The Stump of Jesse & Family Ancestry

Tuesday of the 1st Week of Advent
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier

Isaiah 11:1-10

On that day, A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.  The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him:  a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, A Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be fear of the Lord.....Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

During the Advent season, we are blessed by the readings from the Book of Isaiah.  Today's passage is particularly beautiful and encourages me to reflect on my own family ancestry.

Family History For my grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary, my mother came up with the wonderful idea of converting some old home videos to DVD.  We viewed the restored footage on Thanksgiving Day.  Wow, surreal seeing color "silent" films of my grandparents in their early twenties and my great grandmother who died before I was born.  One of my great aunts passed away from breast cancer at age 40, so it was very special to see her vivaciousness and great sense of style.  We saw footage from Northern California where another great aunt lived, my mother's apartment located in the basement of the hillside home.  Viewing these films from the early 1950's felt like I warped back to a time of innocence, a time of youth, and a time of cherished family life.  My grandmother came from a family of 8 and my grandfather from a family of 11!!

Ancient Heritage I received a National Geographic holiday catalog in the mail yesterday.  Available for purchase is a Geno 2.0 DNA testing kit.  The kit supports NG's Genographic Research Project.  A DNA sample tracks a person's ancestral heritage from as far back as 50,000 years ago.  All I know is I'm half Scottish and half Northern Italian.   Could I be linked to King David, Jesus, Mary, Joseph or some other ancient relative mentioned in the bible??  Interesting to find out!

Spirit of the Lord  The spirit of the Lord rests upon us patiently. In this Advent Season, we should reflect on how the spirit influences our family life.  

Do we have a good relationship with our family?  Do we love our family in the spirit of wisdom and understanding? Do we have the courage and strength to help family members in crisis?  Do we delight in knowing the importance of family in our own personal relationships with Christ?

In our anticipatory wait for the birth of Christ, let's reach out to family members who may be estranged from us.  Let's forgive relatives who have offended us.  Let's try to mend broken relationships.  The stump of the Jesse tree is a reminder of Christ's ancestral heritage as well as our own.

-J.