UNTIL HE COMES

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wednesday 17 December 2014

UNTIL HE COMES

             

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The sceptre will not pass from Judah, nor the mace from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs, to whom the peoples shall render obedience.” (Genesis 49;2…10)

Reflection. We enter the final stretch before Christmas and read the passages in the nativity narratives immediately leading up to the birth of Jesus. The gospel of Matthew tries our patience with a long list – 42 names – of the ancestors of Jesus. The ancients didn’t have passports and identified people by their ancestral lineage. The point of the long list is to give  human roots to Jesus, the Son of God. We have this image of humanity’s long evolution, 200,000 years we are told, narrowing down to this particular tribe of Judah and a further focus that comes down to one man. And then God comes to meet humanity in this person who is born as human and divine. This drama is lived out in each of us. We develop and grow to the best of our ability and God comes to meet us, as we are, and touches us – as in the great picture of Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel – with his finger.

Prayer. Lord, in these final days before Christmas, fill us with a knowledge of your coming into our lives, in a unique way for each of us. Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ