The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

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n this day in 2017, Pope Francis, during his Apostolic Journey to Colombia said in his homily,

[...] In the Gospel, we have the genealogy of Jesus (Mt 1:1-17, 18-23), which is not a “simple list of names,” but rather a “living history,” the history of the people that God journeyed with; by making himself one of us, God wanted to announce that the history of the just and of sinners runs through his blood, that our salvation is not a sterile entity found in a laboratory, but rather something concrete, a salvation of life that moves forward. This long list tells us that we are a small part of a vast history, and it helps us not to claim excessive importance for ourselves; it helps us elude the temptation of over-spiritualizing things; it helps us not withdraw from the concrete historical realities in which we live. It also integrates in our history of salvation those pages which are the darkest and saddest, moments of desolation and abandonment comparable to exile. [...]