Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 8, 2023
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.
Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
My dad served as a lector for Sunday mass, and I recall him being assigned this reading when I was in middle school. I also vividly remember my two reactions: “Oof, what a doozy” regarding pronunciation and, “Why do we all need to sit through this litany of names? Isn’t the point about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus being their own nuclear family at the end?
As an adult, my reactions to this reading are more nuanced. My job in brand communications places significant weight on names. And as a parent, my husband and I sure spent a lot of time discussing what to name our children.
When I read this passage now, I first think about Jesus having roots. His actual human lineage is full of people we can read about and relate to. It’s grounding to think about his human side when the divine can seem mysterious—he was a real person, and this is his ancestry.com report in Biblical form.
Secondly, I think about the tremendous responsibility Mary and Joseph must have felt when given a child preordained as “Emmanuel.” We just welcomed our daughter to the world in June, and even naming her felt weighty to me for many reasons, without any expectations for her to save the world from their sins!
Her name is Eliza Louise, which we liked because they remind us of the strong women we know. It gives me a boost thinking about them whenever I worry about the challenges she’ll face. Maybe if Mary and Joseph felt overwhelmed by the responsibility of raising Jesus, they also thought about the meaning of his name—God is with us—and were able to carry on day by day in trust and hope.
Prayer
Jesus, we know that you are always with us, leading and guiding us through your Spirit. At the same time, we long for that time when we will experience the fullness of your presence in the wedding feast of heaven. We ask that you send your Spirit to strengthen us through the difficulties of this life so that we may be prepared even now for life eternal. We ask this in your most holy name. Amen.
Saint of the Day

Today, we remember the birth date of the one honored as the “God-bearer.”
Mary’s birth was the first realization of the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. She was born without sin, pure and holy—“full of grace”—to prepare her to bear God’s Son to the world.
Among the saints, only Mary and St. John the Baptist have commemorations on the dates of their births and their deaths (or assumption to heaven, in Mary’s case). These two, above all other saints, heralded and participated in the arrival of our savior.
The birthplace of Mary is not known for certain. One ancient tradition holds that she was born in Nazareth. Another tradition states that she was born in Jerusalem in a neighborhood near the pool of Bethesda. Today there is a church in that neighborhood dedicated to St. Anne, Mary’s mother, and a crypt under that church designates a spot where Mary is believed to have been born. View images from that church in this part of our virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
In the account of the first sin in Genesis, Eve was led astray by the figure of the serpent. Immediately upon discovering their sin, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen 3:15).
Because the offspring of the woman lethally strikes at the serpent’s head, this passage is allegorically understood as the final triumph of good over evil. Here is the first promise of a redeemer for fallen humanity, Jesus, and the passage notes he is born of woman, Mary. With her obedience, Mary reverses Eve’s disobedience and brings life to the world through her Son, Jesus.
When Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., arrived at a missionary outpost on the American frontier in northern Indiana in November of 1842, he saw a frozen lake covered in snow. The purity of the scene reminded him of Mary, and he named the university he founded after Our Lady of the Lake: the University of Notre Dame du Lac.
Images of Mary abound on campus, including a depiction of her birth in the mural shown above from the Basilica. Of course, she also appears atop the golden-domed Main Building, where she stands 19 feet high and weighs 4,000 pounds. Relics of Mary, including pieces of her clothes and hair, rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Mary, Our Lady of the Lake, your obedience reversed Eve’s disobedience and brought life to the world—pray for us!