Third Tuesday in Advent – December 17, 2024
Genesis 49: 2, 8-10; Matthew 1:1-17
One of the pronounced purposes of the coming of the Son of God, in history, is to “gather the people of God”, especially the scattered people of God into communion with the Lord. The name that Jesus gave to this experience was, the Reign! This is not just a phenomenon post-Christ-event… the Old Testament too has the resonances of this in the words of many a prophet. For a quick instance, we can think of Jeremiah who speaks of God who gathers the people (cf. chap 23) or of Jesus who speaks of God who wants to gather Israel as a hen would like to her chicks (cf. Mtt 23)!
In the first reading we find Jacob gathering his sons around his death bed… a sign of gathering them into one communion… that they do not fight and part ways after the death of the father who united them, who shone as the point of gathering. The Gospel gives us an account of how these gathered, stayed on, until the promised coming of the Messiah actually took place. It is an assuring account of theological history, in terms of the promise and the fulfilment, the generations and the communion, the plan of God and its nature of eternity (in the sense of timelessness).
The important highlight for us, is the rallying point, the locus of gathering – Christ, the Lord who is to come, who will gather us in the Reign. It is an ongoing experience, not just an experience to be awaited. Hence, the meaning of waiting of the Saviour who would gather us, is to start working towards that communion; it is getting together as people of God, as people of the Reign. That is the call of the Wisdom, the Wisdom of the Most High.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005 and has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (specialisation in Catechetics). He has a Doctorate in Theology with specialisation in Catechetics and youth ministry at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the young towards a World of Peace and dialogue is the passion that fires him.