Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Christmas Vigil Mass, December 24, 2003 Isaiah 62:1-5 Acts 13:16-17, 22-25 Matthew 1:1-25	Listen to Audio

What we just heard is not merely a list of names. They are people – people who are important to us because they are our ancestors in faith.

To anyone familiar with the Bible – and we all should be – many of these names will bring up an immediate mental image, or perhaps recall a story. Some of these stories are worth looking at a little bit.

Rahab, for example, the Canaanite prostitute in Jericho, enabled the Jewish people to begin their conquest of the land God had promised to them. Without her, they may well have been defeated, or languished in the desert. She’s not the kind of person any of us would have expected to be an ancestor of Jesus. Yet God’s choice of her was part of his chosen road to our salvation.

The wonderful story of Ruth the young widow, and her fidelity, even as a foreigner, to her Jewish mother-in-law. Yes, one of the human ancestors of Jesus was what we would consider an illegal alien – one who had no right to be where she was, but was there out of love.

And Bathsheba, the adulterous wife of Uriah, by whom King David’s line was carried on. And their son, Solomon, who started out wise, but ended up locked in idolatry, worshipping the many gods of his many non-Jewish wives.

Of the list of kings following Solomon, many were thugs who would rival Saddam Hussein in deceit and cruelty.

There are few in this human family tree of Jesus whom we could classify as saints, and lots of very obvious sinners. There is a lesson here that we have to embrace. Jesus did not come because the human race was good. He came because we were locked in sin. If we are going to celebrate his birth properly, we need first of all an awareness of our need – a need that nobody but the Son of God can fill. Jesus himself, when the Pharisees criticized him for associating with sinners, turned the criticism back on them by saying that he came, not for those who thought themselves righteous, but for those who were sinners, and knew it.

And so it is for us. Jesus does not come to us – in the church or in the sacraments – as a reward for our goodness. He comes to heal and forgive our weaknesses and sins, of which, if we are honest, each of us has many.

One of the saddest things I experience as a priest is that people often tell me that they stay away from the sacraments because they feel they are not worthy. Yet that is precisely the reason why Jesus came in the first place, and continues to come through his Church and the sacraments – because we are not worthy. If we were good and holy of ourselves, there would be no reason for him to come; he might just as well have stayed home in heaven. No, it’s our very unworthiness, our sinfulness, that brought him here in the first place. And he invites us to receive him with humble trust – simply to let him in.

It is now the afternoon of Christmas Eve. We are not yet really celebrating Christmas, but rather still anticipating the day of his coming. Even though this may be your Christmas Mass, it does not complete your Christmas prayer. Tomorrow, don’t forget to pray, to open your heart to receive the One who is alone the true fulfillment of your heart’s desire and longing.

(Note: for a good starting point to investigate "who's who" in the genealogies of Jesus, as presented in both Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel, see http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/genealogy_of_Jesus.htm .

© Thomas Welbers 2003