Origins

In the spring of 1999 I spent about a week visiting my dad and stepmom and my two brothers and their families. This was the first time we had all been together at the same place at the same time since 1978. Then in the autumn of that year my mom and oldest brother Danny and his wife Becky came to visit me at the Abbey. This was the first time we were able to be together since 1980. (However, I had visited all of them a number of times separately over the years.)
    These visits were interesting in that they afforded me an opportunity to observe the dynamics of our relationships with each other and to see the physical similarities and differences among us. My twin brother Kevin is taller than I am, taking after our Dad. I, on the other had, am the little one of the family, a trait which comes from Mom, but I have thick blond hair and blue eyes, which I get from Dad. In facial features I resemble Dad, while Kevin is closer in appearance to Mom. Our older brother Danny is a physically more balanced combination of physical features of our parents.
    Kevin and I can generally be characterized as opposite of each other. As kids, he was outgoing while I was more reserved. He built model planes, I built model cars. He liked the early Beatles, I preferred the late Beatles. He got married, and I remained single. Politically he is conservative, I am a staunch liberal. Yet during my visit with him I became aware of the similarities that are the foundation of these differences. We both built models, we both liked the Beatles, and we both can be passionate about our politics. Again, Danny occupies a middle ground between our extremes.
    In thinking about such things, I began to reflect on how it took two specific individuals our parents to produce the particular individuals that we are. If either of our parents had been a different person, my brothers and I would never have existed. Realizing this was something of a shock for me, for I had always assumed unthinkingly that I would still have been born, but would have been merely a bit different from what I am now. But, in fact, I wouldn't have been born at all. And this applies to everybody, both those who came before us and those who will come after.
    As Christmas approaches, such thoughts lead me to ponder the family origins of Jesus. I used to think that the genealogies in the gospels of Matthew and Luke as two of the most boring passages in the New Testament. But they became interesting for me once I began to pay attention and realize what a less than ideal group of people are listed as Jesus' ancestors. Like all of us, Jesus' family had its share of family secrets. There were fathers willing to sacrifice their sons, brothers who cheated their brothers, slave owners, adulterers, polygamists, tyrants, murderers, and gentiles! Yet it is this particular group of people that literally made the Blessed Virgin Mary possible, and through her, Jesus. If even only one of these individuals had been different, the Jesus we know would never have existed.
    As I ruminate along these lines, I cannot help but become a little more aware of how like us Jesus is in his humanity, and also how unique he is in his individuality. It makes me a bit more aware of how precious and special he is. It also makes me more aware of how precious and special all of us are. And it reminds me of St. Paul's teaching that we are all members one of another and of the body of Christ, in our unique individualities.
---Br. Martin