Behold, the Virgin Shall Conceive: Is 7, Rom 1 and Joseph’s Dream in Mt 1

Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium, et vocabitur nomen eius Emmanuel.
Is 7:14

The Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A, is the most explicitly Marian Sunday of the whole liturgical year: Is 7:10-14 announces that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son called Emmanuel. Rom 1:1-7 proclaims that the Son of God was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Mt 1:18-24 narrates the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s point of view: an angel reveals to him in a dream that what is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit, and that he is to call the child Jesus, because it is He who will save His people from their sins, fulfilling what the Lord had said through the prophet Isaiah. Advent reaches its final week with the announcement that defines it: God with us.

I. The First Reading: Is 7:10-14

The context is political: King Ahaz of Judah refuses to ask the Lord for a sign, invoking the piety of not putting God to the test (Is 7:12). The refusal is in truth disobedience disguised as humility. Isaiah answers that the Lord will give a sign of His own free initiative: “Behold, the young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and she shall call him Emmanuel” (v. 14). The sign is given not to Ahaz but to the “house of David” (v. 13): it transcends the immediate situation. The Hebrew word is “almah”, a young woman of marriageable age, which the Septuagint translated as “parthenos”, virgin. Matthew will read in this Greek translation the announcement of the virginal conception of Jesus. The name Emmanuel, God with us, is the theological heart of the whole of Advent: the coming that is awaited is not that of a prophet or a leader, but that of God who becomes flesh. The sign that Ahaz refused to ask for is the greatest sign in history.

II. The Second Reading: Rom 1:1-7

Paul opens the Letter to the Romans with a presentation of the Gospel that is at the same time a confession of faith: the Gospel of God was promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Rom 1:2). Its object is His Son, born of the seed of David according to the flesh (v. 3), and constituted Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (v. 4). The twofold sonship of Jesus, “of the seed of David according to the flesh” and “Son of God according to the Spirit”, is the heart of Christological faith. The flesh comes from David: the royal human lineage that the Old Testament prepared. The Spirit comes from God: the divine origin that Is 7 announces and Mt 1 narrates. Paul writes without naming Mary, but the “born of the seed of David according to the flesh” presupposes the mother who transmits that flesh. The Incarnation passes through the genealogy, and the genealogy passes through Mary.

III. Evangelium: Mt 1:18-24

Matthew narrates the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s point of view. Mary was betrothed to Joseph and, before they lived together, was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:18). Joseph, being just and not wishing to expose her to public shame, resolved to divorce her quietly (v. 19). While he was deliberating, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (v. 20). “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (v. 21). Matthew adds the theological note: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, which means God with us” (vv. 22-23). Joseph awakes and does what the angel had commanded: he takes Mary as his wife but did not know her until she had borne her son, and he called him Jesus (v. 24). Matthew’s narrative is built upon obedience: the angel announces, Joseph obeys. The Incarnation depends on two yeses: that of Mary, which Luke narrates, and that of Joseph, which Matthew narrates. The Son of God entered the world through two acts of human fidelity.

IV. Mary and the Sign of Emmanuel

Is 7:14 is the Old Testament text most directly applied to Mary in the Christian liturgy. The sign that Ahaz refused to ask for, and that the Lord gave on His own initiative, is the virgin who conceives. Mary is not merely the biological setting of the birth of Jesus: she is the sign chosen by God. The virginal conception is not merely an extraordinary biological fact: it is the way in which God decided to manifest the divine origin of the Son. If Jesus had been born by ordinary generation, He could have been taken for just another prophet or king. The virginal conception affirms that His origin is not human, that the Emmanuel comes from God. Mary, who says “let it be done according to your word” (Lk 1:38), is the answer to Ahaz, who refused to ask. Where the king distrusts, the handmaid trusts. Where the powerful man feigns humility in order to slip away, the humble woman accepts the weight of the divine choice. Rom 1 proclaims that the Son was born of the seed of David according to the flesh: it is the flesh of Mary. The Emmanuel, God with us, is God-in-Mary before being God-in-us. Mary is the first “with us”: the place where God decided to be before any other.

Delve deeper into the Perpetual Virginity of Mary.