I love the list of names in the Gospel today, Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus.

The list was the subject of a wonderful homily once given by the great Dominican theologian, Herbert McCabe which concludes with a memorable Advent meditation:  “Well, that is the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ.  The moral is too obvious to labour:  Jesus did not belong to the nice clean world of Angela McNamara or Mary Whitehouse, or to the honest, reasonable, sincere world of the Observer or the Irish Times.  He belonged to a family of murderers, cheats, cowards, adulterers and liars—He belonged to us and came to help us.  No wonder He came to a bad end, and gave us some hope.”

The homily, along with many other splendid things, can be found in Father McCabe’s book, God Matters.  Blessed Advent.