[Catholic Caucus] The Sacred Page: Readings for the Feast of the Holy Family

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Posted on 12/28/2024 11:35:03 AM PST by fidelis

By Dr. John Bergsma

The Sunday within the Octave of Christmas is always dedicated to contemplation of the Holy Family, giving us the opportunity to meditate on the way in which the family structure, established by God and perfectly mirrored in the Holy Family, reflects His own familial nature (as Father, Son, and Spirit) and shows us the truth about ourselves and our deepest longings for love, acceptance, and communion with other persons.

1. The First Reading is Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14:

God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.

Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.

My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him; revile him not all the days of his life; kindness to a father will not be forgotten, firmly planted against the debt of your sins —a house raised in justice to you.

Sirach is the last of the wisdom books in the Catholic order of the canon and may be regarded as a massive summation of the Israelite wisdom tradition composed c. 200 BC. In fact, Sirach is truly a meditation on the entire body of Israel’s Scriptures from the perspective of wisdom, that is, the practical knowledge of successful living. Because Sirach provides such a useful digest of the moral message of the Old Testament Scriptures, the early Church used it heavily in catechesis, earning it the name “Ecclesiasticus,” that is, “the Church book.”

Sirach excels in giving practical advice—teaching people the application of natural virtues in daily life. Early on, the Church realized that it was difficult to catechize pagan cultures that did not practice the natural virtues well. Theological virtues—faith, hope, and love—rest upon and perfect the natural virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The Book of Sirach was employed to form people in basic Judaeo-Christian morality and family life. Leading a moral and well-ordered natural life is, of course, not ultimate goal of the Christian life—union with God is. However, it is very difficult to make progress in union with God in the midst of immorality and disorder.

The teaching of the Book of Sirach frequently strikes us these days as quaint or dated. However, our modern alternatives to the moral vision laid out in this book have not been empirically successful—by almost any psychological or sociological measure, our culture is growing more unhealthy and dysfunctional. Sirach has been treasured in Christianity (and even in Judaism) for centuries because its principles work.

The first paragraph of this Reading from Sirach focuses on the responsibility of children to revere their parents. One’s relationship with one’s parents affects one’s relationship to God: it preserves one from sin, merits forgiveness of sin, and makes one’s prayers efficacious.

Happy is the person who finds it easy to revere his father and mother, because they are virtuous and admirable people! You are truly blessed in body and soul. But many of us meditating on these Readings struggle with this command to revere parents, because we have been hurt by them: perhaps we are children of divorce or were abandoned my father or mother. Perhaps we suffered abuse of some kind. How then do we react to this Reading?

It is still applicable to us. Our identity is so strongly bound up with our parents that hatred of them becomes self-hatred, damaging us at the core of our being. So for the sake of our own health and the health of our relationship to God, we need to pray for divine strength—what we call “Grace”—to forgive hurts that otherwise are beyond our ability to forgive, and ask God to show us whatever was good, true, and beautiful in our parents, in order that we may emphasize and dwell on that.

Isn’t this part of “loving our neighbors as ourselves”? Aren’t we conscious of ways we sinned against our own children, and don’t we hope they will come one day to forgive our vices and emphasize our virtues? This Reading from Sirach is, in a way, an application to the child-parent relationship of the principle of the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we have forgiven those who trespass against us,” because “if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15).”

The second paragraph of this First Reading especially commends honoring one’s father in his old age. These verses remind us of the times that Pope Francis, like his predecessors, has emphasized that the moral measure of a society—and we may add, of individuals, too—is how we treat the very old and the very young, those who don’t seem to “contribute” very much to the economy. This de-supernaturalized way of evaluating human worth is contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The elderly deserve honor and care for their own sake, as image-bearers of God. Moreover, since there is an order to charity, those closest to us (like our parents) have the first claim on our love. Therefore, much later in salvation history, St. Paul will affirm: “If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). Why “worse than an unbeliever?” Because he brings discredit to the Christian faith.

2. Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 128:1-2, 3, 4-5:

R. (cf. 1) Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

This psalm emphasizes the natural blessing that family life is. One of the blessings God grants to the one who fears him is the joy of married love and fruitfulness:
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table.

This does not rule out the possibility that person may sacrifice the great good of family life in order more radically to be devoted to God through a life of celibacy (Matthew 19:10-12). But the person who gives up family life because he or she has contempt for them, misunderstands the call to religious life. Marriage and family life are a great good. They mirror the life of the Trinity, since God Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is familial in his nature. “Father” and “Son,” after all, are family terms. Apostolic celibacy gains its value because it is the sacrifice of a great good (a spotless lamb) in order more fully to dedicate this temporal life to God and to His sacramental family, the Church.

Sadly, marriage and family life are not even perceived as desirable goods by many in our culture. Marriage rates are dropping and too often children are perceived as a burden and distraction from our career or hobbies. Is that well-ordered? Is your job at some corporation really a greater eternal good than one’s own child? We are very far from seeing reality through the eyes of God.

3. The Second Reading is Colossians 3:12-21:

Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.

This Reading breaks down into two main sections: the first concerns how to behave with the spiritual family which is the Church, the second how to behave within the natural family, the ecclesia domestica, the domestic Church.

The second section lays out responsibilities of family members toward one another. “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord.” This is because, throughout Scripture, beginning with Adam in the Garden-sanctuary of Eden, the ideal held up for the father and husband is to serve as the priest or spiritual leader of the family, the domestic church. To do this, he needs the support of his wife. He needs her both to expect him to be and to respect him as the “family priest,” as it were. The children will take their cue from their mother. If they see she does not respect her husband or look to him for spiritual leadership, neither will they. Let’s remember the Blessed Mother, who—though she was the sinless Mother of God—looked with respect on St. Joseph and honored him as her husband.

To lead the family toward God is the responsibility of a husband and father, but one that is frequently shirked. When I worked in urban ministry, I encountered fathers who were willing to send their kids to Church or youth programs, as long as they weren’t involved. I told them that, statistically, they'd do more for their children by leaving the kids and home and coming to worship themselves.

St. Paul moves on to speak of the husband’s responsibility: “love your wives and avoid any bitterness toward them.” A longer treatment of the husband’s responsibility is found in the famous passage of Ephesians 5, which likens the husband’s love of his wife to that of Christ for the Church. Thus, the model of Christ’s love even to a sacrificial death is held out as normative for husbands. This is a high calling. It also rules out any abuse, any selfishness, any chauvinism, any “machismo” on the part of the husband. Any such thing is a disorder incompatible with the command to love one’s wife as Christ loved the Church. Though the husband many be the priest of the domestic church, this is for him a role of service, not one of “lording it over others” (see Luke 22:25-26).

St. Paul moves on to speak of children and fathers. “Children, obey your parents in everything.” Of course, this does not mean to obey parents in anything that is sinful. Obedience is always guided by the moral law of God. In moral issues, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). This holds true also for sins against our person. We are not called to submit to offenses against our person perpetrated by one in authority.

But St. Paul presumes the good will of parents in this passage, and so says, “obey your parents in everything,” knowing that parents typically have the best interest of their children at heart, and that, moreover, willful disobedience just introduces chaos into the home.

Then he says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” Notice that he addresses fathers! He assumes that fathers take an active role in the raising of their children, and of setting family policy! He assumes they do more than come home from work and sit on the couch drinking beer and watching football! The role of the father is so important in children’s development. Let’s not listen to the lies of those who say the father can be replaced without harm: that is bad science and bad theology. The father who is a strong, loving, and directing presence in his children’s lives contributes greatly to their spiritual and psychological health, and makes it easier for them to find faith in a God who calls Himself “Father.”

The role of the father is greatly under attack in contemporary culture, and it is even becoming politically correct—even if wholly false from a scientific and objective perspective—to claim that fathers are optional, and children do just as well or better being raised, for example, by two women rather than by their own father and mother. Yet the Scriptures assume that the Christian father is one who takes responsibility for, and thus leads, his family, under the ultimate guidance of Christ himself. So, in one of the optional second readings, we find that within the love of the Christian family, there remains an order of authority (Colossians 3:18-21):

This beautiful yet challenging text lays out the reciprocal responsibilities of the members of the Christian family. Jesus’ example of obedience to his parents reminds us that deference to proper authority is not based on some “superiority of essence,” for certainly the Lord’s parents were not superior beings to him.

The limit to obedience to authority is always the threshold of sin, for to obey someone to sin is to disobey a higher authority, God. Therefore this text of St. Paul has to be understood in light of the full teaching of Christian and biblical morality. Children are not obliged to follow their parents into sin—including sins against themselves, that is, against the children. Likewise in the husband-wife relationship, the injunction to be “subordinate” only holds in the realm of morally permissible action. The leadership of the husband is only valid as he follows Christ—a father’s authority in the home does not extend to violation of the law of Christ and the Church, which is the Law of Love (Romans 13:8-10).

As we mature in our relationship with Christ, we begin to realize more and more than any position of leadership, whether in civil society (mayor, governor), business (boss, manager), the Church (pastor, bishop, superior), the home (father, mother) is a responsibility for the well-being of others, and more of burden (from a human perspective) than a privilege (see Matthew 20:27-28; Mark 10:44-45; Luke 22:24-27).

Whatever our role in our respective families, this Feast Day presents an excellent opportunity for us to make an examination of conscience concerning whether we are living the virtues that make for “happy and cheerful Christian homes” (a phrase of St. Josemaría Escrivà). These virtues are largely listed in Colossians 3, one of the options for the Second Reading. This text from Colossians would be an excellent one to take to personal prayer sometime during this Feast Day.

This Feast also presents us an opportunity to ask for the intercessions of the Holy Family to live family life while. In a particular way, those of us who are fathers may wish to invoke St. Joseph for the help we need to fulfill a role for which we often are inadequate if left to our own resources.

(I highly recommend the book Biblical Faith and Fathering by John W. Miller for priests, catechists, and all those in a teaching role in the Church. It makes a strong theological and sociological argument for the unique contribution of biblical religion to the human family and especially the role of the father in society.)

2. The Gospel is “The Finding of the Boy Jesus in the Temple,” Luke 2:41-52:

Each year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. 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. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham proposes a rather direct connection between the text of our First Reading this Gospel portion. Bauckham suggests that the boy Jesus may have understood himself a priest-prophet designated from birth, on the model of Samuel, and that when his parents brought him up to the Temple on this occasion, he believed that the plan and expectation was that he would stay and begin his service in the Temple, as Samuel did. The theory is speculative, but worth considering. It would explain Jesus’ apparent confusion when his mother and father finally arrive: “Why were you looking? Did you not know…?” In other words, Jesus thought his parent’s plan was that he would stay.

One of the obvious themes in this Gospel is the true origin of Jesus, or in other words, the true Fatherhood of Jesus. Though Joseph is (rightly) called Jesus’ “father” by the Our Blessed Mother (“your father and I have been looking for you”), nonetheless Jesus responds “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”, reminding us of Jesus’ divine origin, and that Joseph was in the end only his adopted father.

At first we are tempted to say that this is a difference between Jesus and ourselves. We have natural biological fathers, but Jesus had God as his Father. But again on further reflection, we have to admit that there is not so much difference—or better said, there is a closer analogy between our origin and Jesus’. Like Jesus, those of us who have been baptized have been “born of God,” born in a supernatural way from a heavenly father: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). This is the point of the Second Reading option from 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24. Our biological fathers are in a sense merely adoptive fathers, stewards of our education and well-being until we can begin our lives of prophetic and priestly service to God. All fatherhood has its origin in God (Ephesians 3:15 [Greek patria, "fatherhood"]), a point Jesus himself drives home with great force: “call no man on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). In the church’s spiritual tradition, this powerful doctrine of childhood to God is called divine filiation, and it is the source of great joy for believers. As we contemplate the Holy Family this Sunday, we need to ponder the fact that, like Jesus, we have a supernatural origin from God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Having God as our Father makes it possible for us to break out of patterns of sin that we may have learned, consciously or unconsciously, from our human fathers—good men though they may have been—and live in “the glorious freedom of children of God” (Romans 8:21).

The moral sense of this Gospel also contains important reminders. Although the whole incident with the loss of Jesus in the Temple was finally resolved without harm to anyone, nonetheless we must recognize the event must have been a terrible stress and strain on St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother. This account reminds us that even in a family of two great saints and a divine child, misunderstandings arise and can cause strain on relationships. Faithful living of the Christian virtues can alleviate many of the more obvious dysfunctions in family life but are not a guarantee of freedom from all stress and difficulty. There is some consolation in realizing this, and we can thank St. Luke for recording this incident, which reminds us that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph also had to bear with the sufferings of a fallen world, even though they did not participate in sin.

We are also instructed by the humility of Jesus, who being already wise in the Scriptures at the onset of his manhood (age twelve being a traditional time of transition from boy to man), nonetheless submitted to his parents and was “obedient to them.” In families, as in all human organizations, there has to be some order of authority for the sake of the common good. Even in superbly pleasant activities, like sports or dancing, there has to be a team captain, or someone to lead. Often it happens that the one exercising authority is less gifted in various ways than those he or she is entrusted to lead and care for. Such was the case in the Holy Family: St. Joseph was entrusted with its leadership, though he was neither immaculately conceived like his wife, nor divine like his son. Perhaps he was tempted at times to feel inadequate to the job. Yet in his role as father, he had the support of his obedient son and the trust of his wife, which certainly must have been a great encouragement.

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1 posted on 12/28/2024 11:35:03 AM PST by fidelis

To: fidelis; nicollo; annalex; Cronos; Salvation; MurphsLaw; pax_et_bonum; Hieronymus; Huskrrrr; ...

2 posted on 12/28/2024 11:35:53 AM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)

3 posted on 12/28/2024 11:42:21 AM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)

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