Feast of the Holy Family

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

People like to know where you’re from. If they care about you they want to know your family.

I attended seminary with a certain classmate for ten years, but I learned more about him in one weekend with his family than I had ever picked up in those ten years. At last, I saw him within the context of his father and mother and siblings. I understood his preferences, mannerisms and style after seeing where he had developed those familiar traits. They were familiar!

And so we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus. We are most familiar with Mary and Joseph because of their prominent positions in the early chapters of Luke and Matthew. We also know of his cousin John the Baptist, and John’s parents Zechariah and Elizabeth, though we don’t know how closely they were related by blood. John and Jesus surely knew one another because their mothers were close. 

The scriptures mention other brothers and sisters of Jesus, especially “James, the brother of the Lord.” Catholics believe these others were not children of Mary, for she was always a virgin; and many Protestants scholars concede the Greek words brothers and sisters may include cousins. Perhaps they were children of Joseph by a former marriage. Mixed households were no more unusual then than they are today. We also know of Jesus’ ancestors, as both Matthew and Luke give us his genealogy, though the lists are not identical.

The Feast of the Holy Family celebrates Jesus’ human origins. He was not an isolated hero who comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, like such American heroes as Shane, the Lone Ranger, Superman and Phillip Marlow.  Our God wrapped himself in the fabric of human relationship before his birth and remained there until he died.

And he was obedient, as any child must be to his parents, elders, and religious leaders. Our God is an obedient God! What would be the point of his becoming human if he were not obedient?

We’ve seen too many super heroes who do their own thing, make their own justice, and punish those they regard as enemies. Jesus would not be that kind of Messiah. To be human is to be obedient and that’s where Jesus began his earthly ministry. As Saint Paul says in Philippians 2, because he was obedient even unto death God greatly rewarded him….

As we get to know Jesus we cannot help but know his family. He lives among them. and so we study those brief, rich texts about Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist and the others.

But to know someone well you have to do more than learn about them. You have to spend time with them. And so Catholics recite the rosary. It’s a way of being with Mary. Contemplating the twenty mysteries of the rosary we walk with Mary and Jesus through their lives. Even as our minds wander during the recitation (as they always do!) we’re still in the endearing presence of the Holy Family.

Spending prayer time with Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we become familiar – that is family – with them. It is a mysterious process, not easily described and not widely appreciated. In human relationship there are no quick and easy shortcuts to intimacy. There is only the invitation that Jesus gave to two of John’s disciples as he was returning to his mother’s house – come and see.