Word to the Wise
Friday, December 30, 2011 - The Holy Family - B (optional; new)
[opt: Gen 15:1-6; 21:1-3; opt: Heb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19; Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22, 39-40,171]When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
The "Holy Family" has been the subject of devotion and art for a long time, at least since the Renaissance in Europe, but the liturgical feast dates from 1921,which makes this celebration a relatively recent observance! The gospels do not provide much information about the family of Jesus. Mel Gibson's movie, THE PASSION, seems to borrow from apocryphal literature in its portrayal. There are references to the family trade, carpentry, and to the existence of other relatives (some of whom thought Jesus was "out of his mind."). The incident of Jesus getting "lost" in Jerusalem at the age of 12 provides a bit of color, especially to parents who have become separated from offspring at large gatherings or in a mall. The temptation to make the Holy Family into a kind of "Little House on the Prairie" type should be resisted!
That being said, there is a powerful point to be made about love in this celebration. Jesus was not born as an isolated individual. He was born to a family. Middle Eastern society is a "collective" society. The kind of individualism that we Westerners show is foreign to the kind of people who live in the Middle East or the Orient. The Christmas holidays in the U.S.A. can bring out the best and the worst in family relationships, showing us that love is not an abstraction but a messy and demanding reality. The "nuclear" family that Americans are fond of remembering seems to be a thing of the past here. Studies are showing that many families rarely sit down to eat together, let alone pray together! The danger in all of this is that the family is the primary school of love. If a child does not learn to give and receive love as an infant, that lack will have serious consequences later on. The "breakdown" of family life means a breakdown of learning to love! The feast of the Holy Family can serve as a reminder to us of the price we are paying for our individualistic, consumer-oriented, option-crazy way of living. If we turn the family into a commodity like so many other things, we should not be surprised at the loss of love later on! AMEN