Holy Family Seating around the family dinner table is very interesting! 55 years ago we moved into a home my father and his brothers built and we had our places at the table. Although my parents are now gone, we still want to sit next to each other in those same places! “Sitting next to” is an expression of a loving relationship and trust is forged! At first glance, today’s feast may seem a bit confusing. How can this family be a model when they were so obviously graced by God? If we read the Gospel, we see that this family had its share of distress and peril too. Joseph was challenged to hear God’s voice, perceive the danger and act to protect Mary and Jesus. In this is holiness: listening to God’s voice, heeding whatever God asks and acting faithfully for the good and well-being of others. What are some of the signals God sends us to which we must respond? The signals are there and like Joseph, we must be alert and responsive.
The Holy Family When my nephew was three, I took him with me to the local mall, just to look around. We wound our way in and out of stores and to my delight, he was enjoying the adventure. We stopped in JC Penney’s to look at clothes. And to my horror, I noticed he was not around. My heart dropped and I went into panic mode. After what seemed like an eternity [ about one minute] I found him within the carousel of clothes wanting to play hide and seek. Needless to say, we decided to immediately go home! In our gospel today, Mary and Joseph lost Jesus! They searched for him according to a predictable pattern: first, among the relatives, then they retraced their steps looking for him wherever they had been. Following this pattern led to finding Jesus. But their search also reveals another pattern, one significant for us and our daily living. Mary and Joseph looked for Jesus. In reality, this describes our own Christian living. We look for Jesus when we, like him seek to be in God’s presence; when we, like him, choose to be obedient; when we, like him grow in wisdom. Along the way we discover that Jesus enlarges when we look for him, how we find him , and what new understanding comes to us through our encounters with him. This is the pattern of faithful Christian living that brings us to fullness of life. Every good family strives for continued growth in fidelity to God and each other. Each time we choose to love one another, we grow into a deeper relationship with each other. Our family is stronger and so are we for it. A holy family is one in which relationships place God at the center. Like Mary and Joseph, good parents always nurture and take care of their children. Such is what holy family living is really all about: seeking, obeying, loving.
Feast of the Holy Family Seating around the family dinner table is very interesting! 52 years ago we moved into a home my father and his brothers built and we had our places at the table. Today, we still want to sit next to each other in those same places! “Sitting next to” is an expression of a loving relationship and trust is forged! At first glance, today’s feast may seem a bit confusing. How can this family be a model when they were so obviously graced by God? If we read the Gospel, we see that this family had its share of distress and peril too. Joseph was challenged to hear God’s voice, perceive the danger and act to protect Mary and Jesus. In this is holiness: listening to God’s voice, heeding whatever God asks and acting faithfully for the good and well-being of others. What are some of the signals God sends us to which we must respond? The signals are there and like Joseph, we must be alert and responsive.
Our Father’s House It has been eleven months since my father died and only now have we been able to look at some of the family pictures. As we looked at those pictures, I could now see why folks have said, “Oh you are just like your father.” The pictures also brought to bear the memories I have valued from my childhood: happy memories of an extended family, rootedness in home, the importance of tradition. Our feast today, the feast of the Holy Family, remind us that being a “holy” family isn’t a matter of being obsessively religious and pietistic. It is a matter of valuing the memories, families and traditions that make us who we are. We belong to a larger family, for we are “the children of God”. This larger family is not abstract but very concrete: being members of God’s holy family is expressed in our nuclear family, where we build our identity from traditions of goodness and values we pass on from generation to generation. Mary and Joseph were not free from family struggles, after all, they lost Jesus on a trip! And when they found him, they had to struggle to understand who he was and who he was meant to be. In doing so, they were able to help Jesus grow in wisdom, age and grace. We gather round the word in our Father’s house to refresh our memories of Jesus’ behavior that speak to our experience and challenge us to growth in goodness and Gospel values. Like Mary and Joseph in this Gospel story, we often do not understand events as they are unfolding. We must ponder their meaning as we continue on with the ordinary affairs of daily life. In this way making memory becomes a means of grace.