THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS
Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
My dear encountered couples:
Our gospel readings start getting serious today about Christmas. The genealogy of Jesus is presented. From Abraham to Joseph, the husband of Mary, we hear names listed of ancestral relatives of Jesus. Among them are good people as well as some not so good.
We all probably have saints and scoundrels in our family trees. Wouldn’t it be great to discover Jesus on one of your branches? Well, he’s there. Jesus Christ made himself part of your family.
That’s one of the results of his coming to earth. The Son of God became one of us and entered into each of our families. Do you suppose he feels welcome? I wonder how many people are proud to have Jesus in their homes, at their tables, in the midst of their family discussions and decisions? I wonder how many make him feel like he’s part of the family. Or do many ignore him? Is he treated as a friend and brother and an intimate member of the clan? Or as so many of the Jewish people in the gospels seemed to have treated him, especially the priests and elders?
The Son of God wasn’t even welcome in his own hometown of Nazareth after he told them who he was. They chased him out. And he sure wasn’t wanted in Jerusalem. All Jesus wanted to do was make people happy. But they figured they could find happiness on their own, without him. And so, many of his countrymen treated him as an outsider, a busybody, a nuisance, an interloper, an embarrassment, even as an enemy to the state.
Poor Jesus! I’ll bet he’s still being kicked out of homes. Wouldn’t it be awful to find a family member living on the streets, homeless? Jesus is part of your family. Keep setting a place for him at your table.
