Holy Family Dec 31, 2006

1. Sam 1: 11-28 Ps 84 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24 Luke 2: 41-52

1. Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and we ask our blessings on our own families and those who have supported us in our journey of faith. Each one of us has a personal experience of family. For me it was my father and mother, and brothers. It is still a happy family. I did not consider it a full family, because I did not have any sisters. But the family also included the extended members of grandmother, aunts and uncles.

A close friend of mine has a different version of family altogether. A rich and famous man had an affair with his teenage mother. When she was pregnant, he abandoned her. She was not capable of taking care of him and gave him up for adoption. For him, the idea of family is so different from mine.

2. Our readings for this Feast of the Holy Family begins with the story of Hannah. God was considered to be the beginning and end of all life. Hannah was barren. Barrenness and fertility were considered to be God acting in our lives. So when a son was born to Hannah, it was quite natural for her to offer the Child in God’s service. This would be totally unimaginable in our present day society. No mother would be separated from her child if she had waited long for its conception. On the other hand if every family offered their child in God’s service, we would not have a shortage of priestly and religious vocations.

3. We are all given life by GOD for a purpose or a mission. We were not born merely to survive ! In the Scriptures we read, man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife. The two will become one flesh. From this we have traditionally held that the father, mother and child is the basic unit of what we call

family. Furthermore, from the Ten Commandments, we learn the basic duty of the children is to honour and respect our parents.

Then Jesus comes along and gives the traditional notion of the purpose of a family a new twist. First the purpose of the family is not merely to continue the human race, but rather it is there for the Kingdom of God. Jesus will say unless a man “hates his father and mother” he is not worthy of the Kingdom of God. This does not mean we have to beat up on our parents, but Jesus is challenging us to put God above Family ties. He will even say, “let the dead bury the dead” when one of his followers wants to bury his father before following Jesus. Again Jesus is emphasizing the urgency of the Kingdom rather than denying a filial duty.

Secondly, when his mother and relatives come seeking Jesus, he will declare that those who do the Will of the Father are his true mother and brothers and sisters. Jesus was not repudiating his family. But Jesus was showing that family was not paramount, doing God’s Will was ! My good friend who was abandoned by his teenage mother and adulterous father, would easily relate to this.

4. Historically and traditionally the idea of family has also changed. The prime purpose of a family was to produce children who would carry on the family business and the family name. Hence marriages were arranged. The idea of falling in love and getting married was not the norm. Rev Tevya in “The Fiddler on the roof” would say to his wife, Zelda, “The first time I met you was on our wedding day.”

In our present time, there is equality between men and women (which has a long way to go.) - Women are financially independent, family businesses do not have to be carried on, and women are keeping their maiden names even after Marriage. As a result the traditional purpose of “keeping the family name and carrying on the family business” does not hold much water.

4. Now you have a nuclear family - and sometimes a single parent family, sometimes a couple who do not intend to have children, and in our community: the gay couple. I am not speaking of marriage here. Each of these families are seeking the Kingdom of God with more of less the same sincerity and intensity as you and me.

Each one is seeking the will of God,

each one is seeking holiness,

each one is making the Journey on this earth the same way as Abraham and Sarah did so many thousands of years ago. Abraham and Sarah who are held holy and sacred by Jews, Muslims and Christians. And when you come to think of it, this description of Family is sacred by all the religions as far as we know them.

4. As Christians we take the Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph as a model to admire and imitate. And yet by our modern social standards they would be considered dysfunctional.

Mary was pregnant before she was married.

Joseph was told in a dream to take her for his wife.

Jesus was born in a stable.

Jesus had to run for his life like a refugee family to Egypt

Jesus was lost in the Temple.

If this couple were living in Canada, Social Services would have taken Jesus away from Mary and Joseph. Social Services does not act by faith, they act by what they see externally. A stable, a flight, a loss - three strikes and you are out.

5. And yet from a psychological point of view, Mary and Joseph were sound of mind and body, acted rationally and in a mature manner.

Joseph did not rant and rave when he found that Mary was pregnant. He did not go off on a angry tirade.

The angel Gabriel told Mary she was going to the Mother of the Long awaited Messiah. Mary did not loose her cool and run around confused. We are told, that when she could not understand how things were unfolding, she pondered these things in her heart.

And Jesus himself went down to Nazareth and was obedient to his parents.

6. Family is a realization that in whatever shape or form, we are called together by God. We understand and respect each family member’s qualities. We support and encourage our family member’s to develop these. We understand their short comings and support them in times of difficulties, as they in their turn support me in my failures. Together, we seek holiness in the presence of God. And we hope that one day we may gather together as a family around the Heavenly Banquet.