Starting with today’s daily mass, the readings in the Advent season are for the specific dates, not for the day of the week, leading us up to Christmas. Today, we hear the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, telling of Jesus’ genealogy going back many generations. It is a long list of names, some of which are not easy to pronounce. It is not the day the priest wants to go in and read the Gospel for the first time without practicing. Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestors back to the patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham, to the great Jewish forefathers Jacob and King David. There are interesting, intriguing, and sometimes very scandalous stories linked with the individuals listed in Jesus’ genealogy. One ancestor listed is Rahab, a prostitute whose courage and faith saved the lives of the Israelite spies in the book of Joshua.
Genealogy has become popular in the US. Since most of us originally came from immigrant families somewhere in our family tree, many of us want to learn more about our roots, about where we came from. In Ancient Israel, it was important to know one’s heritage and ancestry, since this determined whether one was considered clean or pure in a religious sense. Matthew wanted to show that Jesus was in the line of God’s chosen people, the rightful heir to the throne of David, that he would send a Savior to Israel to rule over them and to deliver them from their enemies.
We as disciples of Christ from this spiritual lineage, with our faith having been passed down to us by our own ancestors, from those who learned their faith in the apostolic tradition. As we continue to prepare and wait during this holy Advent season, may we give thanks for those who passed down the faith to us.
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