Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Third Week of Advent | USCCB
In
our gospel for today, we hear of the long genealogy of Jesus Christ, tracing
him back to Abraham and to King David.
By giving us this list of names Matthew is emphasizing,
especially to the Jews of his day, that Jesus’ lineage goes back to the very
beginnings of Israelite history beginning with Abraham, the father of the
nations, and including David, Jesus’ kingly ancestor. Throughout this list of
people that is mentioned in the gospel, there are people that are great and
attempted to do God’s Holy Will, and then there were those who were sinful. Yet
God worked through them all to bring the Messiah into the world to redeem us
from sin and bring us salvation.
We hear of Abraham in the Book of Genesis, and the covenant that
God made with him. In Genesis chapter 17 verse 5, we hear God change his name
from Abram to Abraham, “No longer will you be Abram, your name will be Abraham,for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations.” Abraham first
questioned God as to how this can be since he was a hundred years old and his
wife, also elderly, would not be able to have children. But God fulfilled His
promise and Abraham’s wife, Sarah, had Isaac.
With David we recall that famous story of him killing Goliath,
the Philistine, in the first book of Samuel, chapter 17. Eventually he would go
on to become King, which we read in second book of Kings, chapter 2. David’s hometown
was Bethlehem, and it was prophesied that the Messiah would be born of David’s
line, in Bethlehem. The great sin that David committed was that of adultery,
having relations with the wife of Uriah and fathering a child with her. David
then arranged to have Uriah killed in battle just to hide these facts. But
David was unable to hide these sins of adultery and murder from God.
But through Abraham and David, and all the others mentioned in
the genealogy, God was able to bring about the Messiah and Salvation into the
World. God was able to accomplish His will even through the sinful actions of
those he chose to be in leadership.
In the same way, God works through us in all our situations,
whether we’re open to His Will or not. Though we are sinful, God is always
calling us into relationship with him. All we need to do is to turn to God with
an open and repentant heart to seek His forgiveness, and to allow His Son, our
Savior, Jesus Christ, into our lives to bring about our own spiritual healing
and forgiveness.
As we approach Christmas next week, let us make to time to go to
the Sacrament of Confession to seek forgiveness of our sins. In this way we
will not only celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years
ago, but we can also have him be born in our hearts and receive that love,
peace and forgiveness that can only come from a loving God through Jesus
Christ.
The genealogy of Our LORD also shows some surprises. God included some people, especially some women, that respectable Jewish society would ordinarily reject.
ReplyDeleteTamar tricked Jacob into ensuring that she would have a child to carry on the family name by posing as a prostitute so that Jacob would Father her child. Jacob had to admit that his daughter-in-law had actually acted more righteously than he did.
Rehab was a prostitute in Jericho--probably a Gentile--but she came to believe in the One True GOD after hearing of the marvels that the LORD had performed to protect & save His Chosen people & she hid the spies & eventually was welcomed into the Jewish community & became an honorable wife & mother.
Ruth was a Gentile from Moab who was the widow of the son of Naomi who was married as a result of Naomi's family's flight from Bethlehem during a famine. When Naomi chose to go back home to Bethlehem, Ruth refused to leave her & became her greatest friend. Ruth's words to Naomi are often used in wedding ceremonies & in the Gregory Norbert song WHEREVER YOU GO: "your people shall be my people & your GOD my GOD". She married Boaz, who was the "kinsman redeemer", a term sometimes applied to Our LORD Himself.
And Bathsheba, who participated in the sin of adultery with David & became his wife & the mother of Solomon.
The LORD redeemed all these women & honored them by placing them in the legal genealogy of Our LORD.