Whenever we read the genealogy of Jesus, I am reminded of the important lessons that we can learn from the stories behind the names in His ancestry. The Gospel reading today, not only serves to present the lineage of Jesus, but can also represent the major heroes and milestones of Salvation History in the Old Testament, encompassing nearly 2,000 years and includes the ancient Patriarchs and the Exodus, the high Kingdom of David and Solomon, the split of the Kingdom into two, the Babylonian Exile, and the struggles of the postexilic community to restore the land.
Among the lessons we can learn from our spiritual ancestors are reminders that God is in control and has a divine plan, that God can use sinners and those that are seen by the world as “unremarkable” to make His will manifest, that God has an unerring capacity to bring light out of the darkness, and that God ultimately acts in and through His covenant with us.
When God established His covenant with Abraham, He set forth a plan of salvation that continued to evolve over time as the people of Israel continued their pilgrimage through Salvation History. Sometimes, the light of salvation can be difficult to see, but we can see God's promise endure through the many challenges Israel faced.
The genealogy shows us God's providence endures through time. Take for example Ruth. Ruth was an outsider from Moab that had married an Israelite husband. Her husband and sons died and she decided to move to Israel with her mother-in-law. After some time in Israel, she met Boaz, whom she later married. Their child, Obed, is the grandfather of David, the great King whom God had ordained to rescue Israel from the Palestinians and establish the Davidic kingdom, which is a foreshadow of the Messianic kingdom established by Christ. To say Ruth was “unremarkable” to the world (and even to Israel as a community) is an understatement. Yet, she is a particularly important piece of the overall plan God put together. The same is true in our own lives. As “unremarkable” as we may feel at times, God has a plan for us that has important consequences for Salvation History.
David, himself, was quite “unremarkable” as a simple shepherd boy. In fact, he was nearly overlooked when Samuel was searching to anoint the next king of Israel. Yet, David has a more remarkable lesson for us to be mindful of. Many of us have sins in our past (maybe even sins we are still struggling with today), sins that might leave us feeling like we aren't good enough to serve God. Yet, we must remember that David, the greatest King of Israel, was a murderer and an adulterer. Even with those mortal sins in David's life, David was still God's anointed one and God did great things through him. We, too, have been anointed by God by virtue of our baptism and confirmation. If we, like David, truly repent of our sins and live within the context of the covenant (which for us, is to live the sacramental life of the Church), God will do great thing through us as well.
After the heights of the Kingdom during the reign of David and Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel split into two and eventually fell to the Babylonian empire. The Babylonian exile is among the darkest periods of Salvation History. It is a time of great persecution and suffering of God's people. It is during this period that we read of forced worship of pagan idols, persecution, and the abandonment of the faith. It is during the Babylonian exile that we hear the story of the three men cast into the fiery furnace and the story of the mother that witnessed the martyrdom of her seven sons prior to her own martyrdom.
The Babylonian exile should remind us that there are consequences when we start to become lax in our faith life, when we do not make our best effort to understand God's will and we make choices that are not proper to living within the context of the covenant.
As we reflect on the Advent season, we should also take consolation of the more positive message we can receive from the Babylonian exile. No matter how dark the Babylonian exile was, God was able to bring light out of the darkness.
When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, God delivered them and used the situation to remind the faithful of His mighty wonders; that His kingship is an everlasting kingship, and His dominion endures through all generations. Further, when the mother witnessed the martyrdom of her seven sons prior to her own martyrdom, the Lord used it as an opportunity to remind us to hope in the eternal life that is born of serving the Lord and living within the context of the covenant.
These examples, along with many others, show that God uses the dark periods of Salvation History to produce heroes of the faith. God raises these heroes within the context of the covenant. God raised the Judges in the Mosaic covenant, and similarly He raised the Church Fathers in the Messianic Covenant. God raised prophets (like Elisha) and kings (like Josias) to meet the specific needs of His people at those respective times of Salvation History. Similarly, God rose specific leaders in the Church, such as St. Francis De Sales and Pope Clement XI. It is through the covenant, which for the the Messianic covenant is the sacramental life of the Church, that we are granted the grace to face the challenging times of our day, the grace allow God to transform us into the heroes needed to make His plan manifest, and the grace to allow God's light to shine through us into the darkness.
Advent offers us an opportunity to reflect on our full spiritual heritage and open our hearts to what God is calling us to be. It is an opportunity to repent of any sins that may hold us back from our full spiritual potential and to renounce any lies that we may not be good enough or somehow too “unremarkable” for God to use us. It is an opportunity to embrace the holy silence that we may better recognize how God is working through us and around us, even in what seems to be the darkness of the world. It is a time to re-embrace the everlasting Messianic covenant that Jesus shed His blood to establish; most especially in the true presence of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. It is a time to fully surrender our will to God and remember that He has a plan that “justice shall flourish in His time, and fullness of peace for ever”. Everyone in the genealogy of Jesus had an important role in making His plan manifest. Similarly, every baptized Christian also has an important role in making His plan manifest. What is your role?
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