17 December 2025 (Wednesday) / Advent Weekday / Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

17 December 2025 (Wednesday)

Advent Weekday / Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Genesis 49: 2, 8-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 72: 1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 17
Gospel: Matthew 1: 1-17

First Reading: Genesis 49: 2, 8-10

2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken to Israel your father:
8 Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hands shall be on the necks of thy enemies: the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.
9 Juda is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?
10 The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 72: 1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 17

R. (7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

1, 2 Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and to the king’s son thy justice: To judge thy people with justice, and thy poor with judgment.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

3 Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice.
4 He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

7 In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken sway.
8 And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

17 Let his name be blessed for evermore: his name continueth before the sun. And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed: all nations shall magnify him.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Matthew 1: 1-17

1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judas and his brethren.
3 And Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar. And Phares begot Esron. And Esron begot Aram.
4 And Aram begot Aminadab. And Aminadab begot Naasson. And Naasson begot Salmon.
5 And Salmon begot Booz of Rahab. And Booz begot Obed of Ruth. And Obed begot Jesse.
6 And Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias.
7 And Solomon begot Roboam. And Roboam begot Abia. And Abia begot Asa.
8 And Asa begot Josaphat. And Josaphat begot Joram. And Joram begot Ozias.
9 And Ozias begot Joatham. And Joatham begot Achaz. And Achaz begot Ezechias.
10 And Ezechias begot Manasses. And Manasses begot Amon. And Amon begot Josias.
11 And Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon.
12 And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel. And Salathiel begot Zorobabel.
13 And Zorobabel begot Abiud. And Abiud begot Eliacim. And Eliacim begot Azor.
14 And Azor begot Sadoc. And Sadoc begot Achim. And Achim begot Eliud.
15 And Eliud begot Eleazar. And Eleazar begot Mathan. And Mathan begot Jacob.
16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations, from Abraham to David, are fourteen generations. And from David to the transmigration of Babylon, are fourteen generations: and from the transmigration of Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations.

For our reflection today:

At Holy Mass on Tuesday morning Pope Francis commented on the Readings of the day, taken from the Book of Genesis (49:2, 8-10) and from the Gospel of St Matthew (1:1-17). On this, the Pontiff’s seventy seventh birthday, he presided at his customary morning Mass in the Chapel of Santa Marta. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, was present to concelebrate the Mass and expressed his best wishes to the Pope on behalf of the entire College.

The Pope centred his homily around the theme of God’s presence in the history of mankind. Within this context, the Pontiff identified two key themes — inheritance and genealogy. He said they are keys to interpreting the first Reading from Genesis regarding the prophecy of Jacob, who gathers together his sons and foretells a glorious line of descendants for Judah, and the Gospel passage which recounts the genealogy of Jesus. Reflecting especially on the latter, Pope Francis said that “we are not dealing with a list in a telephone book” but with “pure history”, for “God sent his Son among men. Jesus is consubtantial with God, the Father, but also consubstantial with his mother, a woman. And this is his consubtantiality with his mother: God entered history, God wanted to become history. He is with us. He has journeyed with us”.

It was a journey that began long ago, in Paradise, immediately after the original sin. God “had this idea: to make the journey with us”. Therefore, “he called Abraham, the first person indicated on this list, and he invited him to walk. Abraham began the journey: he begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah”. And so it went, over the course of history. “God journeys with his people”, the Pope said, because he did not want to come and save us apart from history; he wanted to make history with us”.

It is a history wrought of holiness and sin, the Pope said. The list of the genealogy of Jesus is filled with saints and sinners: from Abraham and David who converted after his sin to “high caliber sinners, who sinned gravely”. But God made history with them all. The latter were sinners who did not know how to respond to the design God had in mind for them. “Soloman, so great and intelligent, ended like a poor man who didn’t even know his name”. And yet God was also with him. “And this is beautiful: God makes history with us”.

The Pope continued: “when God wants to say who he is, he says: I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob”. “What is God’s surname?” the Pope asked. “We are, each one of us. He takes the name of each of us and makes it his surname: ‘I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Pedro, of Marietta, of Armony, of Marisa, of Simon, of everyone. He takes his surname from us. God’s surname is each one of us’”.

The Pope then said, as Christmas approaches, “it is natural to think: if he made history with us, if he took his surname from us, if he has left it to us to write his history, then we for our part should allow God to write our history”. Pope Francis concluded by extending to all those present an invitation to an open heart, and a Christmas wish: “May the Lord write your history, and may you allow him to write it”. (Pope Francis, God’s surname, Tuesday, 17 December 2013).

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)