couple were already called husband and wife, and it could be ended only by divorce. The bride usually stayed with her family for some time before moving to her husband's home. A pregnancy in that interval raised a serious question under the Law (Deuteronomy 22:23–24).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” (1:18)
Matthew tells the reader at once what Joseph does not yet know, so we may watch him struggle with sympathy. Mary says nothing in this story.
“Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (1:19)
Before any angel speaks, Joseph has already chosen mercy, in the dark. He does not know the whole truth, and he acts on what he knows in the kindest way the Law allows.
“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.” (1:20)
"Son of David" is the key title, used in this Gospel only of Jesus and Joseph. Joseph is told who he is and what he must do. "Do not be afraid" is what God's messengers say all through this season (Luke 1:13, 30; 2:10).
“She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (1:21)
Giving the name is a father's right. By naming the child, Joseph takes him legally into his own family, and so into the house of David. The kind of salvation is also defined: from sins, and not only from Rome.
““Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”” (1:23)
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 in the Greek. See the question below.
“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,” (1:24)
Joseph says nothing in the whole of the Gospels. His reply is this sentence. He does just what he was told, at the cost of whatever people would say.
How the Church reads it.
St John Chrysostom admires Joseph's gentleness and self-control, in not wishing to shame Mary even before he understood the mystery (in substance; Homilies on Matthew 4). St Jerome says that Joseph, knowing Mary's purity and astonished at what had happened, covered with silence a mystery he did not yet understand (in substance; Commentary on Matthew). The Catechism teaches that God called Joseph so that Jesus should be born into the messianic line of David (CCC 437), and that the angel's words announce both the virginal conception (CCC 497) and God's mercy to sinners (CCC 1846). St John Paul II calls Joseph's response an obedience of faith, parallel to Mary's (Redemptoris Custos 3–4), and Pope Francis has written of him as an accepting, courageous father in the shadows (Patris Corde, 2020).
Did Joseph suspect Mary of sin?
The text does not say what he thought, and the Fathers read it in different ways. Some take it that he saw the facts and could not explain them. Others, like St Jerome, think that he knew her virtue too well to accuse her and stepped back in reverence before something he did not understand. Either way, the Gospel praises him: he would not shame her. He should be our model when we hear something about another person that we cannot explain.
Isaiah says "young woman" in Hebrew. Does Matthew misquote him?
The Hebrew ‘almâ of Isaiah 7:14 means a young woman of marriageable age. The Greek Old Testament, made by Jews before the time of Christ, translated it parthenos, "virgin", and Matthew quotes that. The Church, reading the prophecy in the light of what God did, sees here the virginal conception of Jesus (CCC 497). The following verse (1:25) says that Joseph had no relations with her "until" she bore a son. As St Jerome argued, the word "until" says nothing about what came after, and the Church confesses Mary's perpetual virginity (CCC 499).
If Joseph is not the natural father, how is Jesus a son of David?
In the Jewish understanding, a man who accepted a child and named him was that child's legal father, with all that this gave the child. This is why Matthew traces the line through Joseph, and why the angel addresses him as "son of David". Jesus truly belongs to David's house by Joseph's obedience (CCC 437).
Our Annunciation season has moved through the announcements of salvation: to Zechariah, to Mary, the birth of John, and now to Joseph. The Twenty-Five Day Fast is nearly over, and this Sunday asks whether there is room in our house for the one who is coming. Joseph received Mary and the child into his home; at the Holy Qurbana we receive Christ, not into a house but into ourselves. St Ephrem the Syrian, in his Hymns on the Nativity, has Joseph marvel at the child he carries (in substance). In families getting ready for the feast, Joseph's quiet yes may be the most useful example we have: wake up, do what the Lord commands, and take him home.