Feast of the Holy Family "year c" 

1. In the midst of the Christmas Celebrations and New Year, we have the quiet feast of the Holy Family. It is not celebrated with as much importance as it deserves. It is indeed a very relevant feast for all of us. As I grew up, a family meant Mum and Dad and the children. It was closely united in love with distinct roles for everyone. Dad was the provider. He went to work and provided us with the basic needs of a roof over our head, clothes to wear and food on the table. Mum stayed at home, she was there when we returned from school. She cooked the meals, she made sure we had clean clothes, and when we were sick she took care of us. She was a doctor without an MD. behind her name. Children were an integral part of this family. This is seen in our first reading, where Hannah who cannot have children prays for a child.

2. Two other descriptions of families have arisen in our times. One is the "DINKS" family ie. Double Income No Kids families. Men and Women marry. They want to pursue their careers, they have no desire to have children for various reasons, like there are too many children in the world , we do not think we have the skills to be parents, we are in our 40s it is not safe to have children. The other is the single parent family - because of divorce, death or choice to have a child, but not a husband - we find a single parent, usually a woman bringing upa child on her own. Whether this approved or not, this is the reality of our society, and in our church today.  There will probably be other combinations making up a family in our society as time passes. And like Jesus in the Gospel today - we have to approach these situations - with a desire to seek God's Kingdom everywhere.

3. Our own idea of marriage and the prime goals of marriage has changed radically in the last century. For a long time, marriage was for the purpose of keeping the family name, and for having children. It was important to have many children, so that they could work on the farm, or in the business.  If there was love, if there was attraction between the husband and wife, if there was physical gratification and a sharing of ideas, these were all regarded as fringe benefits. The families grew under one roof, and if there was not much in common between husband and wife, they could easily find support and strength from the other women, sisters and sisters in law who lived together.

In our present times, the roles have reversed, what was central to marriage has become the fringe benefits, and what was considered "added extras"Love, physical comfort, a sharing of ideas and ideals, the choice of one's partner -- have become central to marriage. The family is now a nuclear family.  They live by themselves and do not share the support of the extended family. Women are keeping their names, - both are going out to work, and so having children is often delayed for many years, and sometimes delayed entirely.

4. It is in this atmosphere that we now celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. One would expect that since both Mary and Joseph were saints, and Jesus was the Son of God - every thing would be just perfect - or hunky dory as the phrase goes. Ironically, it was not so. In fact, they had a family life we could relate to. They had a family life which might even be called dysfunctional.
Joseph is told even before marriage, that his fiancée is with child.
Joseph is asked emigrate to his home town Bethlehem - and so when Jesus is to be born, he could be described as having "no fixed address" - a title given to our homeless today.
When the child is born, he is surrounded by violence ! They have to flee to Egypt.
When the child is 12 (the story of our Gospel today) his parents do not know where he is for three days. In our present society in Canada, the Childrens' Aid Society would have taken responsibility of the child, and the parents brought before a court.
In his public life, Jesus like his father would be of "no fixed address" - he has no place to lay his head.
he is accused of being in league with the devil, Beelzebub.
finally he is put to death by crucifixion, the death of a criminal.

5. The Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph teaches us many things, but two worth considering are:

a. We have to carry on doing what is right, because we know it and believe it to be so. We cannot afford to keep on changing our life plans or way of living to meet the criteria of those who criticise us and set up their own standards for our behaviour.

b. Living our life as a family - often
involves pain as Mary and Joseph suffered with Jesus staying in Bethlehem.
It involves misunderstanding, "I must be about my father's business" was incomprehensible to Mary and Joseph.

It involves a lot of trust - it would have been so simple for Jesus to have mentioned that he was staying behind, but he did not.

It involves an expectation of an apology - and not getting it - and still holding on to each other in love. Jesus could have apologized for the misunderstanding, but he does not. In fact his answer is even more of a mystery.

But it ends up with our own traditional idea of what a family is consists: A father, a mother and a child who is obedient to them.

6. We still have to keep the customs and traditions of the society in which we live. It affords us protection, support, guidelines. But every now and then, we have to take the risk to launch out into the deep, into unknown and even unexpected territory as Jesus did in the Temple. Next week, the feast of the Magi we will see wisemen precisely doing that. They sought to follow a Star. We too can and must be about our Father's Business and we can and ought to march to the beat of a different drummer. To be moved by the Spirit, is what it means to be Christ-like today.