The contributions of ordinary lives

Today’s Gospel (Matthew 1:1-17) is a genealogy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: not always the most exciting reading to hear (especially while standing).

It is long, repetitious and full of unfamiliar names that are sometimes difficult to pronounce.

But the genealogy is also full of meaning, not the least of which is a lesson about history and ordinary people, for while the genealogy includes a number of famous people, it also includes many people who were never famous: people with ordinary names (ordinary in that culture) and who lived ordinary lives.

But these ordinary lives meant something: to their children and to others who knew them.

Moreover, through the mystery of God’s will, each generation in different ways made a contribution that would continue down the generations, culminating in the Incarnation and the Birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior.

While you and I do not have the opportunity to be ancestors of Christ, still we have a contribution to make, each of us in our own generation, that will pass down all the generations that may come and, by the grace of God, on into eternity.

With God’s grace, may you and I make the best contribution we can.

(adapted from a previous post)