Below is Pope Francis’ catechesis at the General Audience on December 18 on “Jesus Christ our hope”:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today we begin the cycle of catechesis that will take place throughout the Jubilee Year. The theme is “ Jesus Christ our hope ”: He is, in fact, the goal of our pilgrimage, and He himself is the way, the path to follow.
The first part will deal with the childhood of Jesus, as narrated by the evangelists Matthew and Luke (cf. Mt 1-2; Lk 1-2). The infancy Gospels recount the virginal conception of Jesus and his birth from the womb of Mary; they recall the messianic prophecies fulfilled in the “trunk” of the Davidic dynasty. We are presented with a newborn Jesus, a child and adolescent, submissive to his parents and, at the same time, aware that he is totally devoted to the Father and to his Kingdom. The difference between the two evangelists is that while Luke recounts the events through the eyes of Mary, Matthew does so through those of Joseph, insisting on such an unprecedented paternity.
Matthew opens his Gospel and the entire New Testament canon with the “genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” ( Matthew 1:1), which we have just heard. It is a list of names already present in the Hebrew Scriptures, in order to show the truth of history and the truth of human life. In fact, “the genealogy of the Lord is true history, in which some names are present that are, so to speak, problematic, and the sin of King David is emphasized (cf. Mt 1:6). Everything, however, ends and blossoms in Mary and in Christ (cf. Mt 1:16)” ( Letter on the renewal of the study of the history of the Church , 21 November 2024). Thus the truth of human life appears, which passes from one generation to the next, giving three things: a name that contains a unique identity and mission; belonging to a family and a people; and finally the adherence of faith to the God of Israel.
Genealogy is a literary genre, that is, an appropriate way of transmitting a very important message: no one gives life to himself, but receives it as a gift from others; in this case, it is about the chosen people, and those who inherit the deposit of faith.
But unlike the genealogies of the Old Testament, in which only male names appear, because in Israel it is the father who gives his son his name, in Matthew’s list of Jesus’ ancestors there are also women. We find five: Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law who, widowed, pretends to be a prostitute to ensure descendants for her husband (cf. Gen 38); Racab, the prostitute of Jericho who allows Jewish explorers to enter the promised land and conquer it (cf. James 2); Ruth, the Moabite who, in the eponymous book, remains faithful to her mother-in-law, takes care of her and will become the great-grandmother of King David; Bathsheba, with whom David commits adultery and, after having her husband killed, gives birth to Solomon (cf. 2 Sam 11 ); and, finally, Mary of Nazareth, wife of Joseph, of the house of David: from her is born the Messiah, Jesus.
The first four women are united not by the fact that they are sinners, as is sometimes said, but by the fact that they are foreigners, they are strangers to the people of Israel. What Matthew highlights is that, as Benedict XVI has written, “through them… the world of the Gentiles enters into the genealogy of Jesus: his mission to Jews and to pagans is made manifest” ( The Childhood of Jesus , Milan-Vatican City 2012, 15).
While the four women mentioned above are mentioned together with the man who was born of them or who gave birth to them, Mary, on the contrary, takes on a particular significance: she marks a new beginning, she herself is a new beginning, because in her history it is no longer the human creature who is the protagonist of generation, but God himself. This is clearly evident from the verb “born”: “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called the Christ” ( Mt 1:16). Jesus is the son of David, grafted by Joseph into that dynasty and destined to be the Messiah of Israel , but he is also the son of Abraham and of foreign women, destined therefore to be the light of the people.
The Son of God, consecrated to the Father with the mission of revealing his face (cf. Jn 1:18; Jn 14:9), enters the world like all the children of human beings, to the point that in Nazareth he will be called “son of Joseph” ( Jn 6:42) or “son of the carpenter” ( Mt 13:55). True God and true man.
Brothers and sisters, let us awaken in ourselves a grateful memory of our ancestors. And above all, let us give thanks to God, who, through Mother Church, has given us eternal life, the life of Jesus, our hope.