A HOMILY FOR THE SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FATHERS
About the Genealogy of the Lord and Our Kinship with Christ
Brothers and sisters,
Today being the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, we heard the Gospel reading from Saint Matthew which begins, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. These stirring words, dear Christians, are the introduction not only to today’s lection and to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, but to the whole sacred text of the New Testament. This book, that is, the record that follows the opening line, proclaims the ancestry according to the flesh of Christ Jesus, the Son of David and Son of Abraham. It lists the forbears of Christ beginning with Abraham, who lived two thousand years before the Lord’s Nativity, and ending with Joseph, the betrothed of the immaculate Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the Redeemer.
Jesus Christ is first introduced in the Gospel as the son of Abraham because it was to Abraham that a promise was first given that the Messiah would spring from his line. Subsequently, a similar promise was made to the holy prophet, King, and psalmist David. This is why, at the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel proclaimed to Mary that the Lord God would give to her Son the throne of His father David.[1] In fact, Abraham and David were ancestors of Christ both through Joseph and through the Virgin Mary, who were related.
When He was conceived in the flesh, God the Word assumed our nature and all our infirmities, except for sin: He became man without ceasing to be God, hypostatically uniting not an individual man, but human nature itself to the Divinity, so that, as Saint Peter says, all we might be made partakers of the divine nature.[2] Thus, by becoming the new Adam and the Son of Man, the Son of God bestowed a divine parentage on all of us. Could any lineage be more noble or more wondrous? By the Incarnation, God the Son has become our brother; therefore, Saint Paul writes, “He is not ashamed to call us brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name (that is, the name of the Father) unto My brethren.”[3] Similarly, the God-man counts us as friends, if we do His will, declaring, Ye are My friends, if ye do what I command you.[4] And so, by the Kenosis, the self-emptying of the Pre-eternal Word, we have become sharers of the divine nature,[5] friends and siblings of Christ the King, and are no longer strangers to Him. ”Therefore we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the household of God,”[6] teaches the great Paul. This, brothers and sisters, is the highest nobility possible, loftier by far than any bestowed by a temporal ruler! Yet, like earthly nobility, this honor implies duty. If the Lord has shown us such boundless condescension, mercy, and compassion, then we must offer Him service and sacrifice, for our relationship with Him is and is called a covenant. The words “testament” or “covenant,” as in “the Old Testament” or “the Old Covenant” and “the New Testament” or “the New Covenant,” denote an unbreakable promise and bond. The Old Covenant was not broken, but fulfilled in Christ, the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises,[7] as the Apostle teaches. Now, in a covenant both parties are bound to observe certain defined obligations. In the New Covenant, God has bound Himself to the best of all promises; that is, to deliver and deify us. We, for our part, oblige ourselves to sincere, constant, firm faith; to unshakeable hope; and to unfeigned love for the Lord, which is the same thing as devotion to fulfilling His commandments, since voluntary, selfless labor for another is love expressed in deed.
When a nobleman fails to behave in a manner befitting his high estate, he is said to have abased himself. How much more, then, should we who are honored with the most exalted nobility, kinship with God, take care not to abase ourselves by low thoughts, feelings, desires, intentions, words, or deeds? To be worthy kinsmen of the Son of God, Who dwells in the Father’s bosom and partakes perfectly of the Father’s holiness, we must ourselves abide in holiness. Our ties to Jesus Christ demand from us a lofty, most noble way of life indeed! We should live like angels in the flesh, which is why modesty, chastity, and virginity are so highly esteemed among Christians and by God Himself. But the noble name of “Christian” demands other virtues as well. It calls for simplicity of spirit, humility, and mildness, as the Saviour says: Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls;[8] it calls for compassion, as He tells us on another occasion: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.[9] It calls for self-denial and for estrangement from the world, according to the warning, Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (that is, overeating), and drunkenness, and cares of this life;[10] it calls for patience, since in your patience possess ye your souls.[11] Such are the qualities befitting those who have been made kin to the incarnate King of heaven!
And so, dear Christians, brothers and sisters of Christ, as we make ready to receive the newborn King and God incarnate, let us examine ourselves and consider to what degree we have fulfilled our covenant, with its obligations to our true Sovereign, the Ruler of heaven. If by thought, word, or deed we have failed to live up to the noble name of “Christian,” let us beseech the Master’s mercy and beg Him to help us. By the grace of the coming feast, may we correct ourselves, and begin always and everywhere to comport ourselves in a manner worthy of the loftiest, the most noble of estates. Amen.
[1] Luke 1:32
[2] II Pet. 1:4
[3] Heb. 2:12; Ps. 21:22
[4] John 5:14
[5] II Pet. 1:4
[6] Eph. 2:19
[7] Heb. 8:6
[8] Matt. 11:29
[9] Luke 6:36
[10] Luke 21:34
[11] Luke 21:19
