Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent 2024

To look forward to what’s ahead, we look at where we’ve been. On this final week before Mary gives birth to the Word Incarnate, we remember today the ancestors and the pillars of our faith. Matthew begins the genealogy of Jesus with Abraham, God’s friend, the one who models faith in God for us. The second section begins with David the king, the father of the wise Solomon, and the final section post-Babylonian exile. Fourteen generations in each section, though not precise. Matthew’s goal was not to set in stone the hard historical information but to convey the relationships. Most importantly that Jesus is the son of Abraham and the son of David by lineage through the adoption of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary.

In this lineage, we find ancestors who remind us both of the praiseworthy and grace-filled example of doing God’s will on the one hand and the reminder that sinfulness has entered humanity on the other. I think that that is what we all need to recognize when doing an examination of conscience before approaching the Confessional. When we only look at our sinfulness we can be led to anguish, but only looking at the moments of grace can tempt us into a state of comfort. Instead, both are necessary. And it is only by that wholistic approach that we can more easily notice that the Lord has been walking with us through our life, and not that He is distant (or even altogether gone) in the darker memories of our life. Christ Himself referred to the ancestors by Moses in the passage about the burning bush when he called “Lord” the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. If the Lord is with those who have already died, how much more is He not with us who are preparing to welcome His Son into our life?

In this process of examination of one’s conscience, recognizing that the Lord has been with us through it all, we are then ready to give Him all our sinfulness and accept His grace. We look forward to what’s ahead: the remembrance of His birth and His dwelling among us. To welcome Him into our life even more, it is helpful to take this final week to make a thorough examination of conscience and ask the Lord to help us notice His presence with us through it all.