You might ask why the Church makes us listen to this long list of names on Christmas Eve.  42 names, mostly people we haven’t heard of, who don’t seem that important in the grand scheme of things.  But, believe it or not, this is one of the most important and meaningful passages in all of Sacred Scripture, and it’s worth listening to carefully and considering every name.  Here’s why: what happened on Christmas night was certainly shocking, earth-shattering, and cosmically unexpected: God became man.  The Creator became part of his creation.  The painter jumped into the canvas and became part of the picture: the center of the picture, in fact.  But as shocking as this is, it was not an accident.  This was not sudden.  This was not abrupt.  God planned this all along.  The genealogy proves that God was preparing for this moment for centuries; he spent at least 42 generations getting the world ready for Christmas Night.  Each one of these figures, each one of these men and women was a necessary link in the chain that led to Christ.  Each one is an example of God stepping in, intervening in our history, silently guiding the events of our world.  God used each one of these people deliberately, as part of his plan to save the human race.  Some were saintly, some were sinful.  Some were famous; some unknown.  Some were persecuted; some thrived.  But each one was part of the story; each one was faithful enough to keep the plan on track.  Each one of these individual lives, each with all its experiences and joys and sorrows, each life was part of a bigger story: the story of God making everything right again.  The story which comes to fulfillment on this Christmas Night. 

This should be a great source of comfort for us.  We can struggle at times to see the meaning in our lives; we wonder if we’re really making a difference, if we’ll leave anything behind as a legacy of our time on earth.  But this long list of names proves that God is always at work, he’s always at work in history and in our lives, usually in ways that seem trivial, or repetitive, in so many ways that we can’t even know or see.  Any one of these people, maybe one high up on the list, far away from Christ, even with no way of knowing it, was a small but integral part of salvation coming to the world.  Sometimes the Lord lets us see the depth of meaning in who are and what we do.  Sometimes he doesn’t.  Sometimes he just asks us to trust.  He wants us to trust him, to trust above all that he is really at work in our world, and in each and every one of our lives.  God is not done painting the great picture of creation.  He’s still working, constantly. 

And the choices we make matter.  As human beings, we have a unique position in creation; we don’t have to stay put where we are.  We have free will: we don’t have to play the role God asks us to play.  We can run off and refuse to do our part if we want.  But we won’t be happy.  Not really.  Not deeply.  Not for long.  We can drift off and hide in a little dark corner of the picture.  That’s what happens when we surrender to our sins, when we give up on pursuing virtue and holiness, when we stop worshipping God as we should: we’re running off and abandoning our designated spot.  And this disrupts the whole rest of the picture.  This makes a little break in the chain.  On the other hand, our simple faithfulness really matters.  Just doing what we are here to do, what God asks of us, really makes a difference, not just for our own place in the picture but for the harmonious arrangement of all those people and things around us.  And it’s pretty simple: give God an hour a week to worship him at Mass, really try not to sin and go to confession when you do, look for ways to love and sacrifice for those closest to you: in other words, just do what you’re supposed to do, what you know to do.  A simple idea; not always so simple to put in practice.  But this is how we continue to play our part in the story; just to keep trying: keep trying to be faithful.  This is how we keep our place in this great canvas of creation.  Christ born into the world is the center of that canvas, and we look to him to see the meaning of our lives: to see what the whole picture is really about.  And the events of Christmas Night give us a big hint.  This is a celebration of the most profound kind of humility.  He’s a king, but his first throne is a feeding trough.  He’s the lord of all time and space, but he chooses to live in a specific place and a specific time.  He’s infinitely powerful, but he enters the world as a weak and helpless baby.  He is the one through whom all things are brought to life, but he will be willing to suffer and die at the hands of those he created.  His love shines forth in humility.  We’re part of this story, this story of humility, and sacrifice, and God’s love for each and every one he’s created.  An incredible portrait of love, prepared from the beginning of time by Our Father, for us and for our salvation.  O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.  Amen.  Alleluia.