(Audio)
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of God. All of them find their 'Yes' in him (see Second Corinthians 1:20). Jesus was in this sense intensely Jewish. He was not a Greek abstract disembodied spiritual being. He came in the flesh, from a particular time, at a particular point in history.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God (see First John 4:2).
The specificity and unflinching historicity of the birth of Jesus can be challenging. He came to one place and not another, one time and not another. He can't be made into a mere moralizing myth. Without the concrete of his coming the meaning of it is also lost. The tale of a Messiah that did not actually come would be worse than nothing. Relativism can find no room in his story. If all ideas are equal, why did Jesus enter history as part of a particular and well established story, that of the Jewish people?
The Good News is good precisely because Jesus really did come to bring the Jewish covenant to fulfillment. He came as Messiah to bring salvation to his people. For us, the fulfillment of those promises gives us great confidence in his promises to bring history in turn to its climax and goal, and great confidence in every promise to us for the in-between times in which we live.
The scepter shall never depart from Judah,
or the mace from between his legs,
While tribute is brought to him,
and he receives the people's homage.
In the wisdom of the Father we receive Jesus through Mary and Joseph. This is no accident, they are part of his plan to bless us.
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.
Mary and Joseph still help us to receive Jesus when we avail ourselves of their help. Mary brought him into the world and Joseph taught and protected him as he grew. They can help us prepare for Jesus in all of his concrete specificity, all of his tangible realness. They can show us the way beyond mere sentimentality to receive the coming King.
O Wisdom of our God Most High,
guiding creation with power and love:
come to teach us the path of knowledge!
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