December 17
"Mt 1:1–17"
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron,...Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
Today we start the second phase of Advent. The readings of the Mass now turn our attention to preparing for the Nativity of Our Lord. Today's Gospel is full of the names of Jesus' ancestors. Lots of these names are unfamiliar to us. Others are well-known patriarchs and saints. Still others are well-known sinners. Before Jesus, history is made up of a mixture of saints and sinners, many of them anonymous characters. God used them all to bring about His salvation.
God 'writes straight with crooked lines.' He can use anyone He likes as an instrument. And when His marvellous deed happens, it's the Artist who gets the credit, not the instruments. You don't find a monument to Shakespeare's pen. It would be ridiculous if someone on the list of ancestors claimed to have brought about salvation; that, thanks to him or her, Jesus became a man or that without them, redemption wouldn't have been possible. God brought salvation. They had the 'honour' of being chosen to co-operate. That's all.
Pope John Paul I described a comic scene: imagine that during Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem, the donkey that He was riding on could think out loud. Seeing a crowd cheering, applauding and placing palm branches under its hooves, imagine the donkey looking around him with a big smile and starting to thank his audience, 'Thank you! Thank you very much! Thanks for coming!' Hilarious! The same ridiculous scene would be repeated if we, instruments in the Hands of God, claimed credit for the marvellous works that God performs through us. If God chooses us to perform great things, we should never forget that we are just instruments. He is the Artist. Mary, Mother of God, help me to be grateful for the honour (the privilege!) of being God's instrument.
