💖 HOMILY - DECEMBER 17 💖

First Reading: Genesis 49:2,8-10

Gospel: Matthew 1:1-17

We all take pride in tracing our lineage. The lineage shows the historic past that our ancestors lived and paves our way to see the future with a hope for better tomorrow. The readings of the day invite us to journey through the historic ancestoral lineage of Jesus which consists of falls and rises and a great hope.

The first reading highlights the prophecy of the unending reign of Judah among all his brothers and other nations. This is a blessing and a prophecy which comes to its actualization during the reign of king David who hailed from the tribe of Judah and later with the coming of Christ who reigns in our hearts forever.

The gospel of the day seems dull because of the number of names that this passage contains. This makes us bored and uninterested but the genealogy of Jesus has a polemic overtone and rich theological import. First of all, this passage is polemic because it defends that Jesus hailed from the lineage of David and Abraham. Secondly, this passage upholds that the birth of Jesus was from a virgin through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, thus Joseph is the foster father of Jesus and not biological father. Thirdly, this passage also contain the name of some women who made a great impact in the history of Israel like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah's wife and Mary. This inclusion of women in the genealogy is unusual but makes the history of Israel crude and convincing. The theological import that we can cull from the genealogy is that the ancestory of Jesus consists of crooks and just people. God uses everyone to mould the history to the coming of Jesus Christ. God uses every individual and every event for the salvation history of humanity.

My dear friends, the genealogy of Jesus brings us a sad face of the salvation history where sinners, murderers, adulterous people come to the scene but God uses them through the salvation history. This is how the reign of Christ becomes ever abiding. The genealogy consists of fall and rise in the history of Israel by their deportation and restoration but God uses everything for the salvation history. He designs the ordeals and exuberance of the people for the coming of Christ so that all should understand the pain of God due to our sins and joy of God due to our repentance. We regret for our failures and past but God has a plan for us through everything that we experience. God does not give up the idea of saving his people by seeing the bad people through the lineage of Christ, but gives people hope for a better tomorrow. We are also given hope of better tomorrow by learning from the mistakes of the past of ours and others and invited to keep our eyes fixed on God with a hope for a better tomorrow because Jesus is with us or Immanuel. May God strengthen us to remain hopeful through thick and thin of our lives.