Sunday within the Octave of Christmas
By Fr. Nathan Mamo, S.T.L.
(aka Holy Family Sunday)
Years ABC
Sirach 3:2-7, 12-14 Colossians 3:12-21 Luke 2:41-52
Today’s feast falls dependably between the Solemnity of Christmas and that of Mary, the Mother of God, except when those two solemnities themselves fall on Sundays. The thematic of the Holy Family is a devotional consequence of the Nativity scene so deeply etched in our Christmas cultural consciousness ever since St. Francis of Assisi made it the enduring icon it has become.
We must avoid one great temptation when reflecting on that famous Holy Family and avoid another when trying to apply it’s holiness to our own lives. The first temptation is to wrongly imagine that the Holy Family, precisely because of their holiness, had a problem-free life. Today’s gospel lesson is about human reality in an ancient setting, but not an artificially privileged or protected idealization of family life. Real life was messy then just as it is today. Jesus, Mary and Joseph had all the burdensome challenges of life in their time and place.
A second temptation is to wrongly impose just such a mistakenly-imagined domestic bliss on your own family household. Real life always was, is now, and ever shall be, difficult and messy. In spite of all Christian hope, any gospel lessons perceived, and all material advantages imaginable, real people get into complicated and irreversible human situations. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were real people in their era just as you are real in yours. It is important for believers in every era to live effectively, wisely, lovingly and sensibly in the midst of that ubiquitous messiness of life. Your family is also a holy family by it’s human nature with at least one believer (you). And in spite of all your individual and collective strengths and weaknesses, virtues and sins, wealth and poverty – you are where you are at least in great part because you have loved those who are yours. Keep loving, and thinking and working, and praying and believing!
The passage from Sirach is a succinct idealization of how a 2nd Century BC Jewish family was expected to operate. Sirach was written as advice from a very religious Jewish father to his very religious adult son. It defined and described a family ideal in ancient Jewish patriarchal cultural terms. Today, though, the very definition of family is plastic and adjustable: imagine all the shapes in which families are found. Realistically, the members of each and every household define themselves as family in their own practical terms. No one can impose a particular style upon them. Familial situations are complex and demand lots of effort. All modern Christian families, of whatever configuration, are essentially holy in the sense of being affectionately engaged with loving wisdom, compassion and humor, reverence and respect, aware of their limitations and abilities. Holiness brings a willingness to sit with, hold and love each other in spite of the complications that life brings.
The long form of the second reading from the letter to the Colossians has two distinct parts to it. The first part is an uplifting literary tapestry of the virtues metaphorically “worn” by Christians, bonded by love, controlled by the believers’ memories of Christ’s peace, and all important Christian gratitude. This is profoundly simple description of how all Christian relationships ought to be engaged.
The second part of the reading, sadly omitted by using the shorter option, is a prophetic exhortation about domestic life. Addressed to wives, husbands, children and fathers, it encouragef them to embrace and engage that tapestry of virtue described just before it. The Greek verb translated as “be submissive” and addressed to the wives presumed love and respect between spouses. That Christian husbands were exhorted to love their wives insinuates that husbandly love was not always culturally presumed or expected. In the Gospel such love was hoped for in the relationship. This text is not a statement to us today of the husband’s superiority. Neither is it an instruction to accept or condone abusive treatment or behavior of any sort or in any amount. To read it as such is to overlook that ancient and modern cultural behaviors are often radically different. Culture incarnates the gospel message while the gospel message critiques each culture. Then, the gospel believers work to reform destructive behaviors in the host culture. Our cultural evolution of equality between the genders is an example of how the gospel message has critiqued and brought about cultural change for the better. Homilists who use these verses (as they ought) must possess culturally sensitive good sense, and be well-researched and effective advocates of healthy modern relationships. Practices of ancient cultures must not be accepted merely because they are found in the ancient and inspired texts which we use today (remember how slavery was assumed to be good in even in sacred scripture). Homilists, teachers and others in authority who misuse biblical texts to oppress and abuse are themselves guilty of foolishness and meanness. They have much for which to answer in the cause of justice and peace.
The gospel anecdote popularly known as the Finding of Jesus in the Temple provides a hint of domestic tensions in the famous Holy Family. The lines about being “in my father’s house” and that “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man” raise the Christological question about just when did Jesus appreciate that he was son of God. That issue goes unresolved in the Gospels, but it does hint at the tremendous theological reflection in which the Churches of later centuries would engage. Mary, too, is described again by Luke as a very reflective and thoughtful character in the gospel drama: she “kept all these things in her heart.” The effective Christian then and now is the thoughtful Christian who engages, reflects and wonders. This is a powerful set of qualities for any genuinely holy family. Blessed feast day to your holy family, household, and circle of friends, and to all your acquaintances! May they each and every one be blessed in you!