Bethlehem
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
An angel of the Lord was sent to Joseph and said to him: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” How calm are those words. What astonishment and what humility were Joseph’s! If we are to have any understanding at all of these things, it is for God alone to give it to us.
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” Why “you”? You are not the father. He has no father but God. But God has transferred his rights to you. You will stand as a father to Jesus Christ. Formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the one who belongs to you, he also belongs to you. With the authority and rights of a father, then, have also a father’s heart towards Jesus. God, “who fashions the hearts of all,” today places a father’s heart in you. How blessed are you, for at the same time he gives Jesus the heart of a son toward you. You are the true spouse of his holy Mother; you share with her this beloved Son and the graces that flow from his love. Go then and at the proper time name the child, giving him the name of Jesus—both for you and for us—so that he will be our Savior as well as yours.
After his dream and the angel’s words, Joseph was a changed man. He became a father and a husband in his heart. The effect of his marriage was the tender care that he had for Mary and the divine child. He began this blessed ministry by traveling to Bethlehem, and we know all that followed from it.
What is it that you do, you princes of the earth, who set all the world in motion to perform an accounting of the subjects of your empire? You wish to know their productivity, their revenue, and the size of the army that can be assembled, and so you declare a census. This was what you thought you were doing. Yet God had other plans, which you were carrying out without having any idea of it. His Son must be born in Bethlehem, David’s humble home. He had made his prophet predict it seven hundred years before (cf. Micah 5:2), and now the whole world is bestirred so that the prophecy may be fulfilled.
When they were in Bethlehem—to obey the prince but also to obey the order of God—“the time came for her to be delivered,” and Jesus, the Son of David, was born in Bethlehem, “the village where David was.” The public registers attested his origin. The Roman Empire bore witness to the royal lineage of Jesus Christ, and Caesar, unknowingly, carried out the orders of God.
Let us also be enrolled at Bethlehem. Bethlehem, the house of bread. Let us go there to taste the bread of heaven, the bread of angels become human food. Let us consider all our churches to be true Bethlehems, true homes of the bread of life. This is the bread that God gives to the poor in the birth of Jesus. If with him they love poverty and come to adore him in the manger, then they shall find true wealth, then the “poor shall eat and be satisfied.”
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, as we are bathed in the radiance of your incarnate Word, the light of faith, which illumines our minds, may also shine through in our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
