The Whole Family

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, invite us to reflect on the dynamic of family life in which we have the greatest opportunity for love, mercy, and compassion.

Family Christmas

The reading from the Book of Sirach outlines responsibilities to parents and kindness to a father. 

* [3:1–16] Besides the virtues that must characterize our conduct toward God, special duties are enjoined, such as honor and respect toward parents, with corresponding blessings (vv. 1–9). By showing such respect especially to old and infirm parents (vv. 10–13), the sins of children are pardoned (vv. 14–15). Failure to honor father and mother is blasphemy and merits a curse from God (v. 16). Cf. Ex 20:12; Eph 6:2–3. (Sirach, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)

Psalm 128 praises the Happy Home of the Faithful.

* [Psalm 128] A statement that the ever-reliable God will bless the reverent (Ps 128:1). God’s blessing is concrete: satisfaction and prosperity, a fertile spouse and abundant children (Ps 128:2–4). The perspective is that of the adult male, ordinarily the ruler and representative of the household to the community. The last verses extend the blessing to all the people for generations to come (Ps 128:5–6). (Psalms, PSALM 128, n.d.)

The reading from the Letter to the Colossians presents rules for Christian households.

* [3:18–4:6] After general recommendations that connect family life and the social condition of slavery with the service of Christ (Col 3:18–4:1), Paul requests prayers for himself, especially in view of his imprisonment (Col 3:2–3), and recommends friendly relations and meaningful discussions of Christian teaching with outsiders, i.e., non-Christians (Col 3:5–6). See note on Eph 5:21–6:9.

* [3:22–25] Slaves: within this table of duties in family and societal relations, involving wives and husbands, children and parents (Col 3:18–21), such as also appears in Eph 5:22–6:9, slaves here receive special attention because of the case of Onesimus the slave returning to his master (Col 4:9; Phlm 10–12). (Colossians, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew we learn about the escape to Egypt and the return from Egypt.

* [2:20] For those who sought the child’s life are dead: Moses, who had fled from Egypt because the Pharaoh sought to kill him (see Ex 2:15), was told to return there, “for all the men who sought your life are dead” (Ex 4:19).

* [2:22] With the agreement of the emperor Augustus, Archelaus received half of his father’s kingdom, including Judea, after Herod’s death. He had the title “ethnarch” (i.e., “ruler of a nation”) and reigned from 4 B.C. to A.D. 6.

* [2:23] Nazareth…he shall be called a Nazorean: the tradition of Jesus’ residence in Nazareth was firmly established, and Matthew sees it as being in accordance with the foreannounced plan of God. The town of Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, and no such prophecy can be found there. The vague expression “through the prophets” may be due to Matthew’s seeing a connection between Nazareth and certain texts in which there are words with a remote similarity to the name of that town. Some such Old Testament texts are Is 11:1 where the Davidic king of the future is called “a bud” (nēser) that shall blossom from the roots of Jesse, and Jgs 13:5, 7 where Samson, the future deliverer of Israel from the Philistines, is called one who shall be consecrated (a nāzîr) to God. (Matthew, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)

Nancy Shirley asks where is the balance between idealizing families and facing our brokenness as humans?  Christmas season is certainly the time to focus on hope and the “gifts” that we are given throughout the year.  The gift of family – whatever shape or form – is one to celebrate not only at this time but also throughout the year.

I especially appreciated the gospel and the focus on Joseph.  Every reading about Joseph fills my heart with the image of a wonderful father.  While I pray frequently to Mary and consider her my loving Mother, I do cherish Joseph.  I understand that he is not a father in the way of our one Father – perfect and loving, yet Joseph to me comes as close as possible for an earthly perfect father.  He is understanding and forgiving, noble and humble, strong yet gentle and, most of all, a man of unfailing and enduring faith. Joseph listened to angels well before Bethlehem and accepted the situation and explanation.  It’s always impressed me that even before the first dream and angel message, he did not condemn Mary, rather planned a way to save her.  He demonstrated that he was a man of kindness and compassion even when he thought he had been betrayed. His following of the dreams related in this gospel further confirm his faith in his God and his faithfulness to his family. He is the consummate protector – doing whatever was/is necessary for his family and in his very special way being guided by angels in dreams.  Joseph protected Jesus from before He was born and continued this care throughout His childhood and probably early adulthood. He was an earthly role model for Jesus, teaching Him to be a carpenter until His time came for public ministry. (Shirley, 2022)

Don Schwager quotes “The holy family flees to Egypt,” by John Chrysostom, 547-407 A.D.

"But why was the Christ child sent into Egypt? The text makes this clear: he was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt have I called my son' (Hosea 11:1). From that point onward we see that the hope of salvation would be proclaimed to the whole world. Babylon and Egypt represent the whole world. Even when they were engulfed in ungodliness, God signified that he intended to correct and amend both Babylon and Egypt. God wanted humanity to expect his bounteous gifts the world over. So he called from Babylon the wise men and sent to Egypt the holy family.

"Besides what I have said, there is another lesson also to be learned, which tends powerfully toward true self-constraint in us. We are warned from the beginning to look out for temptations and plots. And we see this even when he came in swaddling clothes. Thus you see even at his birth a tyrant raging, a flight ensuing and a departure beyond the border. For it was because of no crime that his family was exiled into the land of Egypt.

"Similarly, you yourself need not be troubled if you are suffering countless dangers. Do not expect to be celebrated or crowned promptly for your troubles. Instead you may keep in mind the long-suffering example of the mother of the Child, bearing all things nobly, knowing that such a fugitive life is consistent with the ordering of spiritual things. You are sharing the kind of labor Mary herself shared. So did the magi. They both were willing to retire secretly in the humiliating role of fugitive." (excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 8.2) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 urges us to take care of our children, our parents, and our siblings. Take care of them when they are too young or too old to take care of themselves. Take care of them when they are ill or troubled. Take care of them when it’s a delight and when it’s a sacrifice.

This is a high calling, and we may fail at it sometimes. That’s all the more reason to ask Jesus, who experienced family life himself, for the grace to keep forming this circle of love—day by day, week by week, year by year. Let’s also ask Mary and Joseph to pray for us. May our care for one another bind us together in the Lord all the days of our lives!

“Father, thank you for the gift of my family. Help me to care for them as you care for me.” (Meditation on Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler explains that the Book of Sirach, in later Jewish history, presents Hebrew wisdom as being as good as Greek wisdom. The rules for family organization in Collosians reflect Stoic wisdom of the time and point to Christian aspiration to mutual obligation. Friar Jude reminds us of the presence of Jewish communities in Egypt and Nazareth who would be able to assist the Holy Family in the early days of Jesus' life.

Cynthia Bourgeault identifies inter-abiding as the primary quality of God’s Kingdom that Jesus came to reveal.

No separation between God and humans. When Jesus talks about this Oneness, he is not speaking in an Eastern sense about an equivalency of being, such that I am in and of myself divine. What he more has in mind is a complete, mutual indwelling: I am in God, God is in you, you are in God, we are in each other. His most beautiful symbol for this is . . . John 15 where he says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in me as I in you” [see John 15:4–5]. A few verses later he says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love” [John 15:9]. While he does indeed claim that “the Father and I are one” (John 10:30) . . . he does not see this as an exclusive privilege but as something shared by all human beings. There is no separation between humans and God because of this mutual interabiding which expresses the indivisible reality of divine love. We flow into God—and God into us—because it is the nature of love to flow. And as we give ourselves into one another in this fashion, the vine gives life and coherence to the branch while the branch makes visible what the vine is. . . . The whole and the part live together in mutual, loving reciprocity, each belonging to the other and dependent on the other to show forth the fullness of love. That’s Jesus’s vision of no separation between human and Divine. (Bourgeault, 2022)

The people we interact with as family are the gift of Providence for growth and fullness in our life.

References

Bourgeault, C. (2022, December 30). Love Flows — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/love-flows-2022-12-30/ 

Colossians, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/colossians/3?12 

Matthew, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/2?13 

Meditation on Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/12/30/569827/  

Psalms, PSALM 128. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/128?1 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). An Angel of the Lord Appeared to Joseph in a Dream. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=dec30 

Shirley, N. (2022, December 30). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/123022.html 

Sirach, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/sirach/3?2 

Household of Love

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today encourage us to continue to explore the possibilities presented by the Spirit to grow truth, beauty, and love through our relationships on our journey.

Houshold gathering

The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians describes the Christian Household.

* [5:21–33] The apostle exhorts married Christians to a strong mutual love. Holding with Gn 2:24 that marriage is a divine institution (Eph 5:31), Paul sees Christian marriage as taking on a new meaning symbolic of the intimate relationship of love between Christ and the church. The wife should serve her husband in the same spirit as that of the church’s service to Christ (Eph 5:22, 24), and the husband should care for his wife with the devotion of Christ to the church (Eph 5:25–30). Paul gives to the Genesis passage its highest meaning in the light of the union of Christ and the church, of which Christlike loyalty and devotion in Christian marriage are a clear reflection (Eph 5:31–33). (Ephesians, CHAPTER 5, n.d.)

Psalm 128 praises the Happy Home of the Faithful.

* [Psalm 128] A statement that the ever-reliable God will bless the reverent (Ps 128:1). God’s blessing is concrete: satisfaction and prosperity, a fertile spouse and abundant children (Ps 128:2–4). The perspective is that of the adult male, ordinarily the ruler and representative of the household to the community. The last verses extend the blessing to all the people for generations to come (Ps 128:5–6). (Psalms, PSALM 128, n.d.)

The Gospel of Luke presents the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Yeast.

* [13:18–21] Two parables are used to illustrate the future proportions of the kingdom of God that will result from its deceptively small beginning in the preaching and healing ministry of Jesus. They are paralleled in Mt 13:31–33 and Mk 4:30–32. (Luke, CHAPTER 13, n.d.)

Candice Tucci, OSF, comments that It seems Paul missed how Jesus raised women up recognizing their dignity in a patriarchal culture. He made counter-cultural efforts to bring about equality, raising up the lowly and caring for women and children.

I believe the vision of church as the people of God is to be a Church that Pope Francis promotes as Synodality.  Relationships bound in love, respect, and reverence for one another and to share in the leadership, enter into conversation, respectful listening, and participate in decision making regardless of race, culture, or gender identity. When Pope Francis celebrated the opening Mass for the Synod on Synodality he said, Let us not soundproof our hearts; let us not remain barricaded in our certainties. So often our certainties can make us closed. Let us listen to one another.

Paul says, this is all a great mystery. We live in great mystery. In the depth of this mystery can we imagine the reign of God realized in a Church that expands like the mustard seed or a batch of dough?  Rich in diversity and all nourished through the Eucharist? People living, loving, caring peacefully in unity, equally, and wanting for nothing? This is our invitation. Like St. Paul, let the Spirit knock us off our horses, open our eyes and ears to build a new WORLD into being—a whole living Body of Christ.  Each of us bringing unique gifts for the fulfillment of the Reign of God. (Tucci, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The Word of God operates in us like leaven,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

"The leaven is small in quantity, yet it immediately seizes the whole mass and quickly communicates its own properties to it. The Word of God operates in us in a similar manner. When it is admitted within us, it makes us holy and without blame. By pervading our mind and heart, it makes us spiritual. Paul says, 'Our whole body and spirit and soul may be kept blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The God of all clearly shows that the divine Word is poured out even into the depth of our understanding... We receive the rational and divine leaven in our mind. We understand that by this precious, holy and pure leaven, we may be found spiritually unleavened and have none of the wickedness of the world, but rather be pure, holy partakers of Christ."(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 96) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Ephesians 5:21-33 comments that God wants us to put other people’s needs and concerns ahead of our own and to “lay down” our lives for each other (John 15:13). If we can do that, then all our relationships—especially with our spouses—will be marked by unity, peace, and love.

What might this look like in real life? In marriage, first and foremost, it doesn’t involve letting your spouse take advantage of you or make unreasonable demands—or doing those things yourself. But in any relationship, it could mean listening attentively while the other person lets off steam about challenges at work. It could mean no longer insisting on getting your own way. It could mean working on coming together in unity when your paths seem to begin diverging. And it could mean trying to forgive long-standing hurts and overcome deep-seated resentments.

In other words, the call to be subordinate to one another is just part of Jesus’ call to love one another as Jesus loves us. Actually, it all boils down to love: letting Jesus’ all-encompassing, unconditional love overcome our selfishness so that we can show that same love to the people around us. Especially those closest to us.

So how will you “be subordinate” today?

“Come, Lord, and make us one in your love!” (Meditation on Ephesians 5:21-33, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler compares the household instructions in Ephesians to standard Stoic teaching in the culture of the time. In this passage there is a non-Stoic call for mutual obligation as a symbol of the union between Christ and the Church. Friar Jude reminds us that small acts of Christian witness can have a great impact even as the mustard plant as a weed takes over the garden and the Kingdom takes over with the contagion of Love.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee who founded a women’s nonviolent peace movement that helped stop the second Liberian civil war in 2003.

Three days a week for six months, the women of WIPNET [Women in Peacebuilding Network] went out to meet with the women of Monrovia; we went to the mosques on Friday at noon after prayers, to the markets on Saturday morning, to two churches every Sunday. . . . We gave all our sisters the same message: Liberian women, awake for peace! . . .

It wasn’t always easy. Women who have suffered for nearly as long as they can remember come to a point where they look down, not ahead. But as we kept working, women began to look up and listen. No one had spoken to them this way before.

We handed out flyers: WE ARE TIRED! WE ARE TIRED OF OUR CHILDREN BEING KILLED! WE ARE TIRED OF BEING RAPED! WOMEN, WAKE UP—YOU HAVE A VOICE IN THE PEACE PROCESS! . . .

As the women of WIPNET gathered together, my fear, depression and loneliness were finally, totally, wiped away. Others who felt the way I did stood beside me; I wasn’t alone anymore. And I knew in my heart that everything I had been through, every pain, had led me to this point: leading women to fight for peace was what I was meant to do with my life. (Rohr, n.d.)

We are informed by the Spirit as we apply our experience of relationships in humanity to growing the Kingdom of God.

References

Ephesians, CHAPTER 5. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/5?21 

Luke, CHAPTER 13. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/13?18 

Meditation on Ephesians 5:21-33. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/10/25/520034/ 

Psalms, PSALM 128. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/128?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/women-working-for-peace-2022-10-25/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=oct25 

Tucci, C. (n.d.). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/102522.html