Story:
There was a man in a faraway village named Victor whose father lived with him. His father was very weak. He could not even walk well. It was because Victor did not give his father enough food. He had given his father a small earthen plate. Even a small quantity of rice in the plate appeared to be much.
Victor had a son. His name is Jess. Jess was just ten years old. He was a very good boy. He loved his grandfather whose name is Fred. He had great respect for his grandfather. He did not like his father’s attitude and character, because his father was treating his grandfather cruelly.
One day the Fred was eating his food out of earthen plate that his son had given to him. The earthen plate fell down. The plate broke into pieces. The food also fell on the floor. Victor was working at the other end of the room. He saw the broken plate. He was very angry with his father and used very harsh words to abuse his father. The old man felt bad about what happened. He was sorry for his mistake.
Victor’s son, Jess, saw this. He did not like his father. His father was ill-treating his grandfather. He was afraid to speak against his father. He was sad about his grandfather. But he was not powerful to stand in support of his grandfather.
The next day Jess took some of his father’s tools and a piece of wood. He worked with the tools to make a wooden plate. His father saw him working. “What are you making, Jess?” he asked. “I am making a wooden plate!” replied Jess. “A wooden plate! What for?” asked his father. “I am making it for you, father. When you grow old, like my grandfather, you will need a plate for food. A plate made from earth mat break very easily. Then I may scold you severely. So, I want to give you a wooden plate. It may not break so easily.”
Our parents, grandparents and even great grandparents are important to understand our growth and development as a person. We somehow realize that our personality, attitude, lifestyle and mentality are not that far from our ascendants and descendants in a sense, our virtues and vices are related or similar with theirs.
Scripture:
…and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:1-17).
Study:
My dear fellow believers, on this 2nd day of Simbang Gabi, we may find our Gospel to be boring that is because we are simply reading the account of genealogy of Jesus Christ. Why is it important for us to know the grandparents of Jesus? Well, we can see that in the human family of Jesus, there is a mix of saints and sinners, obedient and disobedient, well-known and unknown. Yet what matters most in our Gospel is that Jesus who is the Messiah came after a generation of families, grew in the family system, shared family values and lived with His family. In short, Jesus who is the Son of God entered human history in the way all of us entered i.e., through our parents, through our parents’ parents or through our great grandparents.
Our existence through these lists of descendants and ascendants is not legendary rooted but historical, real and essential for us. We can somehow see ourselves as products of these different personalities as well as of various genes of personages. On one hand, we feel proud to discover that we belong to a clan with an impressive lineage. Here we come to know that we too have the capacity to do great things and to excel just like some of our ancestors. On the other hand, we are made to humble ourselves to accept that there are also in our clan some members who are not worthy of emulation. Again we come to know that we are also capable of doing the worst things if we allow ourselves. Moreover, we are reminded that we may not in one way or another like the characters we see from our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, but we have the choice to be the best of who we are. We can choose to make a difference like Jesus. We can be a better product in the history of our family.
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