Word to the Wise
Sunday, December 28, 2008 - The Holy Family
[Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19; Luke 2:22-40]The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted......
When I preach at a parish mission on the subject of Baptism, I note to all in the room that one thing we all have in common is that we were born! (We will have death in common as well!). What happens to us after that is called "family." That word doesn't mean the same to us as it did to the "Holy Family" who were, after all, first century Palestinian Jews in a broader cultural tradition of peoples who shared tribal and clan structures! They weren't of the "Leave It To Beaver!" type family! Jesus' own attitude about his biological family seems rather distant or at least he puts them second after disciples who "hear the word of God and keep it!" The scriptures for today seem unconcerned with family as we know it in our culture. Genesis and Hebrews comment more on the improbability of the historic birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. The gospel seems rather ominous about Jesus and his mother!. What has to come through to us is the fact that all the heroes from Abraham to Jesus were indeed born to a family of some kind. The family is something of God's creation. It is all the more important, then, that we recognize that the erosion of the concept in practice and law carries profound implications. When marriage becomes any kind of domestic partnership between any two creatures male or female, and children become the product of genetic design (and I am not being far fetched here, folks!), something profoundly human AND divine is being compromised. We in the West may find the Middle Eastern family concept different from our own, but that does not excuse us from contemplating the state of our own families and "the family" in general. We give tremendous time and resources to preserving our ecological environment. It seems to me that the family is part of that and deserves better than our culture is presently giving. AMEN
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