Monday December 17
Introduction
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, 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, attended marriage feasts. Indeed, he was fully human, God in human form.
Opening 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.
Reading 1 GN 49:2, 8-10
Jacob called his sons and said to them:
“Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel, your father.
“You, Judah, shall your brothers praise
–your hand on the neck of your enemies;
the sons of your father shall bow down to you.
Judah, like a lion’s whelp,
you have grown up on prey, my son.
He crouches like a lion recumbent,
the king of beasts–who would dare rouse him?
The scepter shall never depart from Judah,
or the mace from between his legs,
While tribute is brought to him,
and he receives the people’s homage.”
Responsorial PsalmPS 72:1-2, 3-4AB, 7-8, 17
R. (see 7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Wisdom of our God Most High,
guiding creation with power and love:
come to teach us the path of knowledge!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MT 1:1-17
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the king.
David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,
Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian exile.
After the Babylonian exile,
Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
Abiud became the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.
Thus the total number of generations
from Abraham to David
is fourteen generations;
from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to the Christ,
fourteen generations.
Intercessions
– For the Jewish people, who gave us Jesus our Savior, that God may bless them and give them peace, we pray:
– For people who have erred, that they may not give up on themselves but keep seeking reconciliation with God and neighbor, we pray:
– For all of us, that we may keep growing in humanity in the likeness of Christ, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
your Son Jesus Christ, our Savior,
gives himself to us
in the simplicity of a piece of bread
and a cup of wine.
May we learn from him
to give ourselves in all simplicity.
Do not allow us to be resigned
to evil and misfortunes in the world,
but challenge us to be responsible with Jesus
for our brothers and sisters
and with him to exist for others,
today and every day, for ever.
Prayer after Communion
Loving Father,
because Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
became one of us long ago,
we can believe that he is still one of us today,
sharing our destiny, going all the way with us.
Accept us then in your Son as we are:
stumbling and fumbling and plodding,
yet full of good will and hoping
in a future of justice and reconciliation,
for Christ is our Lord for ever.
Blessing
A theme dear to the Church Fathers is that Christ became one of us as a human person to make us children of God and to show us in himself what it means to be a son or daughter of God. May God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
Generally, people are proud of their ancestral links and eager to trace them to famous personalities. But the genealogy of Jesus is an anomaly if we go by such standards. It is a mixture of “good” and “not-so-good” men and women. A few samples are worth considering: Jacob was a liar. Judah slept with his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Perez was the child of their union. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth was a gentile. David was a murderer and adulterer. . . . Not really the kind of genealogy worth publishing!
Yet, God willed that His Son would emerge from a lineage of saints and sinners, people who are a mixture of good and evil. God belongs to everyone, period. If no category of human being is excluded from Christ’s genealogy, no one will be excluded from his descendants either (unless some choose to opt out). Everyone is invited. Blessed are those who choose to belong to his family!
