December 17 2021 - Ornaments on the Tree

 

In preparation for Christmas many families put up a Christmas tree in their homes. And on their Christmas trees they hang lights and garland, and of course ornaments. Some families, like mine, had special ornaments for each person. My mom had an ornament with her name on it, my dad had one with his, my sister as well, and so did I. I think we even had an ornament with our dogs name on it.

Well, today, we heard in our Gospel about a tree with many names: The family tree of Jesus.

If you tilt your heads upwards and look at the ceiling of our beautiful church, you will see part of this tree depicted, beginning here at the foot of the sanctuary with Jesse, the Father of David, then King David, going through the many generations St Matthew listed for us, taking us all the way to our Savior blessing us as we leave through the main doors of the Church out into the world.

God took special care in the life of each one of these people, to form them to be an important branch in Jesus’ family tree. God is so great that he can work over thousands and thousands of years to complete his plan. And he did, so that we might have a savior. 

Today, December 17 is the first day of what is called, Late Advent, the final countdown to Christmas. In just a week’s time, we will be on the threshold of Christmas. 

And we hear about Jesus’ family tree today to remember that Jesus isn’t just a figure that emerges out of no where, he isn’t a fairy tale. He was born from a long line of real people, people whose lives we can read about in the scriptures. 

God guided creation with his power and his love to prepare for the birth of Jesus, and he wants to guide our lives as well, but we have to let him. We have to go to God in prayer every day. We have to learn and obey God’s commandments. As I said last week when we celebrated Mary’s Immaculate Conception, God has a plan for each of us, just like he had a plan for Mary, just as he had a plan for all those generations of people in our Gospel today. But we have to say yes to God, we have to put God first by believing in his promises, following his teaching, ordering our life by his wisdom, filling our minds with his wisdom and our hearts with his love. In this way we are best prepared for Christmas, best prepared for the ways God wants to bring goodness and peace into the world through us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.