In addition to requests for church matters, the parish authorities sometimes receive requests for the issuance of baptismal or death certificates for inheritance proceedings, especially for family trees. Many are proud of how far into the past they managed to trace their ancestors. However, family trees are not the hit of this time. For the Old Testament people, it was not only a matter of family honor, but also a matter of relationship with God. They realized that their roots go back to the patriarchs, who had God’s blessing and promise, and at the same time had the hope that a messiah would be born from their offspring, to whom the nations would obey (1st reading). The whole nation came from Jacob and his sons. And as we know, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. This is also the name of their state.
It does not surprise us at all that even the evangelists, when describing the birth of the Lord Jesus, go to his ancestors and introduce us to his family tree. Matúš mentions four women in his family tree, and Maria as the fifth. However, he does not mention the ones we would expect from the Old Testament. Not Sarah, Rebeca, Lia, or Rachel, but also mentions women who were, as it were, on the opposite shore. Not on the side of great women, but on the side of sinful women: Tamara seduced her father-in-law out of a desire for offspring, Rehab was a prostitute, but she helps conquer Jericho and opens the way to the promised land. Although Ruth was a Gentile who joined the Old Testament people by marriage, she was noble. Even after her husband’s death, she remained with her mother-in-law, to whom she says: Your God will also be my God. Matthew does not even mention unfaithful Bathsheba by name, but only as Uriah’s wife.
And at the end of the name is Joseph, but it is not written that he had a son Jesus (as with all names up to now), but that he was the husband of Mary, from whom Jesus was born, called Christ. We see a genealogy that is not only based on the great deeds of great men, but also speaks of great mistakes, and mentions women who were not Jewish in key situations in Israel’s history. God’s path to our earth is not based on our great deeds and personalities, but on God’s grace and forgiveness. God gives us an absolute gift in his Son, and it is not given to us because of our merits, nor because we belong to a chosen nation. It is given to us out of love and grace. The virgin conception of Jesus Christ is therefore a sign that even if a person does nothing, gives nothing, or is even weak and sinful, God is coming. Christ is given to us in an absolute sense as a Gift.
