|
Holy Family (C): Read Sir 3,2-7,12-14;
Col 3:12-21; Lk 2, 41-52
The snap-shot of the Holy Family of the Crib is the picture of peace and joy. But in the excerpt from St. Luke’s
Gospel read to us today, the picture of the Holy Family does not quite fit in with our usual idyllic and, perhaps, unrealistic
notions. A first reading of the text leaves us with the impression of a truant Jesus, unmindful of His parents’ prerogatives
and anxieties. He also seems a little strong-headed, first talking with the intellectual elite of Jerusalem, and then responding with a hint of insolence to Mary. The Virgin Mother Herself, whose humanity we can sometimes render
all too bland by our well-intentioned but misdirected piety, appears here as reproachful and disappointed with Her Son.
Who would have known about this scene except Jesus Himself and Mary (and, of course, Joseph)? It is perhaps not too
fanciful to think that probably it was Mary who told the story to the Apostles after the Ascension, along with the other stories
concerned with the birth of Jesus. Far from hiding this rather awkward episode, She had obviously pondered it and treasured
it in Her heart and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, had come to understand its deeper meaning in the light of the whole
life of Jesus. What might that meaning be?
Remember that the finding of Jesus in the Temple takes place, not in the context of Christmas, but in the context of the Passover.
It will be during the Passover that Jesus will give birth to His Eucharistic Body and Blood because then He will be sacrificed
literally as our “Jesus”, the One who will save us from our sins. Today’s Gospel is thus an anticipation
of the celebration of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. It is for this that Mary gave birth to Him in Bethlehem and that Joseph protected Him from Herod. The fact that they took Him every year up to Jerusalem for the Passover helped deepen in the growing boy Jesus the understanding of His mission. At the age of adolescence,
about twelve years old, Jesus, like any boy, begins to become more aware of Himself and of the world beyond the confines of
the family home. Later on in Luke’s Gospel, there are several chapters all linked together precisely by the theme of
Jesus “going up to Jerusalem” where He knew He would face His destiny. Luke prepares us for that by showing
how Jesus, already at a tender age, begins to awaken to the inseparable bond between Himself and the Holy City.
Of course the heart of Jerusalem is the Temple, the place where Yahweh’s glory abides. It must have been impossible for
Jesus as He grew up not to see the Temple as His home. Indeed, He would later speak of His own Body as the living Temple
because the Spirit of the Father’s Glory dwelt, not in brick and mortar, but in the divinity and humanity of Jesus.
The sword that pierced Mary’s heart began to do so that day She lost Jesus, but it already began to pierce the Heart
of Jesus too when He realized that not even Our Lady seemed yet to understand that, ultimately, there was no other place for
Jesus to be but in the Temple, His Father’s House. This Temple was itself a symbol of Heaven where
Jesus, after the Ascension, would be seated at the right hand of the Father. As a symbol of the Body of Jesus, the Temple
would also be the place where, after burial, Jesus would be “lost for three days” before being raised, that is,
“found in ‘the Temple’.”
And yet, Jesus knew and fully accepted that Mary’s role in leading Him towards the day when He would begin His
public ministry at the wedding in Cana, was not to be cut short. The difficult time for Jesus to converse and dispute
with the Scribes and the Pharisees in the Temple would come soon enough. And so Jesus, who somehow recognizes the voice of His heavenly
Father in the voice of Mary, submits Himself to Her authority until the right time would come. Mary and Joseph nurture Him
to full human maturity so that the zeal He felt enkindled within at 12-years of age would have its maximum effect in the fullness
of time. Therefore, today’s scene from Luke’s gospel manifests for us, neither a short-temperedness in Mary nor
some kind of insolence in Jesus: it relates the balance and the order between, on the one hand, the burning desire of Jesus
to carry out His mission and, on the other, the providential role given to Mary and Joseph by the eternal Father to ensure
that Jesus would carry out that mission after appropriate “advancement of wisdom and age and favor before God and man”.
We might say that the Father wanted to see the full maturity of manhood in His Divine Son in such a way as to prepare Him
to fulfill His mission at the pre-established time. Indeed, later on in His public ministry, Jesus would sometimes speak or
act in a way that said: “my time has not yet come.” He began to learn that sense of timing from Mary until He
knew how to judge it perfectly Himself when His hour did eventually come in Jerusalem.
At the heart of all of this lie two virtues which go hand-in-glove and which guarantee the proper functioning of any
family. They are the virtues of humility and obedience, which run counter to the arrogance and self-will exalted by so many
today. Humility is Christian realism: it recognizes and accepts God as the source of all true good, and it embraces with joyful
love the limited and created reality of self. Obedience is Christian pragmatism: what humility recognizes and accepts, obedience
puts into practice in love. A virtue is by definition a strength; hence neither humility nor obedience should be construed
as weaknesses. We find those strengths in Mary and in Joseph; but we find them also, and to an infinite degree, in Jesus.
As God, Jesus is obviously not a limited self; yet it was as God that He showed the greatest “realism” possible
by accepting lovingly His Father’s plan for our salvation. As man, Jesus was limited, and yet He showed His divine pragmatism,
the extremity of His obedient love, within the confines of being human. Herein lies a great and wonderful mystery before which
we can only adore. As God and man, Jesus was obedient, a loving doer of the Father’s will to the most extreme consequences;
these included death, but also Resurrection. In their own ways, both Mary and Joseph also lived out fully these two virtues;
and by doing so, they enabled the Son of God to save the world.
In our families, we need to rediscover or reinforce humility and obedience. This does not mean subjecting all members
of the family to the whims of one or other parent. Parents can only claim obedience and humility from their children if they
show them first, by constant, concrete example, what it means for themselves to obey God and to be humble before God. If the
search for and the love of God’s truths do not shine forth in a parent’s life, their calls for obedience and humility
from their children will be correspondingly sham. The teaching of virtue is only effective if it first proceeds from actions,
not words. To act virtuously is, however, sincere only if it is done for love’s sake, not just to impress. If we seek
to impress our children rather than teach them through loving example, we will gain only their contempt. Christ left us an
example that we should follow in His steps. The Gospel itself would mean nothing if Christ had not actually died and risen
for us. That’s why it is tragic self-deception to say we embrace the Gospel and yet, in fact, reject the Cross.
Order, discipline and unity in the home will be more likely if the father and mother themselves love and respect one
another as Christ has shown us. If St. Paul asks “wives to be subordinate to their husbands”, he does so only by
enjoining on husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, that is by sacrificing Himself completely for Her. In
the Christian dispensation, husbands and wives are not intended to live parallel existences which can easily become defensive
and offensive. Rather, mutual complementarity in unity is the rule, a rule which is certainly more costly but which, if observed
aright in humility and obedience, bears greater fruits of happiness and holiness. When children see such commitment in their
parents, they will feel loved, deeply secure, at peace and happy, and they will spontaneously show obedience and respect to
them, to other adults and to legitimate authority in the Church and in society. They are also more likely to remain faithful
to Christ and seek Him out as the source of their parents’ happiness.
There is no family without its problems, but that does not mean we should dissolve the family as the basic cell of
society and of the Church. It means rather that the task of humility and obedience is always before us so that forgiveness
and reconciliation can at least soothe, if not heal, the wounds of our problems. The Holy Family remains active from heaven
to help all families in trouble for, like Mary and Joseph, all parents are but stewards of their children, charged with preparing
them for the mission God gives them in life. Society may laugh at us, but the best way to respond to it and help it, is by
ourselves embracing all the more fully the humility and obedience of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Perhaps then society will see
in us the picture of Christian realism and pragmatism and be drawn, as was Jesus, to the Father House.
Msgr. Peter Magee
Saturday-Sunday, December 27th-28th,
2003:
Our Lady of the Presentation,
Poolesville, 5.30 pm;
St. Matthew’s Cathedral,
DC, 10.00 am
|
