20141217
CHRIST COMES TO HEAL OUR FAMILY TREE
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Genesis
49:2,8-10 ©
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Jacob called his sons
and said:
‘Gather round, sons
of Jacob, and listen;
listen to Israel your
father.
Judah, your brothers
shall praise you:
you grip your enemies
by the neck,
your father’s sons
shall do you homage,
Judah is a lion cub,
you climb back, my
son, from your kill;
like a lion he
crouches and lies down,
or a lioness: who
dare rouse him?
The sceptre shall not
pass from Judah,
nor the mace from
between his feet,
until he come to whom
it belongs,
to whom the peoples
shall render obedience.’
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Psalm
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Psalm
71:1-4,7-8,17 ©
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In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
O God, give your
judgement to the king,
to a
king’s son your justice,
that he may judge
your people in justice
and your
poor in right judgement.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
May the mountains
bring forth peace for the people
and the
hills, justice.
May he defend the
poor of the people
and save
the children of the needy.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
In his days justice
shall flourish
and peace
till the moon fails.
He shall rule from
sea to sea,
from the
Great River to earth’s bounds.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
May his name be
blessed for ever
and
endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be
blessed in him,
all
nations bless his name.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Wisdom of the Most
High,
ordering all things
with strength and gentleness,
come and teach us the
way of truth.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 1:1-17 ©
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A genealogy of Jesus
Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:
Abraham was the
father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of
Jacob,
Jacob the father of
Judah and his brothers,
Judah was the father
of Perez and Zerah, Tamar being their mother,
Perez was the father
of Hezron,
Hezron the father of
Ram,
Ram was the father of
Amminadab,
Amminadab the father
of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of
Salmon,
Salmon was the father
of Boaz, Rahab being his mother,
Boaz was the father
of Obed, Ruth being his mother,
Obed was the father
of Jesse;
and Jesse was the
father of King David.
David was the father
of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Solomon was the
father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father
of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa was the father of
Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the
father of Joram,
Joram the father of
Azariah,
Azariah was the
father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of
Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of
Hezekiah,
Hezekiah was the
father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father
of Amon,
Amon the father of
Josiah;
and Josiah was the
father of Jechoniah and his brothers.
Then the deportation
to Babylon took place.
After the deportation
to Babylon:
Jechoniah was the
father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father
of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel was the
father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of
Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of
Azor,
Azor was the father
of Zadok,
Zadok the father of
Achim,
Achim the father of
Eliud,
Eliud was the father
of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of
Matthan,
Matthan the father of
Jacob;
and Jacob was the
father of Joseph the husband of Mary;
of her was born Jesus
who is called Christ.
The
sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from
David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian
deportation to Christ.
CHRIST
COMES TO HEAL OUR FAMILY TREE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: GENESIS 49:2, 8-10; MATTHEW 1:1-17
Today,
we enter into the Octave before Christmas. Eight days from now, we will
celebrate the birth of Christ. The liturgy therefore takes pain to
prepare for His birth by tracing the family tree of Jesus. In the gospel,
we read the long genealogy of Christ’s ancestry. At
first glance, it seems to be a list of boring and uninspiring names, many of
whom we do not have much inkling of their roles and importance in salvation
history. Furthermore, some of the names, especially the kings, were
surely not good examples of fidelity to the Lord. Rahab, Manasseh and
Ahaz were of dubious character. Rahab was a prostitute. Bathsheba the
wife of Uriah was an adulterous. Ahaz was a wicked king and brought
paganism into the country and God’s judgment as well. Of course, among
the list, there were great people like Abraham, Ruth and David.
Secondly,
we are told that from Judah, the most insignificant and smallest tribe
among the Twelve, would come the Messiah. Jacob prophesied, “Judah,
your brothers shall praise you: you grip your enemies by the neck, your
father’s sons shall do you homage … The scepter shall not pass from Judah, nor
the mace from between his feet, until he come to whom it belongs, to whom the
peoples shall render obedience.
What
lessons can we draw from scripture lessons? Firstly, that like Jesus,
our family tree is not perfect. It is significant that He came from a
line of broken people. In other words, He did not have a perfect family
tree. We too should not be ashamed of ourselves when we go through our
family history. As we reflect on our family tree, we should not be
surprised that we too have some members of our family who committed shameful
crimes and sins. But we too will find some exemplary relatives who have
given hope and pride to the family. Instead of hiding from the fact
that not all members of the family are doing well or have done well, let us
accept the reality of sin and brokenness in our lives. In every family,
there will be skeletons. There will be some who are regarded as the black sheep
of the family. Sometimes, it is so difficult to admit that not all our
family members are living good and happy lives. The failure to accept sin
and brokenness in our family will lead to hypocrisy, and by denying and hiding
the truth, we cannot help them to put things right. Jesus was not ashamed
of His ancestors. He calls all of us His brothers and sisters. Let
us therefore not pretend or feel embarrassed when someone mentions that our
brother, sister, uncle or aunt has done something wrong, like being involved in
a crime.
Secondly, God
can write straight in crooked lines. When we study St Matthew’s
genealogy of Jesus, we find that he categorized the family tree of Jesus into
three periods, with each of phase of history comprising fourteen
generations. “The sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham
to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from
the Babylonian deportation to Christ.” The first era of salvation
history therefore began with Abraham, the father of faith and ended with King
David. The second stage illustrates the fall of Israel and the resultant
exile in Babylon. The final stage saw the restoration of Israel with its
completion by Christ who is the Davidic King, priest and messiah. The
intention of St Matthew is to portray the divine plan of God unfolding,
irrespective of man’s cooperation and infidelity. God’s plan cannot be
destroyed by the sinfulness of man. Since the fall of humankind, God has
already initiated the plan of redeeming His people, beginning from
Abraham. The arrival of Jesus is not by chance but in accordance with the
divine plan of God. In His infinite wisdom and divine providence, God had
prepared the people of Israel to receive the Messiah by sending them prophets
and allowing the vicissitudes of the events of history to purify them to
welcome the Messiah.
Thirdly,
to affirm that “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary;
of her
was born Jesus who is called Christ”, the evangelist confirms that Jesus is
truly from the dynasty of David, and therefore the true King and Messiah on one
hand. However, on the other hand, it shows that Jesus is truly a man
and shares all our human conditions except that He did not sin. He
too knows human frailty, the sufferings of humanity because of sin, injustice
and weakness.
More
importantly, although Jesus’ family tree was not perfect, He did not allow
Himself to be dragged down by the sins of His ancestors. Through
Jesus, He established a new family that is protected by the grace of God.
For this reason, when Jesus was conceived, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Him and
removed Him from Original Sin and the consequences that come from original
sin. Jesus, as the New and Second Adam, is fit to lead us to the
Heavenly Father. It is true that our family tree can affect us because of
the effects of original sin, both in our human nature and the environment. But
through Him, we too can share in His divine sonship by becoming the adopted
children of God. By virtue of our baptism, we receive the grace of God to
live a holy life and a life of God. We need not condemn ourselves to
disaster just because we did not have a good family background, especially if
our parents are divorced; our siblings have failed relationships and done all
kinds of immoral activities. We can be different. Our lives are not
doomed to failure. Through Christ, we can break all curses and negative
effects of our family tree from befalling on us.
Just as
Judah, the most insignificant tribe, was chosen to be the one whom the Messiah
would come, so too God will choose the weak, the lowly and the unknown and
ordinary people of society to be His instruments of salvation. He
chose Mary, a lowly handmaid, to be the Mother of Jesus. He chose sinners
like St Peter and St Paul to be pillars of the Church He had established.
He chose the weak and the simple, the uncouth, like the shepherds, to announce
the arrival of the birth of the Messiah. Indeed, He chose the weak to
shame the strong. We too can make a difference in our family. We
must not resign ourselves to a kind of fatalistic mentality, as if we cannot
change the unfortunate course of our family tree. Each one of us can,
with the power of God’s grace in Christ, turn whatever is sinful, negative and
shameful in our family line to something positive and edifying. There is
a role for each one of us to play in redeeming our family members from
following the path of perdition.
So as
we come nearer to the feast of Christmas, we must spend time going through our
family tree. Let us give thanks to God for our ancestors. Let us
search and remember what they have done for us. In spite of their
imperfections, mistakes and follies, they too have tried to live a good life
within the constraints they were in. They too had their fair share of
struggles to do the right thing, of failures and success. So for the
good they have done for us and the blessings we have inherited through them,
let us give praise and thanks to God for them.
On the
other hand, if we uncover some skeletons in the cupboard, let us not be
ashamed but accept our human condition. We too are sinners like
them. When we see their mistakes, we do not condemn them but we ask the
Lord to forgive them so that they too can forgive themselves. It is also
important for us to offer our members of the family, living and dead, our
forgiveness. Let us assure them that we hold nothing against them because
they too were ignorant and more often than not, reacting to the perceived hurts
that others inflicted on them, or their fears of loneliness, suffering and
rejection. We must pray for them and ask God to give them the grace of
reconciliation during this Christmas. On our part, if we can, let us
reach out to them and be reconciled with them so that instead of darkness, we
shed light; joy instead of sadness, hope instead of despair, forgiveness
instead of condemnation.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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