Using a technique called a genotype tree can be helpful in understanding one’s own health situation. For example, alcoholism or diabetes or depression frequently occurring among your ancestors can serve as a red flag that you might have a genetic disposition to those diseases. St. Matthew provides a genotype of Jesus and we learn from it that Jesus’ ancestors embodied the broad spectrum of humanity — saints and sinners, good and bad, Jews and gentiles (the women mentioned were not Jewish.) We learn looking at the genotype of Jesus that when God took on human flesh he embraced the whole of humanity for good and for ill. That tells us that God uses us just as we are to bring the divine presence into the world today. We fit somewhere on the family tree of Jesus and can incarnate the presence of God in our time as surely as any of the other forty-two names listed in the Gospel.
