They Are Us; We Are Them

The Holy Family

Sir 3, 2-7, 12-14 / Col 3, 12-21 / Lk 2, 41-52

Today’s story about Jesus getting lost is found only in the gospel of Luke.  And, outside of the account of the birth of Jesus, it’s the only time in all the gospels when we see the whole family all together.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph are all there.  But notice this:  the scene Luke chooses to show us is not particularly uplifting.  We don’t see Jesus being a good little boy helping Joseph in the carpenter shop.  Nor do we see him helping Mary in the kitchen.  And we don’t see them all sitting at table sharing a meal together – after having said grace, of course.

So, what do we see?  What does Luke show us?  We see confusion and misunderstanding.  We are shown hurt feelings and tension.  What we experience here are the families many of us grew up in or are now raising.  Jesus, being a little kid, wanders off and gets lost.  Mary and Joseph, typical parents, worry.  And they assume the kid got lost on purpose.  “Why have you done this to us?”, they ask him.  And Jesus, being that little kid, answers back with a tone that assumes – of course his parents not only can read his mind but should read his mind.  He says to them:  “Didn’t you know where I’d be?”  Hear that tone in what he says.

So, what we see – what we got is an altogether familiar, human scene.  We’ve all been there.  And that’s the point!  The ordinary tensions and trials of family life – you can also throw in there the ordinary tensions and trials of married life – these are not obstacles to being “a holy family”.  They are our normal ways of becoming and being holy.  With all their confusion, misunderstandings and hurt feelings – Jesus, Mary and Joseph still remain “the holy family”.

They are going to work things out – back home in Nazareth.  And their trying to work things out will be the way they really love one another.  And their trying to love one another as a family will be God’s love becoming real, seeable, touchable to them and to others.  In this typical family spat we are seeing “sacred history” being made.

The feast of Christmas is the feast of “Incarnation”.  It tells us that God’s life and God’s love take on real presence and power through us.  They have their affect through what we do with our lives – through how we live our lives, especially with one another.  God’s tenderness becomes touchable through us.

This Christmas season – and this feast of the Holy Family – want to teach us to have reverence – learn to have reverence for ourselves – for our families.  These are where God chooses to do well and show himself.  We are how God lets himself get known.  That is real joy for our world.