Jesus Christ, “Son of Man”

December 17, Friday

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

         The liturgical readings of today call our attention to Christ in his human reality: human like us in everything – except for sin, clarifies St. Paul – a descendant of sinners, who, as Church Fathers stress, are even singled out in Matthew’s family tree of Christ. He is a man born of a woman, a baby in a crib, a child growing up to manhood, a man walking the roads of Palestine, who could weep and be angry, had friends, had a sense of humor, and attended marriage feasts. Indeed, he was fully human, God in human form.

 

First Reading: Genesis 49:2,8-10

Come together, listen sons of Jacob,
    listen to Israel your father.

You, Judah, your brothers will praise you:
        Your fingers on your enemies’ throat,
        while your brothers honor you.
    You’re a lion’s cub, Judah,
        home fresh from the kill, my son.
    Look at him, crouched like a lion, king of beasts;
        who dares mess with him?
    The scepter shall not leave Judah;
        he’ll keep a firm grip on the command staff
    Until the ultimate ruler comes
        and the nations obey him.

 

Gospel: Matthew 1:1-17

The family tree of Jesus Christ, David’s son, Abraham’s son:

Abraham had Isaac,
Isaac had Jacob,
Jacob had Judah and his brothers,
Judah had Perez and Zerah (the mother was Tamar),
Perez had Hezron,
Hezron had Aram,
Aram had Amminadab,
Amminadab had Nahshon,
Nahshon had Salmon,
Salmon had Boaz (his mother was Rahab),
Boaz had Obed (Ruth was the mother),
Obed had Jesse,
Jesse had David,
    and David became king.

David had Solomon (Uriah’s wife was the mother),
Solomon had Rehoboam,
Rehoboam had Abijah,
Abijah had Asa,
Asa had Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat had Joram,
Joram had Uzziah,
Uzziah had Jotham,
Jotham had Ahaz,
Ahaz had Hezekiah,
Hezekiah had Manasseh,
Manasseh had Amon,
Amon had Josiah,
Josiah had Jehoiachin and his brothers,
   and then the people were taken into the Babylonian exile.

When the Babylonian exile ended,

Jeconiah had Shealtiel,
Shealtiel had Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel had Abiud,
Abiud had Eliakim,
Eliakim had Azor,
Azor had Zadok,
Zadok had Achim,
Achim had Eliud,
Eliud had Eleazar,
Eleazar had Matthan,
Matthan had Jacob,
Jacob had Joseph, Mary’s husband,
    the Mary who gave birth to Jesus,
    the Jesus who was called Christ.

There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David,
    another fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile,
    and yet another fourteen from the Babylonian exile to Christ.

 

Prayer

Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
your Son came among us as one of us,
a human being among other people,
simple, accessible,
yet your human face
and the measure of what a human person is.
Lord, make us discover ourselves in his mirror:
that we are born to be free,
to be unselfish, available, committed.
Free us from our selfishness,
our cowardice and attitudes of conformism,
that we may become a bit
what you want us to be, like your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

God continues to walk with us
The Gospel presents the Family Tree of Jesus, mentioning names which are not so familiar. Who are all these people? 42 names of ancestors of Jesus are mentioned in the extensive genealogy of Jesus. While a few of those names are well known biblical names—Abraham and Isaac, David the king, Solomon, Joseph the husband of Mary—but most of them remain obscure. Except in this passage, we seldom hear those names.

Mathew’s purpose of introducing the genealogy to begin his Gospel was to show how the human history was in the design and plan of God. A God who walked with the humans in the book of Genesis, continues to walk with the humans in the New Testament – but this time, not as God, but as one among them. The Family Tree of Jesus reveals one interesting truth – many of his ancestors had very dubious history – some were murderers, prostitutes, cheaters.

This insight should give us some much-needed comfort: that there is no such thing as a perfect family. Jesus-God himself chose to be born in a family of imperfect people. God knows that neither we nor our families are perfect. What the Lord expects from us is to have faith in him and to love him. Most of those in the list of Jesus’ family tree, in spite of being so lo-profile, and sinful people, but always remained loyal to God. Each of them had a role to play in the salvation history… or rather, God allowed these insignificant people to be part of his saving plan.

We too are part of a history, we too are the link in a genealogy in which sin and hope coexist. God walks into our history, healing what is sinful in this history, and enabling us to participate in his divine plan. This our history also becomes a history of salvation. All what he asks of us is to place our trust in him and in his plans for us. May this Christmas become an event that transforms our lives.

 

Video available on Youtube: God continues to walk with us