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September 8, Tuesday Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Matthew 1:1–16, 18–23
Matthew begins his Gospel with a genealogy.
For many readers, this may look like a dry list of names.
But it is not dry.
It is honest.
Jesus is called the son of David and the son of Abraham. These two names are great names in the history of Israel.
Abraham is the father of the people.
David is the greatest king.
Yet both of them were wounded men.
Abraham, out of fear for his life, told others that Sarah was his sister, not his wife.
David committed adultery and arranged the death of Uriah.
Matthew is not afraid to place such names at the beginning of the Gospel.
He does not hide the weakness of Jesus’ ancestors.
Jacob deceived his father.
Judah’s family story was full of shame.
Rahab was a woman with a broken past.
David sinned gravely.
Solomon’s choices helped prepare the division of the kingdom.
Ahaz trusted political power more than the living God.
Manasseh went even further, worshipping false gods and leading Judah into darkness.
This is the first message of the genealogy:
God comes to save sinners.
He does not enter a perfect human family.
He enters our real human history.
A history marked by fear, lies, betrayal, violence, pride, idolatry, and failure.
But Matthew also shows us something else.
Among the names, he mentions women who do not fit ordinary expectations: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah.
Some of them were foreigners.
Ruth was a Moabite.
Rahab was from Jericho.
Bathsheba was connected with Uriah the Hittite.
Their presence in the genealogy prepares us for the Gospel’s wider mission.
The Messiah comes from Israel.
But His salvation will not remain closed inside Israel.
In Jesus Christ, God’s mercy reaches all nations.
Then, at the end of the genealogy, one more woman appears.
Mary.
Everything has been moving toward her.
Through many generations, through saints and sinners, through kings and exiles, through faithfulness and failure, God has been preparing the birth of His Son.
Isaiah had spoken long before:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.”
For centuries, that word waited.
Now Matthew tells us its meaning.
The virgin is Mary.
The child is Jesus.
And Emmanuel means:
God is with us.
This is why we celebrate the birth of Mary.
Her birth is not only a family event.
It is part of God’s plan of salvation.
In Mary, the long waiting of Israel comes close to its fulfilment.
In her, humanity offers a home to the Son of God.
In her, the Word becomes flesh.
The genealogy teaches us that God does not wait for human history to become pure before He enters it.
He enters it in order to heal it.
He enters a family tree full of wounds, so that every wounded family, every wounded person, and every wounded story may find hope in Him.
Our own history may also contain sin, shame, tragedy, and failure.
But Matthew tells us: this is precisely the kind of history God can enter.
Mary’s birth announces that salvation is drawing near.
And the child born from her will be called Emmanuel.
God with us.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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