The Ancestors of the Lord
The Sundays of Advent-tide belong to the cycle of the Sundays after Pentecost and have no direct connection with the mystery of the coming of the Lord Jesus expressed by Christmas. This is why the Church, in wanting to prepare the faithful for the great feast of the Incarnation, has added to the readings and to the prayers of the two Sundays which precede Christmas (whatever these Sundays may be in the order of Sundays after Pentecost) other texts which do have a direct bearing on Advent. These, then, are the two “Sundays before Christmas” which are in some way superimposed on the two Sundays after Pentecost with which they coincide. […]
The first of these two Sundays is called “Sunday of the Ancestors of the Lord.” It is celebrated on the second Sunday before the 25th of December—this falls between December 11th and the 17th.
The “Ancestors” are the Patriarchs and the Prophets of the Old Covenant, from Adam to John the Baptist. The Church sings: “Let us rejoice together, we who are friends of the Fathers, in words correspond to any genuine feeling on the part of the majority of believers. Many among us have lost touch with the Old Testament, and neither read nor understand it, and so do not take into account that Jesus Christ is present, though veiled, in all the events and all the texts of the Hebrew Scripture. All is centered on Him. Many do not recognize in Abel the first martyr, and the prototype of the Good Shepherd as well as the Sacrificer; in Melchisedek the type of the eternal priest; in Abraham the spirit of faith and the type of the Father; in Isaac the spirit of sonship and of sacrifice; in Jacob free election, patience service and conversion; in Joseph the great features of the Passion and of Christ’s redemptive work. They forget that through the reading of the Prophets the voice of Jesus Himself speaks to our heart. They are not really “friends of the Fathers” and they do not delight in remembering them. Let us ask our Lord, on this Sunday, to open our understanding to the message of the Old Covenant and to teach us, as He taught the disciples at Emmaus: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; … And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Lk. 24:27). […]
The Genealogy of Christ
The second Sunday which is especially consecrated to the preparation for the Nativity is that which immediately precedes the feast of Christmas. It is called “Sunday of the Fathers or of the Genealogy.” It falls between December 18th and 24th.
“Turning our thoughts to Bethlehem, let us lift ourselves in spirit to contemplate the great Mystery which is taking place in the cave …. Now that the time of our salvation draws near…. Prepare thyself, O Bethlehem…,” the choir sings during the service and mention is made of the patriarchs, the prophets, the holy women of the Old Covenant who “through faith shine like the stars.” The Church’s idea, this Sunday, seems to be to bring the righteous who lived before Christ into the joy of the Nativity “inviting them all by praises and divine songs to prepare for the birth of Christ.”
The gospel read at the liturgy (the whole of Matt. 1) traces back the genealogy of Jesus according to the flesh: “The generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; ….” And it continues up to Joseph “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” We have read or heard this genealogy many times. We may have the impression that this reading is of purely historical and documentary interest. What can this list of names bring us that has any spiritual import? But each one of these names does have a particular meaning, if we remind ourselves of the story of the person who bore it. What needs to be clearly understood is that the ancestors of Jesus were not all just and holy men. Amongst them are also sinners; those who have committed incest, adultery, murder; an alien woman; the names of Judas, of Thamar, of David and Ruth are filled with spiritual significance. Jesus wanted, humanly, to be linked with “all that,” and to “all those.” He wanted to clear a way for Himself through the sins and crimes of men. And so it is the history of each one of us that He takes upon Himself and overcomes. For each one of us has some of the features of those of Jesus’s ancestors who are the furthest from holiness. In each of us can be found, either dormant or awakened, the sins of the patriarchs and of their children. All the same, however, Jesus must be born in us. We must, in ourselves, overcome and go beyond the misdeeds that certain names in the genealogy of Jesus represent. It is necessary for us to live this genealogy, for us to acquire a personal experience of it, so that through falling and starting afresh we shall eventually reach Joseph and Mary. This does not mean sinning deliberately so that we can identify ourselves more closely with the genealogy of the Lord, but simply means recognizing certain elements of this genealogy in the sins that we do commit, and of uniting ourselves in spirit to the progressive purification which prepared for the birth of Jesus. Thus the genealogy of Christ will become an integral part of our own lives.
The gospel for this Sunday goes on to describe, in a way which is both very precise and very sober, Joseph’s doubts, the message brought to him by the angel and his confident obedience.
The epistle (Heb. 11:9-10, 32-40) praises the faith of the patriarchs: “By faith he [Abraham] sojourned in the land of promise…” Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, Samuel, David, and others are mentioned. The logical conclusion is not reached in this reading, but is found in the first sentence of the following chapter: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” (12:1-2).
*Monk of the Eastern Church,
The Year of the Grace of the Lord: A Scriptural and Liturgical Commentary on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001), pp. 55-59. Available for purchase at Eighth Day Books.
