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THURSDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT, DECEMBER 17, 2020

Writer's picture: Maria KnoxMaria Knox



A Gospel according to MT 1:1-17


The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Christ, fourteen generations.


REFLECTION: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ."


What do you feel when you read all these names? What do you think of all these people who lived in ancient times, and whose names can be difficult to pronounce?


Genealogy meant a lot to the Jewish people. In fact, Matthew is trying to prove a point here for his first century readers.


But what does this mean to us?


We live in a culture of now. We don't want to spend time in the past, especially when some of our ancestors might not have been exactly "model citizens".


Judah sold his brother Joseph into slavery; the wife of Uriah was an adulteress; Ruth, a foreigner; etc...


And this is the genealogy of Jesus, God incarnate. Should not His family have been holy and almost perfect?


God is always giving us hope. He is even teaching us by example. This includes not being ashamed of where He came from. Even if His family tree was like ours: good, bad, messy...


We are far from perfect. And some of us are more flawed than others. Despite all our flaws and handicaps, He is still with us. Maybe our personal history wasn't the best at the beginning. But we keep searching for Him. For Truth. For Eternal Life with Him.


In a few days we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus. Let us pray to this beautiful baby to help us persevere and to never allow ourselves to be apart from Him again so that we can partake of Eternity with Him and His mother.

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