was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called the Christ — the Messiah. This is how Jesus Christ was born: Mary, his mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to disgrace her. While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a son. You shall call him ‘Jesus‘ for he will save his people from their sins.“ All this happened in order to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he will be called Emmanuel, which means: God-with-us.

Reflections
An ecological reflection is the lens to see the wider meaning of the gospel today. We need a deeper appropriation of the meaning of God-with-us in Christ. We need to redefine the appreciation of God with us to the appreciation of God-with all- living-creatures including the non-human. The incarnation of God in Christ can be seen as a profound and sweeping gesture and stance, that is, an incarnation into the very tissue of biological existence and system of nature. Richard Rohr connects creation and incarnation: Two thousand years ago was the human incarnation of God in Jesus, but before that there was the first and original incarnation through light, water, land, sun, moon, stars, plants, trees, fruit, birds, serpents, cattle, fish, and “every kind of wild beast“ according to our own creation story (Genesis 1:3-25). This was the “Cosmic Christ“ through which God has “let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made from the beginning in Christ“ (Ephesians 1:9). Christ is not Jesus' last name, but the title for his life's purpose. Jesus is the very concrete truth revealing and standing in for the universal truth. As Colossians puts it, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.“ (1:15), he is the one glorious part that names and reveals the even more glorious whole. “The fullness is founded in him... everything in heaven and everything on earth" (Colossians1:19-20).

© Copyright Bible Diary 2018