Feast of the Holy Family (29.12.13)
DISCERNING PARTNERSHIP
Happily, for the second successive Sunday, the Gospel spotlight is on St. Joseph (Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23). The ability to bring discernment to leadership requires people with a living faith, for it is God who calls us to serve rather than to dominate one another.
Joseph had trusted in God’s angelic messenger; not a small step for a human. He had taken Mary home as his wife and travelled with her to Bethlehem. He assisted his wife as she became the mother of this newborn infant boy, pre-named Jesus by God, not by Joseph. For Jews, the one who names a child lays claim to the child. Trust at the level shown by Joseph is rare.
When born, we know only unconditional love. Our response is unconditional trust, which gives rise to a newborn’s captivating innocence. All too quickly, external influences introduce invisible hairline cracks in the innocent’s peerless perfection through the contagion of humanity’s disorder. Years ago a mother was alarmed at a question posed by her six-year-old son. He had overheard his mother and dad arguing. The disagreement, an unusual occurrence in his home, was short-lived and not severe. Next morning, the six-year-old sought out his mother and asked, “Are you and Daddy getting divorced?” There were no divorces among near relatives and divorce had never been a subject of conversation with the children present. The mother was puzzled. Then she recalled the little fellow bringing home tales of classmates whose parents had broken up.
Satan’s tactic against Eve and Adam was to undermine their trust in God. He applies the same tactic today when we are in his focus. For Joseph, as for many of his generation, the unconditional trust of his infant years would have been contaminated by the evidence of the occupying Roman Army’s oppression of his people. Unconditional trust, once it is undermined, never fully recovers. Repeated betrayals set back meaningful recovery even further. So, for Joseph, as for us, giving his trust was no small step.
There is no Biblical evidence to support Mary’s crucial role in helping Joseph trust in God. But daily evidence of Mary’s own life prior to as well as throughout her pregnancy and now as a new mother was, literally, trust of the highest order, personified. Mary’s powerful example would have influenced Joseph. Mary’s trust in God remained unconditional because God had protected her from the trust-corruptive influence of Original Sin. In this respect, Mary was and is unique in the history of the human race.
People influence each other, to different degrees, for better or worse continuously. Mary is the exception. Her unique sinlessness means that her influence is entirely for the good. The extract of Matthew’s Gospel we read this Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family, tells of repeated dreams in the life of Joseph as he fostered the Son of God and loved his wife, Mary. It’s logical to believe that Mary would have been Joseph’s support in the discernment process his ‘dreams’ required. Theirs was a partnership of discerning leadership for the good of their family and all families.
Sacramentally united married couples, each living in communion with the Lord, bring to their partnership the gifts of the Holy Spirit with which each has been endowed. United in their love for one another and for God, they discern the way forward for themselves and their children. Theirs truly is a discerning partnership. This is not so say that mistakes won’t happen – even Mary and Joseph managed to lose a twelve-year-old Jesus (Luke 2:41-52) for three days – but that, overall, there will be the protection of the Holy Spirit against the eternal corrosion of Satan. There is also the statement by Jesus – “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”(Matt 18:20) – which the Lord uniquely fulfilled at Bethlehem and in Nazareth.
Today’s feast of the Holy Family is also an appropriate occasion to recall Jesus’ discerning commendation from the Cross. (John 19:25-27) “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved (John) standing nearby, Jesus said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”
In gifting his mother to John, Jesus gifted her to all peoples, of all generations. Are our Christian homes places where Mary is welcome? Do sacramentally united married couples invite her intercession for and on behalf of their families, particular and extended?
These are appropriate questions for a post-Christmas Sunday feast honouring the core component of human coexistence namely, the family. The Archbishop of Canterbury offered something similar to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Baptism of Prince George when he encouraged them to speak to their son about Jesus. The visual/aural evidence of ‘parents at prayer’ is too often a missing component in a child’s upbringing.
http://www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk/