December 17

 As the Octave before Christmas begins today, the Church begins these special days asking us to reflect on Jesus' family tree.  I know a whole bunch of people who think this passage is a COLOSSAL waste of time to read or listen to at Mass.  I assure you that it's no waste of time.  Personally I think it's fun.  There are definitely many names of people in the passage that you never hear of anywhere else in the Bible, though there are a few.  Naturally in a culture dominated by males, we hear about "N. became the father of N." starting with Abraham.  It's sort of strange that Matthew doesn't go all the way back to Adam; however, the reason he doesn't go back to Adam is that the original covenant between God and human beings was made with Abraham.  He really is more of the dominant figure to the Hebrews in their tradition.  Think slightly forward to the scene of Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus -- how does God expand upon "I AM."  He refers to Himself as "the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob."

Another figure that makes a major difference to the Hebrews is King David.  The promised Savior was to be a descendant of King David, and interestingly enough, neither Abraham nor David was "perfect," but they were righteous in God's eyes.  Eventually, the later branches that were handed down came to Joseph, "the husband of Mary.  Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah." (Mt 1:16)

The genealogy is also one way the Hebrews of the day would tell time.  They didn't have watches and they likely had an idea of how the sun and the moon work in terms of seasons for planting and harvesting.  But as to "years," we hear about "generations."  There's no telling the exactness of years lived, but there are ways to approximate that.  But even the number of years was not their purpose.  If people knew their history, they would have known "wow!  that's a long time ago!  all the way back to Abraham?"

I hope that helps to make a little sense of just why the reading is important.  The version of this found in St. Luke's gospel GOES all the way back to "Adam, the son of God."  The reason for this difference is simply that Luke's "audience" was the Gentiles.  There had to be some sort of connection to God; otherwise, what difference does it make.  In other words, "so what makes Abraham so important?"  The Gentiles would have had no reference point.  So Luke takes them all the way back to the beginning.  The Gentiles is a "catch-all" word that means "the nations" or "everyone else."  Most of those "others" were polytheistic cultures -- there was not only one God.  So Luke had to bring it back not only to God, but help them in understanding there is only ONE God.  Go a little bit forward from St. Luke's writings to the Acts of the Apostles.  In time. St. Paul is exhorting and teaching the Greeks and tells them he "discovered an altar inscribed 'To and Unknown God.'" (Acts 17:23b)  In other words, he found altars to Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, and others, THEN this other altar.  That one whose name they didn't know Paul tells them is the only one.

So let these final days spin your imagination.  Go back and look at the opening 17 verses of Matthew's gospel and check it out.  Begin these final days WITH the Church.