Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 29 December 2024

Young Jesus teaching in the Temple - Albrecht Durer

Feast of The Holy Family
Readings: 1 Sm 1:20-22, 24-28, I John 3:1-2,21-24 Luke 2:41-5

The difficulties of the family of Jesus

Given the variety of family structures we can discern in our society, and the way families vary from country to country, this feast cannot simply be seen as providing the model of Christian family life, which is how one is supposed to preach it to others. Instead we have to place the image of family in a wider scriptural context, one where Jesus himself could be said to have had two distinct sorts of families.

The first is with Mary, Joseph (though he does not seem to have been present in the ministry of Jesus) and those who are referred to as siblings and wider family members. This last group crop up a lot, usually in divisive situations, where they are seen to complain, argue or are hostile to the actions of Jesus himself. Just because the Christmas season tends to stress the love between Mary, Joseph and the Christ especially in many of our carols and imagery, that darker and more tense side of familial relationships cannot be airbrushed out of the picture. The sadder manifestation of fractured and broken relationship is always there, Joseph's pondering about the paternity of the child to be born, Herod's rage at a rival and depravity in the act of slaughtering the innocents, the exile of Jesus in Egypt and those curious imbalances between filial obedience as enjoined by some portions of scripture and Jesus rejection of family ties.

The second sort of family is one that knows no boundaries, is inclusive of all and is one of adoption, not blood. We know this family from the teachings of Jesus who demands we leave mother, father, children, to seek the Kingdom and follow him. As Canon Professor Jen Strawbridge writes in an article on "Jesus and the Family in the Gospels", 'Jesus frequently calls his disciples away from their families to follow him and separation from family is a central aspect of discipleship (Mark 10:21; Matt. 8:22; Luke 9:59-62)". Yet even though Jesus demands this separation, and shows this in his own life, he nevertheless remands intensely interested in family life, amongst his closest friends is a family of siblings, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he interacts with single parent families such as the Widow of Nain. He condemns divorce, but also upholds the role of women, but above all he places children as central to his reaching on the Kingdom, giving them a status and place in his Kingdom, he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 18:3)

Redefinition in Jesus

Even though Jesus treats his own family harshly, his redefinition of what family means is all about relationships, not positions in society, to become like children is no facile comment, it is a deep and rich teaching that requires careful thought. For Jesus giving up family is also to reconnect with them in another way, that is through him. I am the oldest of six siblings, each of us has taken a different route in life, but now brought together by the terminal illness of one of us, a redefinition such as Jesus suggests is beginning to take place, at the end of life what is left is God and the love we have for each other, what we discover is that forgiveness for wrongs done to each other are asked for and given, there is no need for long dialogue, just an accompaniment in faith and a dawning realisation that in the coming Kingdom it is Christ who brings us home to himself.

To move onwards in hope

What I really want to say is that saccharine images of the Holy Family have no place is our faith, and that no one definition of family can be a model for all times and places. Today's gospel itself should shake us up a little, Jesus is no easy child, no passively obedient person, he is actively engaged with others and challenging to the status quo, already he moves us beyond blood relationships to another. Luke tells it to us in this manner: '"When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety."And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them'( Lk 1: 48-50)

We possibly do not understand what the real Holy Family is either, but we do belong to it through our own adoption in baptism and we have the virtue of hope in our Christian life when we truly become the brothers and sisters of Jesus. The letter of John explains it to us clearly: "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (I Jn 3: 2)

Lectio

Benedict XVI

December 2012 Feast of the Holy Family

Today, Jesus is in the Temple again, but this time he has a different role, which involves him in the first person. He undertakes the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as prescribed by the Law (Exodus 23:17, 34:23), together with Mary and Joseph, although he was not yet in his 13th year: a sign of the deep religiosity of the Holy Family.

But when his parents return to Nazareth, something unexpected happens: He, without saying anything, remains in the city. For three days, Mary and Joseph search for him and find him in the Temple, speaking with the teachers of the Law (Luke 2:46, 47), and when they ask him for an explanation, Jesus tells them they have no cause to wonder, because that is his place, that is his home, with the Father, who is God (The Infancy Narratives 143). "He, Origen writes, professes to be in the Temple of his Father, the Father who has revealed himself to us and of which he says he is the Son" (Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, 18:5).

Extract from: Jesus and Family in the Gospels

Canon Jen Strawbridge

Within the Gospels, the understanding of family is complex and varied. The so-called 'traditional' or 'nuclear' family is not the norm, families struggle and are variously composed, and,…family is 'more flexible in early Christianity than in its contemporary idealized version'. This flexibility and complexity around family in the Gospels tells us at least two things. First, that family is a strong social entity found across the Gospels. Jesus interacts constantly with families in his actions and his teaching. He tells us about adulterous people and quarrelling brothers, he has complex relationships with his mother and his brothers, and he has compassion on parents, children, and many of those most vulnerable in a family system. Second, the flexibility and complexity around family also tells us a lot about Jesus and his two families: his blood relatives and his disciples. The tensions that arise from these two families not only spills over into the lives of his disciples, but is something still ever present in our world today.