Today marks eight days until Christmas. This is special time in the Liturgical Year, as indicated by the recitation of the eight “O” antiphons for the Gospel. Today’s antiphon celebrates the Wisdom of God, who came to teach us the path of knowledge.
In the pageantry that surrounds the Christmas season, it is sometimes easy to forget that the Wisdom of God came to us in the humblest of circumstances. The Gospel reading from the first chapter of Matthew recounts the genealogy of Jesus, which is peppered with several nefarious characters. In Jesus’ genealogy we find incest, harlotry, murder, and political maneuvering. Matthew makes it clear that even the conception of Jesus is cloaked in shame, for Jesus’ mother was unwed. Yes, the Magi come from the east, to see the new king, which only serves to usher in Herod’s infanticidal attack on the newborn boys in Bethlehem. Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus, flee for their lives into the land of Egypt to escape the grip of Herod.
Into this brokenness, the Wisdom of God is born. For Jesus to have been born into better circumstances would have been an affront to his mission to be one like us in all things but sin. In Jesus’ earthly ministry, he sought out the most broken, the rejected. He became an outcast among his own people, which ultimately led to his death. In the midst of what appears to be total defeat, the Wisdom of God is revealed. For it is by his brokenness on the cross that we are made whole; it is by his death that we are set free; and it is by his resurrection that we are brought to eternal life.
“O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love; come to teach us the path of knowledge!” (Gospel antiphon for December 17).
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