One very popular, modern English Christmas
tradition is the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols created in 1918 at King’s
College, Cambridge. It begins with a single choirboy singing the 1st
verse of the 19th century English hymn Once in David’s Royal City.
The choir and eventually the whole congregation soon join in the
singing. One of the verses seems to have been tailor-made for today’s feast of
the Holy Family:
And through all His wondrous childhood / He would honor and obey,
Love and watch the lowly Maiden, / In whose gentle arms He lay:
Christian children all must be / Mild, obedient, good as He.
I can still remember attending Mass on this feast back
when I was in elementary school more than 50 years ago (when this feast was
still celebrated in the 2nd week of January). It was, of course, the
parish “Children’s Mass,” and the priest took advantage of the occasion
to preach to us about our obligation to obey our parents. Fair enough, I
suppose. But I can remember thinking to myself how the priest seemed to have
based his whole sermon on one line near the end of the Gospel – He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them (Luke 2:51) - conveniently ignoring Jesus’
somewhat more independent behavior earlier in the story! (As an altar boy at an adult Mass one of
those years year, however, I heard another priest base his sermon on the significance of Mary and Joseph
finally finding Jesus “in church”).
Today’s feast of the Holy Family is, obviously,
about more than obedience to parents – or children going to church. Introduced
by Pope Leo XIII 120 years ago, it reflects the modern Church’s concern, in the
wake of both the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution, to reaffirm
the essential nature and fundamental importance of the family as a natural
institution in society and as the unique human community through which society
institutionalizes its commitment to the next generation. Addressing that
concern is inevitably a critical component of the Church’s social mission. That
said, the scriptures read at Mass today focus only tangentially on family life.
Like those Old Testament parents Hannah and
Elkanah, about whom we hear in today’s 1st reading (1 Samuel
1:20-22, 24-28), Mary and Joseph are portrayed as devoutly faithful to their
religious obligations. Luke’s Gospel recounts an incident in which Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph travel to the Temple in Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus is now at an
age when he will soon assume his adult responsibilities and obligations
as a member of God’s Chosen People. He is, in effect, what we would today call
an adolescent. Indeed, in purely human terms, Jesus’ behavior coudl be said to resemble that of a maturing adolescent, out to define his own
personal identity. Of course, I doubt that many modern teenagers would choose
to show their independence by hanging out in church for 3 days! I suspect it
wasn’t too common then either.
On the other hand, the Gospel’s interest in this
episode was obviously not to suggest some sort of teen rebellion or to explore
issues of adolescent personal identity. What this really is, I think, is a kind
of “vocation” story – Jesus’ first public acknowledgment of who he is and what
his mission will be. Already anticipating his later behavior as an adult, Jesus
here puts his priority on his relationship with his heavenly Father rather than
his earthly family. Hence, his mission is to be in his Father’s house, rather than in
the caravan among relatives and acquaintances. Likewise, the wonder experienced
by the teachers in the Temple anticipates the wonder so many will eventually
experience at Jesus’ teaching during his public life - and the wonder we
continue to experience as we experience his continued life among us in
his Church.
Like Hannah and Elkanah, Mary and Joseph had a son
dedicated to the Lord, a son whose mission in life would take him – and his
followers – beyond the limits of natural human relationships – reflected in the
contrasting uses of the word “Father,” first in Mary’s question and then in
Jesus’ surprising response. Through the Church, our new relationship with God
in Jesus incorporates us into a new network of relationships both wider and
more inclusive than any natural human relationships.
At the same time, we continue to be involved in and
dependent upon those natural networks of human relationships, of which the
family is the first. Yet, today’s feast calls our attention to the transforming
effect of the Incarnation in all aspects of our daily life - intruding into and
transforming everything else and all those day-to-day natural human
relationships, including our families.
When he established this feast, Pope Leo XIII
wrote: “When Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are invoked in the home, there they foster
charity, there they exert a good influence over conduct, set an example of
virtue, and make more bearable the hardships of every life.” (Neminem fugit, 1892)
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