I’ve always been puzzled by today’s Gospel: the Genealogy of Christ.

No matter how hard I try, I struggle to find that “deeper meaning” we all search for when reading Scripture. Instead, I just seem to stumble through one oddly-spelled Hebrew name after another, butchering each one worst than the last.

What is God trying to say to me in the midst of names like Amminadab, Zerubbabel, and Shealtiel? I’ll tell you what I wish—that He’d provide us with a few tips on how to pronounce those crazy names! I feel for the unfortunate priests and deacons who will labor through today’s Gospel at Masses celebrated throughout the world.

But hidden within today’s readings, buried beneath the tongue twisters and confusing jumble of ancestry, is the concept of “origin.”

Knowing where we’ve come from and who we belong to has to be one of the deepest desires of the human heart. It’s not likely to be something we think about often, at least not as adults, but it’s always there in the background. Without it, there would be a noticeable void.

Origin is something many adoptive children struggle with throughout their lives, I’ve heard. It probably feels a bit like amnesia—like having a history that just stops, abruptly, at some arbitrary point in the past.

As adopted sons and daughters of God, is our understanding of origin clearly defined, or vague and foggy? And how does that impact our walk in faith?

Advent is the perfect time to reflect upon origin. In many ways it’s the pre-cursor to our origin story as Christians. Our faith was born when Jesus entered the world; that’s where it all began, the starting point that has led to more than 2,000 years of Christianity. And what a profound impact that’s had on human history!

What details make up your faith-origin story? Have you always been Catholic, since birth? Or, was it something you consciously decided to pursue later in life? As children of God, these details are important and help shape the way we all relate to our heavenly father.

During these last few days of Advent, take some time to reflect upon the wonderful mystery of our origin as Christians—of the miracle that was Christ’s birth and the effect His life and death has had upon the world. And as we anticipate Christ’s second coming, consider the role you might be called to play in the origin story of others who respond to God’s grace in their lives.

Jordan Watwood is the Marketing Director at Fuzati, a Catholic marketing company.”

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