20221217 BE PROUD OF OUR FAMILY TREE
17 December, 2022, Saturday, 3rd Week of Advent
First reading |
Genesis 49:2,8-10 © |
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.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 71(72):1-4,7-8,17 © |
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.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Wisdom of the Most High,
ordering all things with strength and gentleness,
come and teach us the way of truth.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 1:1-17 © |
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.
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 backgrounds. 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 marvelled 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 birth right 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 evillest 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 a 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 within their constraints, and the way they brought us up 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 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 His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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