In the week before Christmas there are a special set of antiphons before the gospel called the “O antiphons” — because they all start with “O.” Today the antiphon begins “O Root of Jesse’s stem,..” Jesse was the father of King David who lived one thousand years before Jesus. The ancient memory of the ancestors of Jesus helped his followers to understand him and his mission. The first reading and the gospel for today are paired telling the story of a miraculous birth — the earlier of Samson and the later of John the Baptist. Again, a more than thousand year old memory helped the Church to understand the plan of God at work over the centuries. It is easy for us to get discouraged at current events when things seem to be on a downward spiral. We need to fall back on our own memories of how God has been with us personally, how God has been with the Church for the past two thousand years to learn trust that God will continue to steer the course of history.
