THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH – YEAR - “C”– (1Sam. 1: 20-22, 24-28; 1 Jn. 3: 1-2, 21-24; Lk. 2: 41-52)
Little Johnny’s new baby brother was screaming up a storm. Johnny asked his mom, “Where’d he come from?” “He came from heaven, Johnny.” “Wow! I can see why they threw him out!”
The last Sunday of the calendar year is a wonderful time to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. This week, we’re coming to the end of that grand holiday bash that starts with Thanksgiving and goes non-stop through the New Year. It’s a time when we want everything to be OK, and sometimes to make it OK, we idealize our families. Our families are not perfect, and frankly, most families are a little messy.
Many families have been struck by tragedies this year – some over which they had no control – like the death of a loved one, the pain and anguish of illness, or the lose of a job. Others have experienced tragedies such as separation or divorce, alienation of children, which were the direct result of someone in the family not doing whatever was necessary to make family work. There’s an old adage that says, “It takes a heap of living to make a house a home.” And it takes every one of us working together to make that group of people related to each other either through blood or marriage, into a family.
One wonders how different these situations could have been if every member of the family had listened to the admonitions of St. Paul in his letter to Colossians 3: 12-17: “Clothe” yourselves with kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and most of all, love.” How many of these tragedies could have been avoided if these virtues had been practiced? Historically, the Church has given us the Holy Family as a model for Christian living. Yet, this model doesn’t work for some of us because we reason, “Jesus was God, Mary was born without original sin, and Joseph had to be a saint to be able to deal with everything thrown at him. How can we possibility be like them?”
We forget that the three of them, including Jesus, were just as human as we are. Theirs was a real family that experienced many of the same challenges each of us experience. At the beginning, there was talk of divorce because of Mary’s pregnancy. Thank goodness, that matter was resolved. Then there was the housing problem: no room at the inn. We tend to romanticize this setting, but what mother-to-be wants her child born in a stable? Immediately after the baby was born, a new crisis occurred. King Herod regarded Jesus as a threat to his political security and wanted him killed. The Holy Family was forced to flee to a strange land where they were strangers and aliens.
Look at the story in the Gospel today. We’re given a rather bland description of Mary and Joseph’s reaction when they finally find Jesus after searching for him for three days. Luke says, “When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? You see your father and I have been searching for you in sorrow.” This translation doesn’t even begin to give us a sense of what Mary and Joseph must have been experiencing. How many of you have ever lost track of one of your children at the mall, or a ball game, or some other public event – even just for a split second? You have panicked. I suspect that the kind of feelings and emotions that you experienced are the same kind of feelings and emotions that Mary and Joseph were feeling during those long three days while they were searching for their son. This was a real, human family. Luke tells us that Jesus “progressed steadily in wisdom and age and grace before God and men.” Mary and Joseph, no doubt, had a significant influence on the development of Jesus’ personality traits, his feelings, hopes and aspirations by the training and interaction they provided in their home. And so, we can draw from what little we know about this family to guide us in our own lives.
Our celebration today calls us to follow the model of the Holy Family. It calls us to live the principles that Paul speaks about in his letter to the Colossians. It calls us to stop focusing on our own interests and feelings and self-fulfillment, and focus on those who God has given to us as a family. One of the most pressing needs of our times is for families to deliberately and intentionally strive toward being a holy family. Holy families don’t just happen. They are something we consciously create by every person working together and persisting in tough times. Dear brothers and sisters, God gave you your family as a gift and a legacy. You are called to love it, cherish it, and to constantly build it up, even if it is imperfect and messy.