Homily for Holy Family Year C 2018-2019
1SM 1:20-22, 24-28, 1 JN 3:1-2, 21-24, LK 2:41-52
Introduction
One of the things we profess in the Creed is that besides being the Only Son of God and of one substance as the Father Jesus Christ, "by the Holy Spirit [was] was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man." Put simply, we profess that Jesus is both true God and true Man.
But do we really believe this, especially the part about his being man? Listening to the way some people talk about Jesus, as they stress his divinity, they seem to downplay his humanity. Some of the paintings and holy cards don't help when they portray Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a super-pious and unrealistic way.
But the humanity of Jesus is exactly what we celebrate at Christmas. We celebrate that God became human, with all that becoming a human being entails, except sin. Today's feast of the Holy Family, and the readings given to us, should help us appreciate even more the human side of Jesus Christ.
Scripture and Theology
The incident described in today's gospel should remind us that Joseph, Mary and Jesus were real human beings, living in a real family, with all its joys and tensions. That Jesus and Mary were sinless, that Joseph was a holy man, did not exempt them from the difficulties of family life. Put simply, we heard in the gospel that Mary and Joseph left the child Jesus behind, just like parents today might leave a child behind at a Church Fair or even at the Mall. In today's world of helicopter parenting, Mary and Joseph might have been called bad and abusive parents. But before we call Social Services on Mary and Joseph, let us step back a little and see what is actually going on here.
Joseph and Mary, like all pious practicing Jews, had to come up from Galilee in the north to the Temple in Jerusalem, for certain religious days of obligation, to use our language of today. On this occasion they had come to celebrate the Passover, which could only be celebrated in the Temple and nowhere else. They did not travel just by themselves on their model 2019 donkey. They travelled with friends, relatives and neighbours, in a caravan for safety, a trip that took about three days to make. And as was customary at the time and is still the same in several other places, even in my own home country of Uganda, the children were cared for by the whole caravan, so that they were not necessarily tied to the hip of their parents. That is why it was only at the end of the first day, that Joseph and Mary realized that their teenage son, Jesus was missing.
And so, you can imagine the anxiety that Joseph and Mary felt looking for their son, and only finding him three days later in the temple. You can relate with these very human emotions, very human situation in which God placed his Son. And if you thought that Mary was the kind of mother who never scolded her son, just listen to what she says to Jesus: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Is this not what you would say to your child, when he runs away from you at the Mall or at the park?
And if you have this image of Jesus as being the ever subservient, never-talking back kind of teenager like I was, think again. His response, typical of any self-respecting teenager was: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” That doesn't sound like an apology, does it? It is an attempt at an explanation for going off on his own without telling his parents. Today your teenage son might say, "Mom, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I was in the library, studying hard like you tell me to?" In fact the gospel passage told us that Joseph and Mary "did not understand what he said to them. . . . and his mother kept all these things in her heart." Think about that for a moment: the Blessed Mother did not understand what was happening, just like you and I sometimes just don't get things. And again, she kept all these things in her heart, just like you parents sometimes keep some unanswered questions about your children, life, everything, in your hearts.
And yet his membership in the holy family did not absolve Jesus from his family obligations. That is why eventually: "He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; . . . And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man." In other words, Jesus as a human son needed his family, to grow in his humanity and in his faith.
- His mama had taught him how to walk, how to speak and how to say "please" and "thank you."
- The teenage Jesus probably worked with his dad in the carpentry workshop and learned from him both the trade and how to be a man.
- Jesus had to learn how to read and especially how to read the Scriptures and to pray, so that when he left home, he knew the Jewish Bible well and he knew his Jewish faith well; that is why he was able to discuss with the religious teachers at the temple, ask and answer questions very well.
The Holy Family, a real family, was the natural habitat, for God's Son to become the thirty-year old man that we see preaching the gospel, dying on the cross.
Christian Life
Friends, I would like to briefly draw three lessons from today's feast and from today's gospel for our own Christian lives.
First, as I have already mentioned, we need to really believe what we say in the Creed, that Jesus truly became man. His humanity was the instrument of our salvation. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us: the Son of God ". . . had to become like his brothers in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people". In other words, he had to experience the human condition that he came to redeem. Hebrews continues: "Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested" (2:17-18). And so we lose something of our faith, if as we profess Jesus to be true God, we ignore that he was also true Man. The very humanness of the Holy Family should help us understand that he was both.
Secondly, the Holy Family should help us realize that holiness does not mean never experiencing tension, conflicts and even dysfunction in our families. We have clearly seen the anxiety and desperation of Joseph and Mary, even their failure to comprehend what it all meant. Does that experience resonate in some way with your own family experience? Do you realize that your family can still be holy despite the difficulties you experience as a family?
Thirdly, the holiness of the Holy Family is to be found in how they resolved these difficulties. By talking about them, by trusting in God, by obedience on the part of the child Jesus and certainly by prayer. Despite the tensions, we heard that "Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man." For us too, the pursuit of holiness in our families means continually fulfilling our various roles as parents or as children, and so growing in favor before God and man. Being a holy family takes work on the part of everybody in the family.
Conclusion
I will give the last word to St. John, from whom our second reading came, for he reminds us that in some way we are already holy, and in others we are not yet. He says: "Beloved, we are God’s children now;" in other words, there is a holiness we have already now as disciples. But "what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." In other words, complete holiness, will be achieved at the end of Time. May our pursuit of that final perfect holiness, not hinder us from recognizing the good and holy that we already have in our families.
No comments:
Post a Comment