Jesus, Family Man

If you were to choose an adjective to accompany “family,” what would it be?  Holy? Or is it more likely to be “dysfunctional”? If culture reflects reality, our greatest American playwrights hold up families falling apart as the norm: Eugene O’Neil’s Tyrone family, Tennessee Williams’ haunted Southern siblings, Arthur Miller’s Willie and Linda Loman and sons, and, most recently, the families of Tracy Lett’s August: Osage County and Jon Rabin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities. Behold, the American family!  

And yet, granting that every family, like every person, is imperfect and on occasion wounds each other in both small and big ways, we do find holiness in families. It is the holiness that we see in Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, who cared for and respected each other, a holiness that witnesses to the power of God’s grace at work in hearts open to it. 

In today’s Gospel we see this gracious care in the worry of parents who could not find their son. We hear it in Mary’s anxious words to Jesus, in Jesus’ fidelity to his dual parentage—earthly and heavenly—and in the simple statement that “he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.”  

As members of the human family, imperfect and even sinful, we too are graced with a capacity for “advancing in wisdom and age and favor before God and one another.” Each of us is called to holiness, to a fullness of being made possible by being open to the loving touch of God’s grace made visible in the Incarnation.

Consider/Discuss

• Do Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have anything to teach us about what it means to be family? 
• What does it mean to be a “holy family”? Is it a matter of doing “holy”  actions, or saying “holy” words? 

Responding to the Word

Loving Father, you have created all who have ever lived in your image and likeness. Help us to recognize all others as our brothers and sisters and to honor,  respect, forgive, and love them as your children. Together, enable us to bring your peace and justice, healing and reconciliation to our world.