Advent Is About Knowing Jesus

Genesis 49:2, 8-10, Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-7, 17, Matthew 1:1-17 

What a blessing it is that the Church gives us the Advent season to slow down a little and prepare ourselves to celebrate the fact that God loves us so much that He became man to save us from our sins and give us the opportunity to share in His divine life. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, did in fact come, and He’s coming again.

This topic is very real to me because I had a conversation with my son Justin about this the day before he had a stroke and could no longer speak, and just seven days before he passed away. He was eighteen and had fought cancer since he was eight. Many miracles occurred over those ten years, allowing us to be blessed to have him with us as long as he was. However, complications from the years of treatment had brought us to the point that we knew he was not going to survive without another miracle. I told him, “Justin, it doesn’t get any tougher than this, so let’s talk about your faith.” Justin said, “Ok, Dad.” So we talked about his life of faith, and from this conversation, we knew without a doubt that he was prepared to meet the Lord. I said, “Son, whether you live to be eighteen years or a hundred years old, that’s just a blink of the eye in God’s time.” Justin said, “I know, Dad, I’m not scared.” What an incredible blessing it was for my wife and me to know that our son was fully prepared for life with God in heaven. Like Justin, we may not be here to see Jesus’ second coming, but the fact of the matter is that we will all be seeing Him very soon, so let us all be prepared as well.

In today’s Gospel, we see the genealogy of Jesus. It’s important to note that the way the Jews confirmed Jesus’ identity as the Messiah was through His lineage. To believe in Him as the Messiah, they had to know with certainty who He was, and they could only know this by who He was descended from, as promised in the Old Testament. A man doing miracles wasn’t enough to prove He was the Messiah. He had to fulfil the prophecy that the Messiah would come from the line of David.

Here in West, Texas, where I live, and in many other small towns, more so than in larger communities, identifying someone by their lineage and where they’re from is something we are very familiar with; we do it all the time.

For example, we all know that Jesus was known as “Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.” My father-in-law, who has passed away, was named Robert Nors. In this area, over the years, there have been several men named Robert Nors. Often, if I told someone that my father-in-law was Robert Nors, they would ask, “Which Robert Nors?” I would say something like, he is the Robert Nors from Abbott, son of Jim. His mother, Clara, was a Hykel. If they still didn’t know who he was, I might say his grandfather was Louis Hykel and his wife Julia was a Kallus.

The Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would come from the line of David is found in several key passages. Second Samuel 7:12–16 records God’s promise to David that his offspring will establish an eternal kingdom, saying, “When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you… and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Psalm 89:3–4 affirms this, saying, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your descendants forever and build your throne for all generations.” Isaiah 11:1 speaks of a shoot from the stump of Jesse, David’s father, indicating the Messiah’s Davidic lineage. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 437, teaches that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of David, who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies.

As Christians, there is a lot we can know about Jesus, and while knowing about Him is important, it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t know Him. Jesus came so that we may come to know Him, not just know about Him, but to know Him personally and live in relationship with Him.

Often, we complicate our faith; it’s easy to do. There’s a lot to know, a lot of important things, but we don’t have to know it all. Jesus doesn’t require us to be expert theologians or apologists to receive salvation. If we think about it, God really doesn’t ask much of us. He asks that we be baptized, making us His sons and daughters, children of God, and He asks that we believe in His Son Jesus and live in relationship with Him and the Church He gave us. Finally, He asks that when we sin, we come to Him and ask for forgiveness. That’s the faith in a nutshell.

As the Advent season draws close to completion and we prepare to enter the Christmas season, let us get back to the basics of our faith, preparing ourselves for both the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus and the long-expected day that we see Him face to face in glory.

“O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge.”

Amen