Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas and a cool genealogy: Christmas

Listen to the homily here.

Notes:

Merry, merry Christmas!

Welcome to you, your loved ones, neighbors, visitors and relatives

We come today to be in God’s house as we again celebrate His Son: Jesus Christ

We come today for Christmas

·      Let’s remember what Christmas is:

o   Christ: Jesus Christ

o   Mass: Jesus Christ

Today we heard a long reading and an important reading

·      Genealogies

o   I asked my Dad about our longest list and to do so the end is my nephew John Paul

o   Our ancestors that we know begin in John (great grandpa) (Germany, Poland, 14 years to Chicago then Holdingford, MN) to Richard (grandpa) to John (my Dad) to Mychal (my brother) to John-Paul (my nephew)

o   How long of your ancestors list?

·      Our Catholics and Christians began from our ancestors—Judaism

o   God called the Israelites to be His chosen people

·      Matthew (a Jew) wrote about 42 generations that ended with Jesus Christ

·      Many of your families: great-great-grandparents or beyond

“The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors…”

·      Jesus “family tree”

·      "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus…”

What is beautiful this season is that most of us are with our family members

·      Remember your loved ones who are beyond our earth

·      Did you know that we are still present today?

·      In your mind, your heart

·      Even people that are hundreds of years that you might not even know

Most of you that are at Mass at this point, probably got that from these ancestors…and eventually you probably don’t even know their names

·      In your family tree…your family list…brought you to life, and here

·      Now, we may have some people that randomly made it to Mass

·      But most of you probably made a decision to be here

·      And the best time to be with your loved ones—Mass

Finally, I mentioned in my bulletin article some interesting stats

·      If you made it to this Christmas, you used only 0.01% of your life in 2017

·      If you made it to each weekend Mass, as well as obligatory Masses, you used 0.66% for this whole year

·      What time will you use this year to be with your family, our family and God’s family?

·      Your ancestors not only invited you, but created you

Merry Christmas!