17/12/2025

Wednesday Week 3 Advent

In the first months after the Ascension of Our Lord, when the nucleus of what was to become The Church met to pray together in the Portico of Solomon and lived a communal life, the only texts that they used were those preserved by the Scribes.

Many of those who met together had seen the resurrected Jesus but did not really know how to process this evidence of their own eyes as they lived on in this world which basically remained unchanged after the Resurrection, following the same rhythms of life that it had always done.

As a modern Christian I can believe with the Creed "True Man and True God" but it is in "True God"  that I first believe, it is "True God" who chooses to become man. For most of the first Church even after his death and Resurrection, however, Jesus was a man chosen by IAMIAM to restore the human descendants of Jacob, Israel to their rightful place this world.

Matthew's Gospel is composed of his own personal memories and the reminiscences of his contemporaries and has to first establish Jesus' human credentials for him to be considered to be the Messiah even though Jesus' death and Resurrection, possibly confirmed by the destruction of the temple, had completely reset his understanding of scripture. Thus it begins with the genealogy.

At the moment I am really praying that I can come to know Jesus, the friend remembered by the Apostles, and how their memories of the words and deeds of that man are the final  revelations of the will of our creator to guide us through our time on earth.  

It seems easier to believe in "True God" but it had to be the "True Man" who was tortured to death and rose again from the dead. A true man who was begotten not made and whose birth we are now preparing to celebrate. 

Dear Lord, Help me to live out my days still searching for holiness and sharing in the confidence and love you had for not only "Our Father in heaven" but also the human love you had for Joseph and Mary in The Holy Family, the model for the Church of Love our New Holy Family of You, Mary, John and all of us who are open to your divine and human love. Amen