26 December 2021
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
My grade school commissioned a beautiful mosaic of the Holy Family that was in one of the entryways to the building. It fit the visual motif we have grown to associate with the Holy Family. Jesus had an uncanny glow in the center of the piece with two adoring parents, Mary and Joseph, both shielding and adoring their son. The mosaic is idyllic, and it is also not representative of most of our experiences of family life. The mosaic is like the social media family photos that never give a glimmer of imperfection.
Our Gospel reading shatters any façade that the Holy Family by being holy is also perfect. I could imagine Joseph and Mary had quite a time as a young couple working on their relationship as they grew into the parents Jesus needed. I could imagine the frustration that they both had at one another when they thought the other knew where Jesus was. The moment of crisis could crack the fledging family into pieces.
If his parents share the blame, how much more Jesus has for walking off away from the caravan? The exchange between Mary and Jesus does not come with the imagined overtones I am sure such a conversation would contain. Mary speaking with exasperation, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Jesus’ plain reply suggests Mary and Joseph have forgotten something in their searching. He says, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” While Jesus is their son, he is more than their son. He is the living God, the Son of the Most High. This occasion is another reminder of the angel’s visitation that foretold of Jesus’ destiny to Mary. Among the normality of daily life, it was likely a message that could be in the background of his parents’ memory.
This experience taught Jesus as well as his parents. Jesus expected his whereabouts to be clear, but to others it was not. At first, he does not seem to grasp how he has subjected his parents to anxiety and worry. While he is the living God, he is also the son of Mary and Joseph. He is to going to learn what it means to be a human being from his parents like most children. To be human is to live with the tension between our capacities and the demands of our daily life. Parents know this well as they shepherd new lives in this school of humanity. I do not think it is too far of leap to say that Jesus comes to a deeper appreciation for the way he impacts others’ lives, especially his parents. This lesson could only come in a time of crisis when Jesus could realize the love of his Father expressed in the love of his parents for him.
In the limited Scriptural references we have, the Holy Family does not hide the tension that exists in their lives together. The uncanny glow of depictions of them is not the flash of a camera for a picture-perfect family. It is the light of God that illumines any truly loving relationship. As this holiday season continues, spend a moment recalling those moments when you found that light of God glowing in your family life, whether as a child or as a parent. If you feel moved, offer a moment of gratitude to God for the ways God’s love has found you in the daily and tense living of families.