Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for December 17, 2025
The Youtube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, coming to you from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. It’s December 17th, which is the beginning of the second part of Advent. Each of these days from the 17th to the 24th, we focus on specific events that preceded Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. So today, we focus on the genealogy of Jesus. And what do we see in St. Matthew’s account of all the predecessors of Jesus. First, we see the importance of family. Christmas is always about um where we come from, that God has created us with a past that influences who we are in the present. And unless we know our history, we’re never really going to be able to appreciate salvation history. We see all the names of those who preceded Jesus were in a sense passing on their humanity all the way ultimately to the one who took on our humanity in the incarnation. What an awesome mystery that is to ponder. The second great thing that we see there is we see four women who um were not members of the chosen people who in fact lived sinful lives were incorporated into Jesus’ family tree. It shows us two things. for us that it wasn’t just for ma male figures, it was for everybody including women. Second, it wasn’t just for saints, it was also for sinners that Jesus was coming to redeem the whole world. And so that’s what we see for example in Rahab, and Ba Sheeba, and Ruth. We see that desire of the Lord to save everybody. What is the lesson that we’re supposed to take on December 17th as we’re 8 days from Christmas? The first lesson that we take is that we are supposed to be inspired to pass on the treasure of our faith to the generations that come after us to make our duty to pass on is of the greatest importance the treasure we ourselves have received. And then we likewise recognize that there are many forests in the world all over the planet that yet are unaware that Jesus wants to graft them on his family tree. So on December 17th and the 1,130 missionary countries across the globe, missionaries are trying to prepare people to receive sometimes for the first time the good news of great joy that the angels heralded on Christmas morning. Let us pray for all those in whatever family tree that those family trees might eventually be able to say and of whom was born knowledge of a savior who is Christ the Lord. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the king.
David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,
Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian exile.
After the Babylonian exile,
Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
Abiud became the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.
Thus the total number of generations
from Abraham to David
is fourteen generations;
from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to the Christ,
fourteen generations.