Billion Graves

Opening the book of our biography and finding two genealogies

12/17/2018

Matthew 1:1-17 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king…Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

There has been a veritable explosion of interest in investigating genealogies lately. I recently came across a list of 25 websites that help people to explore their past. You’ve probably heard of “ancestry.com” and “23 and Me,” which several priest-friends have used. But you might also peruse “Archives.com,” or “Billiongraves.com” or “FamilySearch.org,” or “Findingmypast.com.” If you are Jewish, check out “JewishGen.com,” or if your forefathers served in the military since the Revolutionary War, go to “Fold3.com.” But the very first decision you make even before going to a website is whether to check out your father’s line or your mother’s line. In other words, every one of us has two genealogies: a paternal one and a maternal one, and each one leads you to learn about half of your past. But only together do they tell the whole story about your identity.

One day Susie asked her mother, “Where do people come from?” Her mother replied, “well, Adam and Eve had babies, and when they grew up they had babies, and so on until us.” A few days later Susie asked her father, “Where do babies come from?” He answered: “People have descended from monkeys.” Very disturbed Susie rushed back to her mom and asked why their two answers were so different. Her mom smiled and said: “Well, dear, I was telling you about my side of the family and your father was telling you about his side.” In other words, we all have two genealogies, a paternal one and a maternal one, and one may be a little more flattering than the other.

Today we hear the genealogy of Jesus according to St. Matthew. Believe it or not, it is one of my favorite passages of Scripture and I love it when it comes up at Mass. But did you know there is a second genealogy of Jesus in the gospel of Luke chapter 3? If you read the two genealogies side by side, you quickly discover they are different – different people are mentioned! One likely explanation for the divergence is that Matthew provides the ancestry of Jesus tracing the lineage of Joseph, while Luke focuses instead on the ancestry of Mary. Matthew, following Joseph’s genealogy, goes back to King David and finally Abraham and shows Jesus belong to the Chosen People, while Luke’s ancestry attempts to take Mary’s genealogy all the back to Adam and Eve, and even to God. In every genealogy, therefore (and Jesus’ genealogy is no exception), there always exist two ancestral lines, a paternal one and a maternal one. And to understand the whole story of our identity (especially Jesus’ identity) we must explore both. Otherwise, we will remain a mystery to ourselves; our biography will be a closed book.

My friends, I would suggest to you that Christians also have two genealogies, but not merely that of our natural mother and father. Rather, we have both a physical ancestry but also a spiritual one. We enjoy a natural pedigree but also a supernatural one thanks to the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist. Let me explain briefly. By baptism we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit and adopted into the Family of God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and the Church as our Mother. Our spiritual genealogy, therefore, includes the saints and sinners who belonged to the Church by baptism up and down the centuries. They are truly our brothers and sisters. What’s more, our family by spiritual baptism is more real than our family by physical regeneration because the first will last into eternity, but the second endures only on earth.

You’ve heard the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” to describe how we are a lot like our parents. That expression can also help describe our two genealogies. On the natural side we come from Adam and Eve, who ate from the forbidden fruit (the apple) of the tree in Eden, and so we are sinners, like them. That is our natural pedigree, that we are sinners. But Jesus and Mary teach us how to reach for the fruit of another tree – the tree of the Cross – and the fruit (the apple) of that Tree is the Body and Blood of Christ, which we eat at the Mass. We might say the “apple” of the Tree of the Cross is Christ himself and when we take a bite from it, we become saints. That is our spiritual pedigree, that we are called to be saints. Just like Jesus has two genealogies – one showing he is the son of Abraham (and human) and the other showing he is the Son of God (and divine) – so every Christian has two genealogies, one showing we are human and sinful, and the other suggesting we are divine and saintly.

The next time you are curious about your genealogy, don’t just go to “billiongraves.com” and search there for who you are, but also pick up the Bible and search there. Don’t just read the first half of the book of your biography; the second half is the more interesting part.

Praised be Jesus Christ!