At The School Of The Holy Family’s Faithfulness!

 (Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family, Yr. C)

          There is no gainsaying the fact that Christmas is a family time. For it is a time of re-union of families for the celebration of the Birth of Christ. It is fitting therefore, that during this family time yearly we reflect on the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We call it “the Holy Family” because it is the most holy of Families: Mary was immaculately conceived and was sinless, Joseph was her chaste spouse, and Jesus was the Son of God. Not only that, but also because they were faithful to God and to each other. Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and indeed the event of Christmas in se is a feast of God’s entrance to the human family. In his project of salvation of mankind God thought it wise to begin the decisive phase from and within the context of family. Thus, he sent his Son to be a member of the family of Joseph and Mary. A closer glance at the readings of today readily suggests that the pivot around which revolves the message of this day is forbearance and faithfulness expressed in the dynamics of love, patience and togetherness. And that is what other families are called to appropriate.

          We can remember vividly well how sin affected family life in the first pages of the Book of Genesis. After eating the forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:16-17) great tension disrupted the spousal relationship between Adam and Eve. Not too long after that, the sons of Adam and Eve entered in a dispute that ended in the murder of Abel (Gen. 4:1-16). Sin wounded greatly the life of the family. Indeed, Jesus came to heal the wounds caused by sin, including that of the family. As such, God the Father sent his Son among us, and in doing that, He entrusted Him to a father and a mother. And that is the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family teaches us how to remain calm in the midst of all kinds of existential storms. The first reading and the Gospel in particular bring us to the consideration that our human families triumph in their trials upon connection to and with God. While the second reading brings us to the consciousness that we are God’s children, we belong to Him, we all are members of a larger family: God’s family. The readings therefore, provide different ways of understanding the importance of the family.

     The first reading (1Sam. 1:20-22.24-28) presents the value of the family and the gift of children. The gesture of Hannah, the mother of Samuel in this passage is really touching. She prayed and made her supplications ardently to God, asking God to heal her barrenness, and she made a promise to God, that if God answers her prayer and gives her a son, she will dedicate and offer him back to God, to serve God in the temple. And indeed, God did answer her prayers and she obtained the grace she prayed for: SAMUEL, gift of a male child. Samuel is the fruit of Hannah’s patient prayer and of God’s faithfulness. After receiving the gift of a child Hannah took Samuel to the temple to offer him back to God, as an exchange, so that Samuel will dedicate himself all the days of his life, to the service of the Lord.

     Indeed, in this episode there is an important message for us today, and that is the message that children are gift from God, they belong first to God and then to the parents. As such, the parents have the obligation “to give back” their children to God, though not necessarily in the manner of Hannah, but by showing and helping them to discover the face of God, walk in His ordinances and finally to help them discover God’s project on them, their vocation. The second message that emanates implicitly from this family is the fact that the family of Samuel, Hannah and Elkanah is animated by a religious spirit, be that as it may, every authentic Christian family, would be happy to offer any of her members to the Lord. Christian parents ought to be happy and joyful if the Lord chooses their children for His service, and not to be a barrier to them. Above all, in connection with the childhood of Samuel, Jesus could be seen as the eschatological prophet.

     The episode of the Gospel (Lk. 2:41-52) accentuates the difficult rapport that could exist between parents and their children, as seen apparently in the family of Nazareth, but experienced presently in the families of nowadays. In the episode of the loss of Jesus in the temple, as narrated by St. Luke, what shines through is the spirit of submission and obedience of the family of Nazareth to the prescription of the law of Moses. However, Luke did emphasize it at the occasion of the circumcision (Lk. 2:21), and at the occasion of the presentation to temple, and the purification of Mary (Lk. 2:22). Here, it has to do with the law according to which after 12 years, all Jewish men have to participate to the celebration of the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, at the feast of Shelters (cf. Deut. 16:16) in the temple of Jerusalem.

     In this episode the family of Nazareth appears in the light that we least expected, but that points to the fact that, the family of Nazareth is like every other family. Even in the family of Nazareth, there was a time when the rapport between the parents and the child appeared difficult. After the feast of Passover in Jerusalem the parents of Jesus could not see him, he disappeared into the thin air, they had to go back to Jerusalem in search of Jesus, they looked for him three days, and when finally they saw him in the Temple sitting among the teachers, Mary questioned Jesus: “My Child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you” (v. 48). And he (Jesus) responded “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (v.49). But “they did not understand what he meant” (v.50), as St. Luke reported, who knows for how long Mary and Joseph remained in this state of incomprehension.

     Above all, however, from the family of Nazareth emanates some indications on how to confront and resolve the problem of the difficult rapport between parents and children:

●From the response of Jesus we see that the problem finds its solution, if we put God in the first position, God as our absolute value. In the passage we see Jesus’ growing awareness of his unique filial relation with God, as manifested through the appellation “my Father”. This awareness certainly will be the foundation for his later obedience to the Father’s will.

●From the comportment of Mary, “who stored up all these things in her heart” (v.51), she was meditating, reflecting and connecting all the words and happenings concerning Jesus, in order to understand the mystery surrounding Him. Parents have to learn how to look for solutions through a reflective attention, in meditation and prayer, rather than resorting to the frenetic ways of resolving issues, especially family problems.

●From Mary and Joseph, Parents have to learn to respect the inclinations, the aspirations and the freedom of choice of their children, even though they are obliged to give them guidelines and advice.

     The second reading (1Jn. 3:1-2.21-24) considers the Christian family as a community of God’s children. Truly, the most profound reality of our being Christians does not lie on the acts of worship, but on the fact of being children of God: “Beloved, what great love the Father has for us, to be called his children, and that is what we really are”. Therefore, God is our Father, he loves us, not just because we are his creatures, but particularly because he has made us to be reborn through grace, by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ and by the work of the Holy Spirit; we are “new creatures” and we participate in the divine life. St. John went further to affirm that “until now we are children of God”, but we shall be God’s children fully in the life to come, when “we will be like him, because we shall see Him as He is”, already on this earthly life we know Him covertly and imperfectly, but in heaven we shall see him directly face to face. The Christian community therefore, is a community of persons that have not only the bond of blood in common, but the supernatural bond of grace.

          The Holy Family is at the center of our reflection today. And we cannot but affirm that it is a family sui generis! The Holy Family was not a smooth and problem free family, rather it was a family with her numerous problems and internal conflicts, yet they remained faithful to each other. That is why it could be suggested as a paradigm to our Christian families. The Holy Family was a family with special grace yet a family with trials. The Holy Family is the model for families because despite their many trials, the family remained faithful and united. If we cursorily look back, we cannot but remember how Mary conceived through the Holy Spirit (Lk.1:35), without the knowledge of Joseph; how Joseph decided to pack her belongings and ready to drop her (Mt. 1:18-19), before the angel came and changed his mind (Mt. 1:20). What about their troubles, trials and insecurity in Bethlehem (Lk. 2:8b; Mt. 2:13-14), all those angels (Lk. 2:9.10), the shepherds (Lk.2:8), the wise men (Mt. 2) with their stories that even Mary didn’t understand? The gospel passage of today, indicated how poor they were, to the extent that they were not able, to sacrifice the normal offering of a Lamb at the occasion of the circumcision of their Son, rather they presented the gifts of the poor: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Lk.2:24; cf. Lev. 12:6-8).

          Besides, we heard the rather unhappy prophecy of Simeon, that a sword will pierce the heart of the Mother (Lk. 2:35). We cannot but remember their flight to Egypt in the middle of the night (Mt. 2:14), with the cries of the murdered children in Bethlehem everywhere. We recall how He (Jesus) ran away from them, and how they had to search for him for three days, before he was found in the temple (Lk. 2:45-46). Remember what the mother told him: “My child, why have you done this to us?” and his seemingly unhappy reply: “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk. 2:48.49). Behold, these difficulties did not stop, even as He grew up, for we still recall that episode when they heard about his preaching and miracles, how Mary and some members of the family got scared, they went after him, to get him back home, thinking that he had lost his mind (Mk. 3:21). We cannot but remember the marriage event at Cana (Jn. 2), they didn’t seem to have understood each other (Jesus and Mary).

          As we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we need to appropriate the virtues emanating not only from the Holy Family but also from the readings of this day into the reality of our different families. In our society today, where the institution of marriage and family is under serious attack, we need to swim against the currents of this contemporary world that are inimical to the wellbeing of the family. We need to identify these anti-values that are served at the supermarket of our present society and in the means of social communication, ranging from the rebellion of the children, quarrels and confrontations between husband and wife, little or no interest on the children by the parents and excessive interest on the children by some possessive parents to the abandonment of the children by the parents and that of the parents by the children. Conscious of all this, we need to endeavor to construct a family founded on the family values present in today’s liturgy of the word: respect and appreciation, obedience and mutual help, concern and care, prudence and the search for family stability, goodness and reciprocal love. We need to incarnate these values in our families and society today in order to ward of the anti-values that are fast destroying the concept and the commitment of the Christian family. Today we need to insist on the importance of responsible parenthood; else we end up raising drug addicts, delinquents, and violent children because of the absence or irresponsibility of the parents. Some of the challenges facing families today, is that there is no enough time to be together and to pray together. In all we cannot but affirm that the true model of the Christian family is the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph: the Holy Family.

          Above all, the Holy family was not an easy Family, not even a very normal family, but they excelled in one thing, and that is where we have to take them as model and paradigm for Christian families; and that is the fact that despite all these odds, they remained faithful to each other. The faithfulness of Joseph to Mary, even though not being the father of the child. The faithfulness of Mary to Jesus, when she heard about his arrest and condemnation, she went to Jerusalem to be with him, she stood by him till death. Mary indeed is faithful like a rock. Jesus in turn remained faithful to the Mother even at the point of death, for some of his last words were for Mary: “Mother, behold your Son. Son, behold your mother” (Jn.19:26-27). We are called therefore, as families, little churches to appropriate the virtues of the Holy Family, especially that of faithfulness and forbearance. We are called to be faithful like them! As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family today, we pray that our human families torn apart by the presages of hatred and violence may imbibe the virtues of love, forbearance, togetherness and faithfulness that distinguished the Holy Family. We pray that the Holy Family of Nazareth may obtain graces for our families, may preserve them in serenity and concord, so that Christian couples will remain duty bound to realize the model of marriage and of family designed and desired by God. Amen!!!

(Fr. Vitus M. C. Unegbu, SC)