Wisdom for Holy Family

The texts chosen today in the Roman Catholic Lectionary provide wisdom for family life but do so using references to Scripture and philosophy which have been controversial in Church history. Maureen McCannWaldron of Creighton University finds the wisdom in these texts and reminds us that families are complicated. The rigorous study and prayer in the ideal religious life is sometimes difficult in families blessed with children and the necessary daily tasks to organize and live our busy days. The necessary attention to the needs of those less capable, like the elderly in our families, is often where the support of our relationship with God is so important to find the patience and kindness which Friar Jude Winkler notes the Letter to the Colossians exhorts us to practice. The Wisdom Of Sirach is placed in the Apocrypha by Jewish and Reformed because it was not available in the Hebrew language. (Friar Jude notes that Hebrew versions have recently been found) The focus of this book (from the second century B.C.E) is to align the Jewish community with the traditional wisdom literature, today about family life, which was under pressure from the Hellenistic culture in the region at the time. The letter to the Colossians contains text about wives being subordinate to their husbands which Friar Jude speculates would not be included in this letter if it were written today. (In fact, the USCCB offers an alternate text for liturgy today which omits the references to subordination.) The original inclusion of this relationship was likely influenced by the Stoic philosophy which was prominent in Greek and Roman cites at the time of this letter to the Colossians. The Stoics sought virtue through respect of order in relationships. Friar Jude notes that the direction that husbands love your wives goes beyond Stoic principles. The account from the Gospel of Matthew about the flight of Jesus, Mary and Joseph into Egypt and their return to live not in Judah but to settle in Galilee were decisions for protection of the welfare of the family which we all need to make in our families as we assess the social and political situation in our environment. The desire of Matthew, according to Friar Jude, to stretch this inspired action of the Holy Family into the fulfillment of a prophesy from the Hebrew Testament continues to be the subject of debate among some Christianscholars about tradition versus “sola scriptura”. Perhaps the need to resolve different opinions and seek the Wisdom from God in the study of the texts today is a practical lesson to let the experience of Love come first in our lives in relationship with others.