Bulletin column from December 27, 2020

Dear Friends at Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Frances Cabrini Parish:

Praised be Jesus Christ! And Merry Christmas! We celebrate this weekend the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph which typically lands on the Sunday following Christmas. The Church wants us to pray about the historical and theological reality that God was not only born, but also that he grew up in a family.

I have commented on other occasions about the fact that even though the Lord Jesus lived among us before his death and resurrection for 33 years, the vast majority of our stories about him have to do with only the last three years of his life. By way of exception, at Christmas time we hear the small smattering of accounts we have about his birth and the events surrounding it. All told, this leaves us with about 30 years of his life for which we have virtually no details provided in the Gospels.

We do know one or two important points, though, about this time which is often called his “hidden life.” We know that if he had done anything out of the ordinary that would have impacted our salvation, then we would have record of it. Since we do not have any type of record, that means that the most important thing that the Lord did that impacted our salvation for those roughly 30 years was in fact to be: ordinary. God lived just like everyone else. In so doing, we can say that he made the ordinary mechanisms of human life to be pathways for holiness through which we meet God.

At the heart of his living just like everyone else was his decision to live in a family. Even if the circumstances were unique, Jesus did have a mother, and a legal (even if not biological) father. They were a family unit who would have lived and observed the customs and routines of 1st Century Palestinian Jewish life in the last years of the Temple. Jesus would have had to learn from his parents the usual lessons and skills of life, along with the tenets of the faith, just like anyone else. This includes mannerisms, social protocols, prayers, chores, the history of his people, the politics of the day, and a trade to make a living. The Gospels indicate that Jesus also knew how to read which would have made him well-educated for his day. The Gospels explain that Jesus willingly placed himself under the wisdom and authority of his parents during their family life and years in Nazareth while he grew up. The Gospels are silent about the deaths of Joseph and Mary, but it is very likely from the texts that by the time Jesus began to publicly preach, Joseph was already dead. He learned his father’s line of work, practiced it himself (Mark’s Gospel refers to Jesus as a carpenter), and he also buried his father. As the only son he would have been responsible for taking care of his widowed mother, providing for her well being and needs either personally, or ensuring that some other relative or source would provide care. At the hour of his death on the cross, the last moment of his ordinary earthly life, he entrusts his mother to the care of John, fulfilling this necessary family obligation to the very end.

All of that sounds a lot like what our family life and obligations are like today. God chose to grow up in and be an active member of a family. He spent his entire earthly life in its structure and obligations, even to his last breath. Therefore, God knows family life, and God chooses to make the living out of family life an important pathway to growing in holiness. May God bless all of the families of the world, on this the Feast of the Most Holy Family.