, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab
of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was
the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been
Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings: Abijah, Asaph,
Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.
Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of
Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of
Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called
the Christ—the Messiah.
There were then fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from
David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon
to the birth of Christ.
Reflect:
We now enter the second half of Advent. Our joy in anticipation of receiving the Lord intensifies
and is captured in a series of O Antiphons that mark the evening prayers in the Liturgy of the
Hours. These seven O Antiphons from the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel reflect the
various attributes of the Savior who comes. Who does this Immanuel, wisdom-made-flesh,
belong to?Being “the desire of all the nations” (cf. Hag 2:7), he belongs to everyone – as is
implied by the genealogy of Christ in today’s gospel. In his genealogy, we find people of the
chosen race, pagans, men, women, adulterers, murderers, kings, slaves, ordinary people;
in short, all saints, all souls, and all sorts. No one is excluded, unless one wants to exclude
oneself. And that is the good news. O Come, let us reach out to everyone to share this
good news!
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022