From December 17th onwards the liturgy provides texts suitable for a more intense preparation. The readings for some of the days of the third week of Advent will not be used in some years, depending on the day of the week on which 17th December falls. The ‘O’ antiphons, which prepare for Christ with the repeated invocation ‘Come!’, are sung for the Magnificat at Evening Prayer from 17th to 23rd December. They may be used for the Alleluia verse at Mass on these days, and their full form is provided here with a brief commentary.
A reading from the book of Genesis (49:2, 8-10)
Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather round and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you:
you grip your enemies by the neck,
your father’s sons shall do you homage.
Judah is a lion’s whelp;
you stand over your prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness: who dare rouse him?
The sceptre shall not pass from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute be brought him
and the peoples render him obedience.
According to the account in the book of Genesis, as he approaches death Jacob calls his twelve sons and blesses them. Judah, though not the first born, is the most dominant, and in time his name is given to the southern kingdom, which outlives the other tribes. David is of the tribe of Judah, and it is from Judah that the Messiah will come. These blessings, though containing ancient material, also reflect the historical events in which Judah has emerged as the strongest tribe. The bringing of ‘tribute’ and the rendering of ‘obedience’ quickly suggested a messianic figure, who would attract all peoples.
Psalm 72 (71), a celebrated messianic psalm, speaks of the Messiah’s dominion to the ends of the earth, and the blessings which derive from his rule.
O Wisdom,
coming from the mouth of the Most High,
ordering all things with strength and gentleness,
come and teach us the way of prudence.
The first of the ‘O’ antiphons focusses on ‘Wisdom’ (Sapientia). Sirach 24:3 reads ‘I (Wisdom) came from the mouth of the Most High.’ Wisdom 8:1 reads: ‘Wisdom reaches strongly from one end of the world to the other, and she governs all things well.’
The beginning of the holy gospel according to Matthew (1:1-17)
Roll of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse;
and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah;
and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers.
Then the deportation to Babylon took place.
After the deportation to Babylon,
Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary;
of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.
Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation, and from the Babylonian deportation to the Messiah fourteen generations.
As we approach the feast of the birth of the Messiah it is appropriate to rehearse the list of the ancestors. While Luke 3 goes backwards to Adam ‘son of God’, Matthew 1 moves forwards from Abraham to Jesus, in three sets of fourteen generations. It has been noticed that three times fourteen amounts to six ‘sevens’, and leaves space for the ‘seventh seven’, the time of fulfilment and completion, which is brought about by Jesus Christ. In a patriarchal society it is notable to see several women appearing in the genealogy. The ancestral line from Abraham and David reaches Joseph, the ‘husband of Mary’. It is Joseph who bestows on Jesus lineage from king David. It is by Mary of course that ‘Jesus who is called the Messiah’ is born.
Can we rely on the genealogy of Matthew, and if not does it matter?
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