FEAST OF HOLY FAMILY: Year A. 30 Dec 2008

Sirach 3:2-6,12-14 Psalm: 128 Col 3:12-21 Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23

1. The feast we celebrate today has an intriguing history and equally changing purpose. It was introduced to the Church calendar by Leo XII as a result of a tradition in Quebec. Leo XIII proposed the Holy Family as a model we are to imitate in our daily life.

Our second reading today in its longer form speaks of wives being subject to their husbands, and children to their parents. This was a way of life that was accepted as a norm.

In the 1950s, the church was filled with parents and children as the ordinary family unit. The Holy Family was presented as a model of Christian life. Joseph was obedient to God following the commands given by an angel, Mary, was obedient as she proclaimed, “let it be done unto me according to your will” and Jesus went down to Nazareth and was obedient to his parents. It was a close knit, well structured family. Theme of the feast was: Imitate the Holy Family

Then in the 1970s, there were more divorces, there was an emphasis was on equal rights for women, children were vocal about child abuse, we had more dysfunctional families. As the feast of the Holy Family was celebrated, we saw Mary as pregnant before Marriage, Joseph as being unable to find a place for the baby to be born, Jesus lost in the temple. The Holy Family was presented as dysfunctional. The theme of the feast was: Go home and try to live out the ideal as best you can.

Today, we have an added dimension: we have same sex marriage, common law spouses, single parent families. So what is the purpose of the feast of the Holy Family today. Perhaps there is none, perhaps we are looking at the Feast from an incorrect point of view.

2. The Feast of the Holy Family is basically a Christmas Feast. It is still within the Octave of Christmas. It is a feast that continues to remind us that God who was all sufficient and all powerful chose to become vulnerable and needy. God chose to dwell among us in flesh. Jesus was subject to the Law and he redeemed us by his suffering death and resurrection. The Holy Family Feast is basically about Emmanuel, God is with us. God is present through the well structured 50s and the dysfunctional 70s and even more complicated present day. Emmanuel did not choose to wave a magic wand and sort out all the problems, but chose to live in our chaos and confusion and merit our salvation through the gifts of compassion and caring, kindness and generosity.

3. Our first reading from the Book of Sirach seems to be a commentary on the Fourth Commandment: Honour your father and mother. Children are called to love and honour their parents, even as they get old and perhaps even senile. This makes for order and harmony even apart from the loving relationship that is the ideal of a “holy family.”

Story of the Wooden Bowl. An elderly widowed father comes to live with his son and daughter-in-law and their son. The family lives in an upscale house, with expensive furniture and dinner sets. The father as he gets feeble tends to spill the soup, break a plate as it slips from his hand. The young couple place more importance on the things they have rather than on the elderly father. Soon they move him to a side table where he can spill soup without damaging the expensive table cloths and inlaid wood of the table. They replace his place with a wooden plate so that he will break the expensive crockery that makes a set. One day the young couple come home to find their son, trying to carve a wooden bowl. What are you trying to do, inquires his father. Oh, replied the grandchild, I making a bowl for you and mother when you grow old like grandpa !

The call of our first reading is to live with respect and love for our parents and each other. It is based on our relationship with God, which starts with fear. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

4. Our second reading from the letter to the Colossians. We could be distracted and even disconcerted by “wives be subject to your husbands”. The husband was the head of the family. Children were likewise obedient to their parents without question. This family structure was accepted in society. We know that is not true today. Children always want to know WHY before they will obey. That is not a bad thing, because they mature physically far too quickly. However, our attention should be drawn to the beautiful qualities mentioned at the beginning of the passage which are the qualities we see in Jesus, Mary and Joseph. These are the qualities of compassion and kindness, humility, meekness and patience. If these were present in every family, there would be no divorces, no separations, no child or spousal abuse. There would be peace and harmony as our second reading tells us.

5. The reality of our World is the Gospel of today. There is ambition and greed on the part of those in power: Herod. Consequently the poor and the voiceless: Mary and Joseph have to flee. They become illegal immigrants in a strange land, with strange customs, strange gods, a new language. They are at the mercy of the new bosses who could be humane and understanding. But often, the bosses are manipulating and exploiting of the people they know have neither a right nor a voice to complain. We might have experienced this situation ourselves or personally seen our neighbours doing so.

The image of the Holy Family, seen through the lenses of Christmas, is a of people related not by flesh and blood but by faith rooted in Jesus Christ, and by grace which is freely given. We gather with our joys and sorrows, with our sins and good works, with chaos, confusion and generosity. This is the Spirit of Christmas, and we become a sign for others to see.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And as many as received him, Jesus gave them the power to be children of God.