Today is the Sunday Before Christmas in which we read the Gospel from Saint Matthew chapter 1 verses 1-25, which commemorates the human ancestors of Jesus, all those from Adam to Joseph.
By announcing the genealogy of Jesus, the Church creates in us a feeling of expectation for Christ’s birth, the fulfillment of humanity’s hope. This Sunday also brings all the righteous who lived before Christ into the joy of the Nativity, inviting them all with hymns of praise and anticipation. This reading of the genealogies shows us that the Lord completely identifies with the human race, men and women of flesh and blood, faults and all.
This is what Christmas is all about, as St. John Chrysostom says that Christ was not embarrassed or ashamed by the sins and faults of His ancestors, rather this exemplifies that with Christ’s incarnation, a new generation is beginning, the age of the Messiah, and by our baptism in Christ, we are part of it.
What joyous news, for the age of preparation and promise is over and a new age of fullness and completion is now upon us. Jesus wanted, by His Nativity in the flesh, to clear a way for Himself through the sins and crimes of men; and so it is with the history of each one of us that He takes upon Himself and overcomes.
You are invited to the magnificence and joy of His Birth. Please make every effort to attend the services of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, adding our voices to those of the Angels: Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth, Peace Goodwill to Mankind!