The rather lengthy and long genealogy of St. Luke reads in a rather technical manner and
has little interest to those who are not abundantly familiar with scriptures to be able to identify
all these names.
The vast majority of people would find a lot of blanks in their memory, probably more blanks
than anything else, in respect to this long genealogy of Christ.
But there's something that we can always get from sacred scripture.
None of us have to be a scripture scholar to be able to appreciate what God's trying
to tell us, the basics, the fundamentals of what God tries to tell us through sacred scripture,
the things that we need to know in order to find salvation.
And the bottom line here in this genealogy is that, well, I can say two things.
One that God keeps his promises.
This genealogy traces the line of Christ back to the first man, to Adam.
So ultimately, St. Luke tells us that these sons of whom our Lord and Savior is the end
of the line all go back to the first man created from the slime of the earth.
And who was recipient of a promise of redemption.
The other thing that the scriptures remind us, aside from the fact that God keeps his
promises, is that our Lord is a real person who lived on earth as a member of our family.
So much of modern spirituality and religion wants to reduce everything to a myth.
Religion serves a purpose and sustenance.
It may have short shrines in society but it largely operates in the imagination.
It doesn't have anything real to tell us about the world in which we live.
And while the truths of our Holy Religion are spiritual realities — spirit and life,
— they're not the words of the flesh but the words of the Spirit, they are rooted in truth,
history and reality.
in which we live that we actually live and if Jesus Christ is not the Son of
God son of Adam and all the rest of them then there's no really no reason why we
should find comfort or salvation in our holy religion because the ultimate
promise is that that he alone can save us and the church continues to proclaim
this truth to the world and it remains the hope of the world when our Lord was
born in the stable at Bethlehem it went largely unnoticed it was the center of
history it was the most important thing that had ever happened it was the
meaning and the reason for
everything that came before, and the hope of everything that comes after.
And yet it goes unnoticed by most people because our Lord chose to come in a hidden, silent way,
to come unnoticed, to come to those who are willing to make an act of faith.
We'll celebrate Epiphany in a couple days, and we'll think about the manifestation of the Son of God
through the star to the wise men.
And we will remember that he does manifest himself, but he does so to those who are willing to see the sign,
those who are willing to be humble, whether they are shepherds or wise men.
And there is no access to Christ Jesus.
There is no access to Christ Jesus without an act of humility.
And yet the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus remains rooted in history and in reality.
So as we continue to celebrate Christmas, and we celebrate this first Friday of the year,
in 2012, we can renew our commitment to follow Christ with all our heart and all our mind,
and to realize that his holy church is the extension of our Lord's life in the world,
that we continue to follow him by being faithful to our holy religion,
and realize that...
it still goes largely unnoticed.
The gift of the incarnation, the gift of Christmas,
the gift of the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and our salvation
is a truth that is unnoticed, neglected, mocked, rejected.
Just as the church is unnoticed, neglected, mocked, rejected.
And those who follow Jesus will experience largely the same thing if they are faithful.
We must take our consolation and our hope and our joy in the fact that as we read this long litany,
this genealogy, that we know that Christ is indeed our salvation,
that he lived, he died, he was raised to life,
and he remains active in the church in hidden ways,
but in ways that are full of power and grace.
So we offer to our Lord and Savior this holy sacrifice of the Mass
and our Holy Communions in reparation for the forgetfulness of mankind,
their unwillingness to accept him and to welcome them into their hearts,
as the shepherds and the Magi did at Christmas.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Thank you.