Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Where did Jesus come from?
The Gospels of both Luke and Matthew offer the genealogy of Jesus. Both appear to be through Joseph, Mary’s husband, though some believe Luke’s actually refers to Jesus. Jewish teaching is that lineage is traced through one’s father.
Call me biased, because I am. Today is the 120th anniversary of my maternal grandmother’s birth as well as the day Catholics celebrate as Mary’s birthday. Being the oldest daughter of devout Polish immigrants, you can guess my grandmother’s first name. And I find the stories of where she and they came from as fascinating and as much about who I am as the stories of my Irish
immigrant and significantly less devout paternal great-grandfather Patrick Rigney.
I’m Catholic because of the Eucharist. I also like being part of a faith that so reveres who in my view is the strongest woman who ever walked the earth, the woman who had a bewildering interaction with an angel, who gave birth in a manger, who heard a chilling prediction at her son’s Presentation, who lost him for three days as an adolescent, who nudged him at the wedding at Cana, who saw him crucified, and who saw him resurrected. Do I agree with all of the Church’s views today on women? For me, it doesn’t matter. As a Catholic woman, I have the challenging, inspiring example of the lives of two women named Mary, one of whom I come from genetically and one of whom, spiritually, we can all come from.
