Friday of the Third Week of Advent
As I write this reflection I’m listening to a Christmas Carol Service being live-streamed from Maynooth College in Ireland (a beautiful chapel and campus that my husband and I had the privilege of visiting a few years ago). As I listen to the readings, prayers and songs, it occurs to me that this service is potentially being watched all over the world. It may seem obvious, but it struck me in a new way that Jesus’ birth is soon to be celebrated throughout the world. This is something that unites us with Christians everywhere; uniting people of different races, nationalities, languages, genders, ages, creeds, political ideologies, and socio-economic status. And this is what I am reminded of in today’s gospel passage from Matthew (1:1-17).
To be honest, I usually find this passage, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, to be rather boring. And have brushed over the many names, most of which are unfamiliar and I am likely to mispronounce. But having this passage to reflect on for today, I dug a little deeper and consulted the writings of scripture scholars (actually, my kids’ NAB Catholic Youth Bible, revised version), which shed some important light on this text. The author of Matthew’s gospel includes a varied and broad list of groups in Jesus’ family tree, including both women and men, Jews and non-Jews, peasants and kings, slaves and patriarchs…laying the groundwork for the message that Jesus has come for all people.
Certainly a message that our world needs even (and especially) today.
Today also begins the “O Antiphons” used in the gospel acclamations – a different one for each of the seven days leading up to Christmas (and commonly sung in the traditional hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel). Today’s O Antiphon refers to Christ as Wisdom. May this be our prayer for each other and our world today as we continue our preparations for celebrating the birth of the One who came for all:
“O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge!”
~Eileen Miller