2nd Day of Simbang Gabi December 17, 2014

There is a story of a boy who was caught stealing some medicines. While he was beaten by the store owner, a man intervened. He learned that the boy’s mother was ill. So he paid for the medicine which the boy tried to steal. He also gave him some food, and let him go. Thirty years later, the man was still generous especially to those who are in need. One day, he collapsed while he was in his work. He was brought then to the hospital. He needed to undergo surgery according to the physician. His daughter was worried about him as they stayed long in the hospital. Her worries were added when she received their hospital bill. She decided to sell their properties but the proceeds of the sale could not meet the needed amount to pay their dues. She was crying while holding her father’s hand until she fell asleep. When she woke up, a nurse handed her a receipt of their bill. She was surprised that it was fully paid. The nurse told her that the physician paid it in full because thirty years ago, her father saved his life. The daughter remembered then the boy who once stole some medicines for his mother was now the physician who paid their hospital bills in full. My dear friends in Christ, the story tells us that it is at times good to give chances to bad people to change their ways. But it is not easy to make such idea a reality. Most of us heard of many stories of ungratefulness in this world. It is thereof too risky to do good to bad people because we do not know what they could do to us in return. But on the part of God, He always takes a risk that something good comes out from everybody. Let us try to understand this from our Gospel, Matthew 1:1-17, which gives us the genealogy of Jesus. In the said genealogy, there are some of them who suffered a bad reputation like Tamar and Rahab who were described as prostitutes (Genesis 38: 24 and Joshua 2:1). Majority of them could not even be considered holy according to the religious standard. But why God allowed that His only Son Jesus would be born from this family? Why did he not choose a perfect line-up of men and women with unblemished lineage? Well, God is a giver of chance. It does not always follow that when one’s parents are bad, everything is bad in such family given a chance. In other words, if God would not give a person any chance, He would cut off his posterity. There is no chance for such person to redeem himself/herself. With the genealogy of Jesus, we are reminded that God does not choose only those who are good to be saved but even the bad ones. He always gives chances to everybody to be worthy of His love. In fact, as Jesus redeemed His human family –both the good and the bad, He also redeems the family of the whole human race –both the good and the bad. We have many chances to be good if we are bad, and to be better if we are already good. Amen.