The Bloodline's Backstory
I love Advent. It is not because I love waiting, because I don't. Advent is the season of waiting, great expectation, and preparing room for the One who comes wrapped up in human skin, bearing our humanity, and returning in final victory. I love Advent because it slows down the paceToo often though, our focus narrows to a manger and a mother, leaving the broader story of Jesus’ lineage behind a veil of silence. Yet the opening lines of the Gospel of Matthew resist that silence. In the genealogy of Jesus, there is an interruption of rhythm, a break in the usual pattern of “father of… father of…” Five women are named—five women whose presence in the text is not accidental but theological, not supplemental but central. In this sacred season, as we light candles and read prophecies, the Church must also remember the women whose lives, wombs, and choices shaped the bloodline of Christ. And we—especially those committed to the status and role of women—must not miss the invitation in the...