Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family C

Readings: Sirach 3:2‑6,12‑14  Colossians 3:12‑21  Luke 2:41‑52

            During the Christmas season the Church celebrates the Incarnation by dwelling on various aspects of this mystery.  Holy Family Sunday reminds us that Jesus, although called to a unique mission by his Father, fully shared our experience of living in family with all its confusion, pain and mystery.  As we struggle with the obligations of our commitments to God and family, let us pray in faith the words of the responsorial psalm: "Happy those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways" (Ps 128).

            The Sirach reading is a wisdom instruction based on the commandment to honor father and mother (Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16).   This obligation is concerned with caring for elderly parents when their health and minds fail and has much to say to our own culture where aged parents are often neglected by their children. “My son, take care of your father when he is old/ . . . Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;/ revile him not in the fullness of your strength” (3:12‑13). According to Sirach, care for elderly parents will be reciprocated by God.  "He who honors his father atones for sins;/  he stores up riches who reveres his mother" (3:3).

            Paul's instructions to the Colossians put family obligations in a Christian context.  Christians are to divest themselves of their old lives of sin (see Col 3:5‑9) and clothe themselves with Christian virtues: heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and especially love "which binds the rest together and makes them perfect" (3:12‑14).  Paul's exhortations to husbands and fathers is animated by a spirit of Christian charity. “Husbands, love your wives.  Avoid any bitterness toward them. . . . And fathers, do not nag your children lest they lose heart.”

            Luke's story of the boy Jesus in the Temple takes us from the general realm of ethical instruction about familial obligations to the often painful and confusing mystery of real family living.   He narrates the event from the perspective of Jesus' parents, especially Mary, his mother.  Although Mary and Joseph dutifully do all the right things, they are plunged into the nightmare all parents dread ‑‑ the loss of their child.  Having fulfilled the obligations of going to Jerusalem for Passover, the parents assume Jesus is in the party of returning pilgrims, as they continue to "look for him among their relatives and acquaintances."  When after three days of searching they discover Jesus in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, Mary expresses the pain and exasperation felt by every parent who has lost and found a child: “Son, why have you done this to us?  You see that your father and I have been searching for you in sorrow.”  Jesus' enigmatic words about the necessity of being in his “Father's house” do not relieve the pain; as Luke tells us: "They did not grasp what he said to them."  His mother, the model of the suffering and obedient believer in Luke, can only keep "all these things in her heart" (see Lk 1:26‑38; 2:19; 2:34‑35; 8:19‑21; 11:27‑29; Acts 1:14).

            Although Luke attempts to depict the twelve year old Jesus as both committed to the destiny given by his Father and, at the same time, dutifully obedient to his parents, he is aware that the two may come into painful tension and that ultimately Jesus must be faithful to his Father's mission.  Without any explanation, Jesus remains behind in the Temple where he will journey as an adult to issue his final challenge to his people (see Lk 9:51‑20:19).  His discussion with the teachers in the Temple is a foreshadowing of his final harsh confrontation of the Temple leaders that will culminate in his death (see Luke 20‑23).   When his mother questions him, Jesus' first spoken words in the gospel speak of his unwavering commitment to his destiny: “Why did you search for me?  Did you not know I had to be in my Father's house?”  Having foreshadowed his future work, Jesus is now free to return in obedience with his parents to Nazareth where, Luke tells us, he "progressed steadily in wisdom and age and grace before God and men."