With power and love

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O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge!

It is always a tough one, for both presider and assembly, when the day comes around each year for the proclamation of the genealogy of Jesus.  Whether it is Matthew’s version or Luke’s, there is quite the temptation to go through it quickly when reading it or simply tune it out when hearing it.  Not only is the genealogy found within the weekdays leading up to Christmas, as it is today, but it is also always the Gospel prescribed for the Vigil Mass.  Often enough, however, the priest slips in one of the more preferable and familiar “Christmas Gospels” offered at Mass at either Midnight or Dawn.

Our resistance is telling.  Some of it has to do with the length; some of it, too, the repetition; and some of it still, the names, seemingly so far removed from us and often difficult to pronounce!  These alone are reason enough to want to skip over and ignore this passage. And yet, such is not with our God. Our God does not skip over nor ignore any facet of our life, neither the mundane nor the repetitious; and certainly nothing is unpronounceable or unbearable for God. (Consider, for instance in the genealogy, that Solomon was born out of an adulterous affair!)  Rather, every aspect of our life is redeemable, touched as it were by the Incarnation.

Today we begin the great “O Antiphons,” an ancient tradition found in the official Prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours, as well as the verses for the Gospel Acclamation, marking the days leading up to the Solemnity of Christmas.  Each antiphon offers a particular insight into the Mystery we celebrate and anticipate. Today, we proclaim that the Wisdom of God intimately and intricately guides all of creation – the ongoing unfolding of the “genealogy” of the world – with power and love.  Certainly, this Wisdom is not worth skipping over and ignoring.

What is it in your life that you wish to skip over or go through quickly?  What might be the invitation from God about that desire and about such moments?  What might Advent be drawing your attention to?

A reflection written by Kevin DePrinzio O.S.A., Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, US


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“Lord, let me know myself, and let me know You.”

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Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Col 4:6

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