Readings: Sir 3:2-6, 12-14; Psalm 128:1-5; Col
3:12-21 and Luke 2:22-40( Alternate 1st and 2nd readings for Year B: Gen 15:1-6;21:1-3; Ps
105:1-9; Heb 11:8,11-12,17-19).
Re-Learning Family Responsibilities from Mary,
Joseph and Jesus
It is not surprising
that following the celebration of Christmas, the Birth of Christ, we re-gather
today to contemplate and celebrate the virtues of the Holy Family of Mary
Joseph and Jesus. In fact, this Feast makes a lot of sense for us, since we are all
fruits of a given family, a community of parents and children, brothers,
sisters and relatives. Today, we celebrate the responsibility we owe each
other. The family belongs also to the people!
The family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus was a family of “Yes!” and
openness to God. Mary, in those Christmas stories knew how to say, Yes, fiat to
the Lord, “Be it done to me according to your Word,” (Luke 1:38). The righteous and quiet Joseph, listened to
the angel Gabriel as well. He took Mary Home (Matt 1:24). Joseph provided for
the safety of baby Jesus in Egypt. Jesus’ parents were humble. They paid close
attention to whispering of the Holy Spirit into their ears. They knew their
responsibilities.
Today’s Gospel
presents us with the episode known as the presentation of Jesus in the temple;
which is the 4th joyful mysteries. Remember the five joyful
mysteries, the annunciation, the visitation, the nativity [birth of Christ],
the presentation and then the finding of Jesus in the Temple. These are all
part and parcel of today’s Gospel, which actually sheds light on the responsibilities
of the Holy family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus.
Like any other family, after the birth of Christ, Joseph probably must
have gone back home, and perhaps going about his carpentry work, and having to
deal with customers; while Mary probably was busy with household works and
changing of diapers. These did not
distract them from prayers, singing the psalms or keeping their customs. They remained devout and prayerful.
In the Gospel, we are told, when the time came
Mary and Joseph carried out the Jewish
customs and rituals of offering back their male child to the service of the
Lord, remembering the sparing of their Hebrew male children in Egypt (Exod
13:1-2, 11-16 Num 18:15-16) and the purification of the mother (Lev 12:1ff). In the Temple they met Simeon and Anna, two faithful Jews,
who all recognized Christ as the Messiah, to the amazement of Mary and Joseph.
Simeon sang the Nunc Demittis ((Lk
2:29-32). They were grateful to God for what he has done for them. For them Christ was not only the Messiah, the redeemer, He would be a sign of contradiction
and the cause for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and a Light for the
Gentile.
Mary and Joseph were
also told by Simeon that through this light for the Gentiles, “a sword would pierce their
hearts.” Through Christ, some would rise
and many would fall. This sounds scary. But
it came to be fulfilled. Jesus would challenge the status quo. Jesus would
preach the truth fearlessly. He reached out to the poor, to the marginalized,
healed those they were thought could not be healed. He ate with sinners defying
ancient traditions, not to do so. These, of course, would cause resistance
among the Pharisees, Jewish elites and the Roman soldiers, against him. His
life from conception was a mystery!
Truly the mysteries surrounding the life of Jesus, which we daily recite when we pray the rosary, were
challenging to Mary and Joseph. They
were like a sword to Mary and Joseph. Many swords actually pierced their souls.
Think of the swords of poverty, humility, (anxiety, when Christ was lost in the temple and the event of
the Holy Week/Easter—can summarize this)! They were very poor. Mary and Joseph
had no place in the Inn. They slept in caves days leading to Christmas. After
the birth of Christ, some of their guests were those poor Bedouins and the
shepherds. During their customary purification ritual Mary and Joseph were so
poor that they could not afford a lamb or a sheep, except two turtle doves (Lk
2:24).
Isn’t it interesting that the mother of the Lamb of God could not afford a lamb for ritual cleansing? Mary and Joseph did not deny their lowliness, who they are, something we could learn from. Mary openly acknowledged her lowliness and poverty with joy, every now and then, especially in the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55). Besides the sword of poverty, Mary and Joseph experienced the swords of opposition to Christ, false accusations against him. Mary in particular witnessed the suffering and death of Christ. She was at the foot of the Cross. The sword that pierced through Jesus' side pierced through Mary's heart. Mary suffered with Jesus. She is our co-redeemer. Mary and Joseph teach us how to endure in raising our children, in redeeming our children, even from drugs and other abuses. They had nothing, except, hope, faith and love, which they share with us. The faith learned from Abraham, Sarah (patriarch and matriarchs, Gen 15, Heb11)! They teach us how to be good fathers, mothers, and neighbors.
We can also learn from Christ, then the Child
Jesus. Each time they made to the temple, for Presentation and Passover, we are
told in the scriptures, the child went back home and was submissive and
obedient to the parents. He responded to the love of his parents. He learned basic
wisdom and the facts of life, the “fear of the Lord,” from them.
On the feast of the Passover as narrated in
the last section of Luke 2:41-52, Jesus, then 12 years old stayed back
in the temple without the knowledge of his parents. Realizing this at home, and
like every good parents, they went anxiously looking for Jesus. As if it was
another sword, Mary said “son why have you done this to us, your father and I
have been looking for you with anxiety.”
At the end of the day Jesus went back home with his parents. And Scripture says, he “was obedient to them,” (Luke 2:51). And was advanced in age and wisdom before God and man (Luke 2:52). He obeyed his parents. Echoes of such obedience are heard in the first reading of today (Sir 3:2-6, 12, 14), that, Whoever honors his parents atones for sins and preserves himself/herself from them. When he prays he is heard, and whoever respects the mum stores up wealth and riches for him/herself and will live long (cf. Exodus 20:12; and Deut 5:16).
You and I know,
especially our parents that we live in a different time today.
Today, there are many fathers and mothers who walk away from their
mutual responsibility to their children, leaving them with third parties under
the name of personal freedom or 'too busy at work." Divorce has also
become the order of the day, to the detriment of our children. Today’s
society is also searching for where to draw the line between rights of parents and of those of their children: the movie they watch, the drinks they
take, the conversation they engage, and the examples they are shown. Are they
adult food, drinks, movies? What examples do we show to our kids!: how we treat
each other, how we return home from work on time, join the family at meals and
how we relate and respect our next door neighbors?
I am the
sixth child in a family of 4 surviving brothers and two sisters from same mom
and dad. I have other step brothers and sisters. Customarily we respect our parents. We honor them. We show gratitude
to them for many reasons- for raising us, for breast-feeding us, for the food,
clothing, for the tuition, for teaching us the faith, name them. We never talked back to our parents. The respect is so deep and mutual that we
cannot call our parents even our elderly ones by their first name. Usually
whenever there is any misunderstanding in our family everybody is eager to
work hard to have the matter resolved with compassion and love.
This is the
Family Life in the Lord that St. Paul addresses in the 2nd reading
(Col 3:12-21). The family is a place where each of us would learn to put on
compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another and
forgiving one another. Like the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus’ it is
place where we learn to pray, to sing Psalms, cultivate wisdom, respect, honor
one another and lay our spiritual foundation.
It is a place where we learn to visit our parents and seniors in the
nursing homes, hospices and hospital. It is a place where we learn to be our
brother's and sisters' keepers. It is a domestic sanctuary for faith, hope
and love. It is a domestic church, school
of virtues, where we lay the foundation for the values and virtues we bring to
our larger Community, churches, schools, places of work and governance.
As we approach the table of the Holy Eucharist
today, let us pray that each and every one of us may return home today,
nourished by the virtues and exemplary lives of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
