I regret not having known my grandparents. Three had passed on before I was born and my mother’s mother died when I was 2 months old. My father was a quiet man and he didn’t talk much of his parents, but I knew they were what we called typical "Boston Irish Catholics" and good working class people. When my mother spoke of her mother, Alice, it was in praise of her holiness and faith.
She was from a village in central Ontario and moved to Boston where she met my grandfather, Dan, from a village in Nova Scotia. Dan was a difficult man when he was young, prone to bouts of heavy drinking when he would become very abusive of the whole family. But through Alice’s love and faith, Dan was converted and became a kind and holy man in his old age.
I wish I knew more of my genealogy. I’ve heard little, enough to know that it’s varied and far from perfect, as would be the case for all our families. Still, we sense that knowing more of our ancestors we know more of our families, our “tribe”, of who we are in a bigger picture. In the Old Testament Geneologies are very important and are recounted at key moments so people understand what is most important: the Covenant between God and His people that is to be carefully passed on from father and mother to sons and daughters!
So Matthew begins his Gospel telling of the Genealogy of Jesus so that we will know who He really is: the Annointed One, the promised, long-awaited One.
It’s framed in relationship to Abraham, our Father in Faith, so that we realize that Jesus is the New Adam: the New Covenant, and the New Creation has arrived in Him.
Note, however, that there is no effort to hide things. In the genealogy of Jesus there are saints and sinners: holiness, yet among his ancestors are murderers, adulterers, and tyrants too: all to say that in Him salvation has come. Redemption. We can change. Here is the HOPE for something truly different! Good news for our world now. Our “cancel culture” rejects forgiveness and reconciliation. Fear and division seem to paralyze us. Christ comes to reconcile us.
Holy Savior, come to our world now! Holy Mother Mary, bring Jesus to us. Holy Joseph, help us to see ourselves as we are, beautiful children of God yet so much in need of a savior, of being merciful to one another!
We now enter the holy 9 days of Advent that end on Christmas: let’s make them days to prepare peacefully by looking into the longing of hurting hearts, cherishing those we love, praying for this world in which we live. “O Wisdom of our God Most High, come teach us the path of knowledge.”
