This is not to scapegoat my biological and adopted families. To be sure, I am the one ultimately responsible for my insane thinking and harmful behavior. Rather, it is to make the point that the environments of our upbringing have a huge influence on who we become as we are exposed to fear, isolation, suffering, abuse, evil, and trauma. Being victims of disordered love detrimentally influences our self-identity and impacts how we come to victimize others. When we receive poor human and spiritual formation, we regrettably impart the same to our children. We do not know any better without the Gospel and recovery. A central task of conversion is to “recover” a proper Christian anthropology of who we actually are in the “imago Dei.” We are wonderfully made in the image and likeness of God. We are inherently worthy and wanted, divinely called to love and be loved, adopted children of the Father. We discover that we are not immutably doomed to perpetuate the “sins of our fathers.” Rather, we are called to forgive those who harmed us and to make amends to those we have harmed—to break the cycle of addiction.
The Catholic Church does not teach that we are personally responsible for the sins of our fathers and mothers, but it does affirm that the destructive aftereffects of Original Sin are transmitted to us through the disordered love of our forebears. While we are not guilty of the “sins of our fathers,” our freedom to choose good and reject evil is nevertheless perpetually challenged by the cunning, baffling, and powerful forces of scandal, the immoral and harmful witness of others, and our own concupiscence, that wretched tendency to make bad decisions and self-destruct.
The Good News of the Gospel is that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fully understands our human condition in the mystery of His incarnation. While He did not sin or fall into disordered love as we do, He nevertheless experienced the bitter trials of temptation (cf. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 14:32-42; and Luke 23:37). It is worth noting that today’s Gospel selection features the human genealogy of Our Lord. It only takes a little study to recognize that many on that list were serious sinners. Jacob was a deceiver and a thief. Isaac succumbed to cowardice and loss of faith. Rahab was a prostitute. King David was a murderer and an adulterer. And many like Solomon, Ahaz, Rehoboam, Mannasseh, and Amon gave in to idolatry. Yet, this is the line Jesus chose to be born into, which is to say, He chose to be born into the sinful human condition we all share! He literally took on our sinfulness in solidarity with us to bear its consequences in His passion and death, and restore us to the Father. So when you hear the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel this Advent season, remember that it anticipates the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil when we rejoice, “O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”
Reflection Questions
- How have you experienced the intergenerational nature of sin in addiction? How were you a victim? And how have you victimized others in your addictions, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments?
- Explain how you are seeking to recover and embrace your true identity in the imago Dei. Do you relate to any of the persons listed in the genealogy of Our Lord?
Daily Mass Readings
First Reading: Genesis 49:2, 8-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17
Gospel: Matthew 1:1-17
Reflection by Pete S.