Holy Family
Readings: 1 Sam 1:20-22.24-28; 1 Jn 3:1-2.21-24; Lk 2:41-52
The characteristics of the family described in the Old Testament passages were: peace, abundance of material goods, concord, and numerous offspring: signs of the Lord’s blessing; the basic law was obedience tempered by love; this obedience was not only a sign and guarantee of blessing and prosperity for the children, but also a way to honor God in the parents (First Reading: 1 Sam 20-22.24-28). To this kind of family, Christianity brought a constant overcoming of itself in view of the Kingdom: John reminds us of the divine sonship that the Father has given us (Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-2,21-24).
According to Luke, Jesus had quite a few problems with his family of origin. Even as a boy, at the age of twelve, when he “ran away from home,” or rather, abandoned his parents to stay in the Temple in Jerusalem to argue with the doctors. He could have at least warned his parents: we certainly do not think that Our Lady and St. Joseph would have objected to their Son … wanting to stay “in the Church.” But Jesus did not warn them, certainly not playing the part of the model son. The fact caused Mary and Joseph great apprehension, to the point that Mary rebuked him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I, distressed, were looking for you” (Luke 2:48).
Jesus responds by announcing the absolute primacy of the things of the Father over everything, including family ties: “Why were you seeking me? Did you not know that I must attend to the things of my Father?” (Lk 2:49). Of course the parents were astonished: “But they did not understand his words” (Lk 2:59). “Here we already catch a glimpse of the Master making the choices of his mission without allowing himself to be influenced by the interference of family members. His autonomy is not the result of an attitude of self-sufficiency or contempt for a human condition that evolves and grows in family and affective relationships, but it is the expression of his unique relationship with God… It is an expression of the new and shattering reality that Christian faith has made intuitable in the ordinary and daily texture of a human existence: the unique Son of God” (R. Fabris).
Jesus does not only want to emphasize the uniqueness of his relationship with the Father: Jesus as a boy begins with paradoxical gestures and words to emphasize that the love of God and for God must for all supersede all other relationships.
The episode (2:41-51) is prophecy of the second journey Jesus will make to Jerusalem, the one for his Passion and Resurrection (19:28): in both cases Jesus stays in the temple (2:46->19:47; 21:37; 22:53), during Passover (2:41->22:1; 23:54); both times there is sorrow for him (Joseph and Mary in anguish because they have lost him: 2:43. 45.48; disciples “sad” (24.17) over his death); Joseph and Mary search for him (2.22), disciples also search for him (24.5); parents find him “after three days” (2.46) in his “Father’s house” (2.49), “on the third day”(24.7.46) Jesus rises again (24.6.46) and ascends to heaven (24.51).
Pope Francis reminds in “Amoris laetitia,” “that the Word of God is a source of life and spirituality for the family. All family pastoral ministry should allow itself to be inwardly shaped and form the members of the domestic Church through the prayerful and ecclesial reading of Sacred Scripture. The Word of God is not only good news for people’s private lives, but also a criterion for judgment and a light for discerning the various challenges facing spouses and families” (no. 227); “the Word of God does not show itself as a sequence of abstract theses, but rather as a traveling companion even for families that are in crisis or going through some sorrow, and points them to the goal of the journey, when God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or distress’ (Rev. 21:4)” (n. 22).