Simbang Gabi: 2nd & 3rd Day

Last night is my second day of my Simbang Gabi and I’ll attend the mass at St. John Bosco church in Makati. The mass started as soon as the clock hit 8. We sing entrance song, the first reading from the book of Genesis that praises Judah, read the responsorial psalm, and then to Daily Gospel.

We sing hallelujah and the Mass Presider read the Gospel, when he is already in the middle of his reading he pause for a while (maybe about two or three minutes) and then finish it. I thought that’s why he pause in reading because he can’t find the next page or he’s catching his breath, but definitely there’s something wrong because his pause is too long and when he started his homily I confirmed what the problem is, He’s reading the December 18 Gospel (MT 1:18-25) for Simbang Gabi because the pamphlet he’s holding is for December 18 Mass. The supposed to be Gospel is from Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 to 17 that says about the genealogy of Jesus Christ, from Abraham down to Jesus Christ. Fourteen Generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the Babylonia Exile, and fourteen generations from Babylonia exile to the Messiah.

But the Priest perfectly explained the Gospel he read, it is about how courageous and obedient Joseph is. He perfectly inculcated to our mind the gospel. Though it’s kind of advance and I wonder what would be the homily today and also what supposed to be his homily that time.

But why write a genealogy of Jesus?

I found this in the net, its answer the above question and I quote

“In the Old Testament, there are two main purposes of genealogies: (1) on the literary level, a genealogy marks the end of the story a generation and the beginning of a new one. On the theological level, it is to legitimate belongingness – who does and who does not belong to the chosen people of Israel.

In short, in the genealogy of Jesus read during this Simbang Gabi, we can meditate on two things: (1) Jesus as the new beginning — as Israel’s hope as well as our hope; (2) Jesus as part of God’s promise to Israel in the past — the basis of our hope. When we think then of Christmas, we do not only look forward to the newness that the Incarnation brings about but also look back to God’s faithfulness to his covenant with Israel to whom Jesus belongs.

Let today’s gospel be an invitation from God for us to be thankful for all that has been.

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