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Today, 6th of December, we celebrate
Saint Nicholas
First Reading: Gen 49:2, 8-10
Jacob called his sons and said to them:
"Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel, your father.
"You, Judah, shall your brothers praise
– your hand on the neck of your enemies;
the sons of your father shall bow down to you.
Judah, like a lion's whelp,
you have grown up on prey, my son.
He crouches like a lion recumbent,
the king of beasts – who would dare rouse him?
The scepter shall never depart from Judah,
or the mace from between his legs,
While tribute is brought to him,
and he receives the people's homage."
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 72:1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17
R (see 7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Gospel Reading: Mt 1:1-17
This is the document of the origins of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah's wife.
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings: Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.
Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
After the deportation to Babylon Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called the Christ-the Messiah.
There were then fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the birth of Christ.
Introduction
The liturgical readings of today call our attention to Christ in his human reality: human like us in everything – except for sin, clarifies St Paul – a descendant of sinners, who, as Church Fathers stress, are even singled out in Matthew’s family tree of Christ, a man born of a woman, a baby in a crib, a child growing up to manhood, a man walking the roads of Palestine, who could weep and be angry, had friends, had a sense of humor, attended marriage feasts. Indeed, he was fully human, God in human form.
Opening Prayer
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son came among us as one of us,
a human being among other people,
simple, accessible,
yet your human face
and the measure of what a human person is.
Lord, make us discover ourselves in his mirror:
that we are born to be free,
to be unselfish, available, committed.
Free us from our selfishness,
our cowardice and attitudes of conformism,
that we may become a bit
what you want us to be, like your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Liturgy of the Word
General Intercessions
– For the Jewish people, who gave us Jesus our Savior, that God may bless them and give them peace, we pray:
– For people who have erred, that they may not give up on themselves but keep seeking reconciliation with God and neighbor, we pray:
– For all of us, that we may keep growing in humanity in the likeness of Christ, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
your Son Jesus Christ, our Savior,
gives himself to us
in the simplicity of a piece of bread
and a cup of wine.
May we learn from him
to give ourselves in all simplicity.
Do not allow us to be resigned
to evil and misfortunes in the world,
but challenge us to be responsible with Jesus
for our brothers and sisters
and with him to exist for others,
today and every day, for ever.
Prayer after Communion
Loving Father,
because Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
became one of us long ago,
we can believe that he is still one of us today,
sharing our destiny, going all the way with us.
Accept us then in your Son as we are:
stumbling and fumbling and plodding,
yet full of good will and hoping
in a future of justice and reconciliation,
for Christ is our Lord for ever.
Blessing
A theme dear to the Church Fathers is that Christ became one of us as a human person to make us children of God and to show us in himself what it means to be a son or daughter of God. May God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
