Gn 49:2, 8-10;    Ps 72:1-4, 7-8, 17;    Mt 1:1-17

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.

The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.

Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.





The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  

By definition, genealogies point to the human. They tell our stories. But when we read Matthew's genealogy, with its 42 generations arranged in three neat segments of 14 generations each, we pause to wonder at God's ability to work through unexpected, imperfect people to bring about God's future. Matthew's genealogy is full of individuals who were not the "cream of the crop" -- adulterers, prostitutes, foreigners. This sets the stage for Jesus' coming ministry to tax collectors and lepers and outsiders. Matthew is showing us how the story of Jesus Christ will include the flawed and outcast, the misunderstood and afflicted, the sinner and the saint. 

All are included in your story of unconditional love, O God.

(By Jeanne Lischer)

Now mark this: when a man wishes to possess inward rest in idleness, without inward and desirous cleaving to God, then he is ready for all errors; for he is turned away from God, and inclined towards himself, in natural love, seeking and desiring consolation and sweetness and everything that pleases him. And such a man is like to a merchant, for in all his activity he is turned only towards himself, and seeks and means his own rest and his own profit, more than the glory of God. A man who thus lives in mere natural love, always possesses himself in self-love without self-renunciation. Such men often lead a hard life with great works of penitence, that they may become known and renowned for their great sanctity, and also that they may merit a great reward; for all natural love is favourably disposed to itself and likes to receive great honours in time and a great reward in eternity. And these men have many special desires, and pray and beseech God for many particular things. And thus they are often deceived; for sometimes, through the work of the devil, those things which they desire happen to them, and then they ascribe this to their sanctity, and hold themselves worthy of them all; for such people are proud, and neither touched nor enlightened by God. And therefore they dwell within themselves, and a small consolation may greatly rejoice them, for they know not what they lack. And they are wholly attached, in their desire, to inward savours and the spiritual refreshment of their nature. And this is called spiritual lust; for it is an inordinate attachment in natural love, which is always directed towards itself, and seeks its own profit in all things.