Jesus’ Family Tree: counting the ancestors and the ancestors who
count
Family genealogy has become a small industry. Americans who used
to be content to identify with the future and forget the past
are now searching for “roots”. Church records of baptisms and
funerals have often been useful to families trying to put together
a family tree. Where did our great-grandfather come from? Where
do people we’ve generically labeled “cousin” fit into the family?
Some far-flung relationships are being re-discovered as a source
of identity by people who used to identify themselves only by
their own accomplishments or those of their immediate family members.
For a Church which calls itself a “communion”, this popular interest
in relationships is a positive development. Occasionally a relation
is discovered that is more source of embarrassment than of identity.
There are ancestors we’re proud of and those we’d rather forget.
There are ancestors who count in the scheme of things and those
of no account. But they’re all part of who we are, even though
we sometimes slightly edit the family history for public disclosure.
Catholics and other Christians have two family trees: that of
the natural or biological family into which they were born and
that of the supernatural family of faith into which they have
been reborn through baptism. Both natural family and Church count
some people we’d just as soon forget about. Recognizing them for
who they were, however, is part of understanding who we are. The
Pope has asked in recent years that the Church today examine the
historical record and acknowledge the sins of members of the family
of faith, so that we can go into the new millennium without the
suppressed or false memories which can hamper our re-dedication
to the mission of Jesus Christ in the years to come.
The source of the Church’s life is Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God
and Son of Mary. Our family tree as believers begins with the
Savior who died so that our veins could course with God’s own
life. We are branches of a living tree called Jesus Christ. As
God, Jesus’ life is from all eternity; as man, Jesus’ life is
tied to human ancestors.
Two Gospels list the ancestors of Jesus. The Gospel according
to St. Luke, which had as its primary audience those who were
not Jews, links Jesus with a family tree beginning with Adam.
Jesus, the second Adam, is family to all men and women of every
race and nation because he is the Savior of the entire human race.
The Gospel according to St. Matthew, on the other hand, because
it was written for those Christians who were born of Jewish families,
links Jesus with a family tree beginning with Abraham and continuing
through the tribe of Judah to King David and to Jesus himself.
Jesus is, as the placard on his cross proclaimed, the “King of
the Jews” (John 19:19). As Jesus himself said to the Samaritan
woman, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
King David’s father was a man named Jesse, and the genealogy of
Jesus from the Gospel according to St. Matthew is therefore often
called a “Jesse tree”. Through Jesus, Christians are branches
which have been “grafted”, as St. Paul says, onto this family
tree. Abraham is our “ancestor in faith” (Roman Canon of the Mass).
Christmas is a family feast, but the family includes many more
than those we usually think about. It’s good to recall all the
ancestors this Christmas, those we take pride in and those we’d
rather forget. At the end of the second millennium, a better sense
of where we are coming from as God’s family will rescue the celebration
of Christmas from a false sentimentality which has little to do
with Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary. The opposite of false
sentimentality is true love.
Last week I visited Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights
and celebrated Mass with the student body and the faculty and
with priests and representatives from the neighboring parishes:
St. Paul, St. Kieran, Immaculate Conception, and from St. James
Hospital as well. Marian is a dynamic and demanding school directed
lovingly by the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, a
city I visited on December 14 in order to ordain their new bishop.
During my visit to Marian Catholic High School, the editor of
the student paper asked me if I thought there is a crisis of religion
as we enter a new millennium. I said that I don’t believe there
is a crisis of religion so much as a crisis of love. The relationships
that call for loving surrender to God and to one another in marriage,
in consecrated life, in ordained priesthood, are often severely
tested and sometimes break. But problems in these “institutions”
have their roots in a family problem. Families are where we learn
to love. We’re having difficulty with that lesson.
May our celebration of Christmas in 1999 bring us more deeply
into the love of God made visible in Jesus, Son of Mary and Savior
of the world. May this Christmas prepare us for the new millennium
by strengthening our love for one another in our families and
in the family of faith which is the Church. Praying for our enemies
and for all who have harmed us, especially in our families and
in the Church, is a way of recognizing that all the ancestors
count. I ask you also to keep in your prayers this Christmas a
new bishop in the family, the Most Reverend George Lucas, Bishop
of Springfield-in-Illinois. To him and his people and to each
of you and your families, a blessed Christmas.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
