Last Sunday Monsignor James Benavente from the Archdiocese of Agana visited our parish. It was a last-minute and surprise visit, so I actually had no time to clean my car. When I picked him up from the airport, he opened the side door and immediately saw my car filled a lot of stuff. There were my two basketballs, golf shoes, tennis shoes, golf clubs, clerical shirts, socks, earphones, vestments, bible, liturgical books, Christmas cards, and a few dollar bills. I quickly apologized for the mess, but he responded, “Don’t worry che’lu-hu, our lives are sometimes a mess, but God still comes. We have a God who enters messy situations and as priests we should not be afraid to do the same”
As we celebrate Christmas, we rejoice that we have a God who never minds a messy situation. If we read through the Bible, we find many messy people and situations. In the beginning God gave us Adam and Eve. The Father gave them paradise, the garden of Eden. However, they slipped and failed to do God’s will. God continued to stand by His people by sending them Abraham, Moses, the Ten Commandments, King Solomon, the prophets, and many other biblical figures. But time and time again, people failed to listen, obey, and remain faithful to God’s commandments. Even important people like King David slipped and sinned! King David committed adultery and murder! What a mess! Our God though, does not mind the mess. At Christmas, the Father sent us His only-begotten son, Jesus, whose name means, “God saves”.
The gospel for the Christmas Vigil mass recounts the genealogy and family tree of Jesus. It follows a pattern that goes, “Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob… David became the father of Solomon whose mother had been the wife of Uriah…Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah…” (Mt. 1:1-25). At first glance, this seems like a long, boring, and unimportant story.
It includes many mysterious and difficult names. The evangelist Matthew however, wants to emphasize Jesus’ ancestry. Our Lord was true god and true man. He was born into a family just like us. He had ancestors that were weak, sinful, divided, and dysfunctional. In word they were a messy family. Again, God does not mind it. He works with this imperfect family and sinners in order to bring about the arrival of the Savior.
In the same way, we too come from imperfect families. Our ancestors had their good qualities as well as their faults. No family is perfect and all of us come from messy backgrounds. Perhaps recently we feel broken, afraid, unknown, insignificant, an outsider, a sinner, unworthy, or whatever it may be. This Christmas gospel stresses that God still stands with us even in our imperfect or messy lives. He does not mind the mess, but He enters into it to redeem us.