Rereading the Infancy Narrative in Matthew for a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Asia and in the World

The infancy narrative in Matthew describes the glory and the wonder surrounding the nativity of Jesus in the context of the brutal historical reality of political oppression, dislocation, infanticide, and people’s “wailing and loud lamentation” (Mt 2:18). This ancient account in the New Testament has manifold resonances in the grave challenges of the contemporary world: the refugee crisis and the migrant crisis remind us of the plight of the Holy Family; the victimized people’s pain and suffering are captured in the image of “Rachel weeping for her children” (Mt 2:18); and the violence in the contemporary Bethlehem evokes the hopes and fears of the ‘little town of Bethlehem’ where the infanticide took place. These echoes between then and now prompt this study to attempt to investigate the infancy narrative in Matthew from an Asian feminist perspective in the ecumenical context of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Asia and in the world. Chapter 2 explores Matthew 2 in particular which depicts the clash between the Roman imperial domination and the divine politics. While King Herod, ‘all the chief priests and scribes,’ and the death squad are the loyal minions of the hegemonic system, Joseph, Mary and the magi are the faithful followers of the divine initiative. The story portrays Jesus the King as a vulnerable child, and this motif presents profound theological challenges. Chapter 3 discusses an Asian feminist engagement with the Matthean infancy narrative. Despite his androcentric and patriarchal assumptions, Matthew’s theological construction introduces an alternative reality. This distinctive trait can be detected in the way he portrays Mary’s birth-giving as well as the action of Joseph the husband of Mary which conjures up what is called a healthy, positive, or transformative masculinity in the present ecumenical movement. In the infancy narrative of Matthew, the feminine and maternal images of God can be traced through intertextual readings. Chapter 3 appropriates the fertile meanings of a variety of motifs such as dream, hope, imagination, faith, and love that abound in the text for those who embark on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Asia and in the world encountering the unprecedented challenges. In conclusion, the infancy narrative of the first evangelist emerges as a story of birth possibly opening up the imaginary of natality, as well as a tale of star or light, rising above the threats of death and darkness and twinkling with hope.