20191217 BE PROUD OF OUR
FAMILY TREE
17 December,
2019, Tuesday, 3rd Week of Advent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Genesis 49:2,8-10 ©
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Until he comes, the sceptre will not pass from Judah
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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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 71(72):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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The ancestry of Jesus Christ, the son of David
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.
BE PROUD OF OUR
FAMILY TREE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [GENESIS 49:2,8-10; MATTHEW 1:1-17 ]
We all have our
skeletons in our cupboard.
When we look at our own personal history, we feel ashamed of some of the things
we have done. We regret the mistakes we made. Often, many of these
blunders are irreversible. They have left deep scars in our lives.
Just like many people who try to cover up their scars, we, too, want to hide
our broken past from others. We are too ashamed to let people know how
evil and despicable we are. We have slept around with our friends in
spite of the fact that we are active in Church ministry. We have molested
our siblings and loved ones. We have cheated and been dishonest. We
were failures in schools.
But what prevents us
from accepting ourselves is also the fact that we cannot accept our family
history. Many
of us do not come from impeccable backgrounds. When we read the biography
of great men and women, saints and famous people, we normally hear of their
good backgrounds. Their ancestors were all great people, great
politicians, accomplished artistes, successful entrepreneurs, brilliant
academics, holy priests and religious. Indeed, when we read the
lives of the saints, we see that many came from good family backgrounds.
Their parents were holy and God-fearing people, like St Theresa’s parents or
Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne. That is why we are ashamed of our
family history. We feel that we do not belong to that category of people
with “good family background” and hence do not deserve a place in society.
We feel disadvantaged compared to those with happy, affluent, influential
family background. We suffer from low self-esteem because we feel that we
cannot make it to the league.
Yet, the truth is that
God’s plan unfolds itself regardless of whether we come from a painful past or
a sad and cursed family tree. This is the wisdom of God beyond understanding.
God has His plans beyond man’s calculation. This is why, on the first day
of the Octave before Christmas, the first “O” Antiphon is said at the Alleluia
verse before the gospel and at the Magnificat at Vespers. We pray, “O
Wisdom, you come forth from the mouth of the Most High. You fill the universe
and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner. O come to teach us
the way of truth.” Indeed, we are called to turn to the wisdom of
God’s plan for us and our salvation. St Paul himself marveled at God’s
plan for humanity, the salvation of the Jews and the Gentiles, exclaiming, “O
the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the
Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Or who has given a gift to him, to
receive a gift in return?’ For from him and through him and to him are all
things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)
Indeed, when we examine
the genealogy of Jesus’ family history, it is significant that the evangelists
did not seek to hide the ugly history of Jesus’ ancestors in recounting His family
history. They did not present the Messiah as coming from a perfect family
history where all His ancestors were saints or good people. In fact,
reading the genealogy of Jesus will reveal that many of Jesus’ forefathers were
crooks, great sinners and evil as well. Jacob was a thief who stole the
birthright from Esau. Tamar was a prostitute, Rahab was a traitor, Ruth was a
Moabite, David an adulterer and murderer, Solomon brought in paganism and Ahaz
was the most evil king that Israel had known. So if we look at His family
history, Jesus was just a man like anyone of us. This is the wisdom of
God’s plan that His Son would truly be born into our history, sharing all our
sinfulness and imperfections even though He Himself did not sin. What is
notable for us to remember is that Jesus did not deny His history. What
is more important is not our family history, but what we do as individuals with
our life.
Often, we use our family
history as our scapegoat for not doing well in life. It is true that our present history to a
great extent has been influenced by the way we were raised up. Our
parents who raised us up in this manner themselves were influenced by their own
parents. All of us bring along with us the history of our ancestors and
to a great or lesser extent, we are the chip of the old block. This is
where the reality of inter-generational sin comes in. Moses said to the
people, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for
the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who
reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of
those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Ex 20:5f) We do not inherit their sins
but we inherit the traits and consequences of their sins which in turn will
shape our character and attitudes towards life.
Rather than resigning
ourselves to the curses of our family history, we should bless our family by
breaking all the curses, through a righteous life, overcoming sin and
death. We
do not have to allow our past to determine how we want to live our life
today. We have the grace and opportunity to change the course of our
history, from one of curses to one of blessing. This was what some of the
ancestors of our Lord did as well. King David repented from his
adulterous act. This was what the Lord did. He overcame
hatred by love and forgiveness. “Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for
he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:44f) St Paul wrote, “Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is
written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’ – in order that in
Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3:13f) He overcame death with
life. “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those
who have died. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his
feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (cf 1 Cor 15:20, 25,26, 56,57)
Indeed, we should never
allow our past or family history to be an excuse for who we are today. God has given us the grace to
redeem not just our past but even our family history. He is patient with
us. He wants us to learn from the mistakes of our ancestors. We
need not imprison ourselves to our past but allow the past mistakes of our
ancestors including ours, to be the graces of God inviting us to learn and to
grow to become better people. That is why we should not be ashamed to go
back to our family history. Learning about our family history will help
us to better understand ourselves, our reactions, our traits and our
fears. All of us must get to know the history of our loved ones well,
whether our parents, grand and great grandparents, our in-laws, our friends and
even the organization that we work for. Knowing the history of those
people we are connected with helps us to appreciate who we are and what we are.
We must also be
realistic and fair. Not all our history is bad or negative, including our
family history.
We have done shameful and evil things. We have made our silly
mistakes. But we can be sure that we have also done good things for
others. Our family history might not be perfect, but certainly our
ancestors had done their best according to their constraints, and their
upbringing had also contributed to the good of humanity and our own
growth. If not for the evil king Ahaz, we would not have had the prophecy
of Isaiah announcing the coming of the Messiah. So God will always draw
good out of evil. We too must learn to be like God, drawing good out of
evil situations; and also to thank God for the good our ancestors had
done. We must praise God for the blessings we have received as
well. In this way, we heal our family tree, thereby helping the
family to grow in the right direction. Instead of moaning and regretting
that we did not come from great and good families, we should accept that God
has a reason to put us in that family where we came from because it is through
that family that He will bless us and help us to find ourselves and our
salvation.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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