Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/123011.cfm

A flood plain in Cherokee park

The Lord took Abram outside and said,
"Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be."
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

When Christmas and New Years Day fall on Sunday, the church calendar gets mooshed. The Feast of the Holy Family should fall on the Sunday between the holidays; this year we observe it today, on a Friday. Likewise the feast of the Baptism of the Lord will be squished into Monday, January 9, so that we can begin the “Second Sunday of Ordinary time” on schedule, January 15. (There is no “First Sunday of Ordinary time”, but that’s another story.)

This Feast of the Holy Family is a recent development. The Church, witnessing families destroyed by industrialization, war and changing mores, felt compelled to remind the world of the precious gifts of marriage, children and parents.

Like many priests, I come from an “intact” family. My parents married young and remained married until Dad died in 1980. My mother never remarried; she was quite sure none could replace her one and only husband. Between them there was never a shadow of infidelity or violence. Their integrity has given all of their children “a leg up” in life. There has been only one divorce among the ten of us – and we saw that coming on her wedding day.

Some people might suppose the priests coming from such irenic families might not understand troubled families, but I think it gives us an extraordinary ability. We can often detect pain and disappointment where the sufferers themselves might not be aware of it. I don’t suppose that absentee fathers and mothers are normal, or that parents are “sick” when they’re actually drunk. I don’t expect sexual or emotional violence is normal in every household. I don’t assume that one has never known a happy, safe environment. When someone describes the violence of his upbringing or tells me about his absentee parent I know there is deep pain, even if it is denied or brushed off.

Every child has a right to biological parents who are married to one another and actually love one another and their children. That is more than my opinion; it’s a belief based on solid experience.

Jesus felt the great sadness of our world because his earthly parents were so dedicated to one another. He grew up knowing they would spare no sacrifice for his sake, as they proved when they fled into Egypt to save him from King Herod. If the world was a dangerous place, his home was a safe place where a child could be foolish, playful and occasionally mischievous. Leaving that home he determined to make the world as safe a place as he had known in Nazareth. Because their sacrificial dedication was bred in his bones Jesus would not spare himself as he marched toward Jerusalem.

On this fifth day of Christmas, the world has already moved on to another celebration, but those who love Jesus Christ must pause to honor the Holy Family who gave him to us.