THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH
28 DECEMBER 2014
When we
celebrate this Feast of the Holy Family, we might be tempted to become
discouraged. How can any of our families
compete with this family? Here is a
family where the child is the only begotten Son of God, the mother is an
immaculate virgin without any sin, and the father learns all kinds of
incredible things when he is dreaming!
Other than what we hear today and what we read later in Saint Luke's
Gospel about Jesus being lost in the Temple at the age of 12, we know nothing
about the details of their family dynamics.
There is no
way to keep up with this family. That is
why I have always been more than willing to share stories about my own family
gatherings at the rectory at Christmas.
To be honest, it was a pretty uneventful Christmas for us this year, and
I have no stories to tell. The reason we
celebrate this Feast is to learn lessons from the Holy Family to apply to our
own. In the light of our celebration of
the Eternal Word of God taking flesh and dwelling in the midst of our families
and their messes, the characters of today's Gospel can give us some helpful
hints.
The first
lesson comes from the parents of Jesus.
Saint Luke is careful to tell us that they are following the law of the
Lord in presenting their first born child in the Temple. Because they are dirt poor, they can only
afford a pair of turtle doves as a sacrifice.
But this ritual is more than a demand of the law. They use it to thank God for the gift of a
healthy son and commend him to the Lord's service. Parents today can learn from this
lesson. Parents keep the promises they
made when they had their children baptized by bringing them to Mass, teaching
them to pray at home, and helping them to understand the ways they can love God
and neighbor.
The second
lesson comes from Simeon. He trusted the
Lord's promise that he would not die before seeing the savior. His trust is rewarded when he recognizes the
Christ and proclaims the canticle which we pray every night at Compline, or
Night Prayer. Simeon teaches us how to
find joy in each of our families. In
sharing his joy, Simeon is also very realistic.
He does not promise that everything will always be rosy and sweet for
this family. He talks about the sword
that will pierce Mary's heart and the suffering which would be endured by her
Son. He reminds us that God's
faithfulness and promise will not keep our families from tragedies or even
divisions that will tear us apart. In
fact, he realistically states that practicing our faith may get us into more trouble. But, he also promises that God will be as
faithful to us as God had been to him.
We know the
least about Anna. She is a daughter of
Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, which was the smallest and least significant of
the twelve tribes of Israel. We know
that she had only seven years of marriage before her husband died, and she
lived as a widow till the age of 84.
Instead of dwelling in the past and becoming bitter about the
difficulties of her life, she lived in the present and praised God for this
family and the child she encountered. Her
lesson is important. It is easy to
become angry and bitter over the ways in which life might have battered us
around. But Anna teaches us to let go of
all that bitterness, to live in the present moment, and to look for ways in
which God is revealing himself now.
No matter
what might be happening right now in each of our families, Christmas reminds us
that the Lord has taken on human flesh and lives in our human families and
lives in this parish family that gathers to celebrate his presence every
Sunday. With Mary and Joseph, we commit
ourselves to sharing the riches of our faith as much as possible. With Simeon, we recognize the Lord's presence
in our midst and share the joy, trusting that the Lord will be faithful to us,
no matter what difficulties we will endure.
With Anna, we let go of any bitterness we might be holding to give
praise for the ways in which God works in and through us now.
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