As we enter the final week of Advent, our Church's liturgy begins to move away from its focus on the second coming of Christ, and toward preparation for the celebration of Christmas, the commemoration of his first coming among us. I think it would be very worth while to offer just some brief prayerful reflections for each day of this week.
Today, our gospel is the genealogy of Jesus as presented by St. Matthew. It is a list of names and not much more, a list of kings and commoners, heroes and scoundrels, but they all played a part in God's plan of salvation, they all lead to the Messiah. What does that tell us? We think we know who the important people are in the world, and who the bit players are, but when it comes to God's plan, we need to look differently. The standards by which the world judges who and what is important simply is not the way God judges. Our goal should not be to be a star in the world's drama, but a star in God's drama and, quite often, a bit player as far the world is concerned. When the final account is taken, it won't matter how many pages we occupy in history books, it won't matter if we had fame and fortune, but it will matter if we fulfilled the role God gave to us, it will matter if we carried out God's will, and it will matter if we were faithful to the call to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ our Risen Lord.
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