An Irrevocable Future is Born!
Matthew 1:1-25
On this holy night, the “Silent Night” of Jesus’ birth, the Church reads a Gospel that many of us are tempted to skim: names, generations, ancestral lines. Yet Matthew insists that Christmas, the birth of Jesus, must begin here. Before angels sing and shepherds run, before the baby Jesus is born, a history is told. Because tonight is not about escape from the messiness of the world—it is about God entering it, carrying all its weight.
Matthew narrates that God works through history, not around it. This genealogy is not tidy. It is marked by scandal, exile, broken kings, compromised figures, women with complicated stories, and a people who often failed their God. Yet none of that disqualifies the future God is preparing. Christmas begins with this truth: your past—even when fractured—does not cancel God’s promise. Jesus is born from a wounded history, not after it has been repaired.
From Abraham to David; David to exile, and Exile to Christ. Matthew structures the genealogy to show movement: promise, failure, waiting—and fulfillment. The exile stands at the center like a wound that never fully healed. It is the symbol of everything that went wrong. And yet, the story does not end there. God keeps moving the line forward.
Once Jesus d is born, hope cannot be undone. A child always changes the meaning of tomorrow. Even in poverty. Even under threat. Even in exile. We see migrants and refugees on the move, but procreation never stops even under the most stringent of rules! That is why the birth of Jesus is not merely a tender moment—it is a judgment on despair. The world can no longer say, “Nothing new can happen.” God has placed the future in human hands.
For those of us from the so-called Third World, where the only news available is bad news; tonight, Jesus’ birth means liberation from our deep captivity—the sin that convinces us that nothing can change, that tomorrow is sealed by yesterday. With Christmas, change begins by reopening the future. Fear narrows the future; faith opens it. The Church proclaims—against cynicism, against despair, against fear—that because this Jesus is born, the future is no longer negotiable. God has entered history. Hope has a face, a human face – Jesus. And tomorrow, by hope, has begun.
It means that to a world weary of broken promises, God offers a birth – Jesus’ birth. In a culture seeking scientific explanations, God offers presence, a physical presence of himself in Baby Jesus. In an age tempted to despair, God dares us to hope because Jesus has been born. “They shall name him Emmanuel—God with us.” This is the heart of Christmas. God does not remain an idea. He becomes a human being (a presence). God-with-us means that no human night is God-forsaken. It means suffering is not explained away—but it is no longer endured alone.
Merry Christmas to one and all!