It might seem strange that, on this, one of the most important and profound days of the year, the Church would give us this particular Gospel reading: have us run through this long list of names before we get to the good stuff.  Why does the Church ask us to read the phone book on Christmas Eve?  The truth is, this is one of the most important scripture readings from the entire year.  St. Matthew knew what he was doing putting this long genealogy in here.  In the ancient world, writing materials were expensive, and nobody would have put in a long list like this just to fill up space.  It’s important and it’s significant.  Why?  Because of what this long list of names tells us about the birth of Christ, which is recounted immediately afterwards.  Because of what this teaches us about God and the way he interacts with our world.  

This long list shows us that none of this was an accident.  God cares about human history and God is active in human history: in each and every person.  Each and every link in the chain is worth mentioning, because God’s hand is present there, in a unique way in each person.  Each one of these people represents a life of struggle and striving after God’s will: some did better than others, but all remained fundamentally faithful to God’s plan.  God used each and every one as part of the long preparation for the coming of his son into this world.  God’s hand, always at work.  God’s desire to save our human race, always active.  God’s love and investment in our destiny, on full display.  And this is what this season is all about.  What this day is all about, this Feast.  It’s the feast of God’s love: of how much God cares about us.  So much that he wouldn’t leave us alone, wouldn’t leave us in our sins.  To save us, he would come and be born and live and die as one of us.  God spent thousands of years preparing for the birth of his Son in the world.  God used of all these people whose names we heard, people who could never begin to imagine how much their individual faithfulness would mean.  It’s like looking at your family tree and thinking about your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents: marveling at how each one of those lives had to unfold in a very particular way for you to even be born.  But that’s what happened.  And it wasn’t an accident.  And Jesus Christ’s birth wasn’t an accident either.  

And this is the message for our own lives as well.  God didn’t stop being active in the world 2000 years ago.  He didn’t stop caring about every single person, every single link in the chain.  He cares as much as ever.  He cares what you do.  He cares about your faithfulness and your holiness and your salvation.  And he can use you, your small acts of kindness, your perseverance in difficult times, your faithfulness to prayer and to Mass and the sacraments: for great things in your life and the lives of others.  We just have to let him.  We just have to let God’s plan of salvation unfold in our lives, just as it unfolded in the lives of each and every person named in today’s gospel.  Our job is to be converted by this mystery: the mystery of God made man, the mystery of love and of salvation.  Christ, Our Savior, is born for us.  Come, let us adore him.  Amen.  Alleluia.