December 17
The origins of Jesus
braham and David
received the promise of our Savior's coming more plainly than any of our
other forbearers. And so they deserved to be given the first and most important
place in the records of our Lord's ancestry according to the evangelist
Matthew, the opening words of whose gospel are: The genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. With these sacred words
of the evangelist both the prophetic oracles and the apostolic preaching
are in accord. It is evident that when the prophet Isaiah said in the person
of God the Father: And so, Israel my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend in whom I took possession of you, his
message was that the mediator between God and humankind would be born according
to the flesh from the stock of Abraham.
The man in the gospel who was freed from the darkness of ignorance and
enlightened by faith addressed God's Son as "Son of David." Not
only did he receive spiritual insight, but he also deserved to have his
bodily sight restored. Christ the Lord desires to be called by this name,
knowing that there is no other name by which the world can be saved. And
if we ourselves wish to be saved by him who is the one and only Savior,
each of us must also say to him: "Lord, son of David, have mercy
on us." Amen.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
