The Holy Family: Crucible of holiness

The Holy Family 2024

 

1 Samuel 1.20-22, 24-28 ‘Samuel, as long as he lives, is lent to the Lord.’

1 John 3.1-2,21-24 ‘We are called children of God, and so we are.’

Luke 2.41-52 Jesus is found by his parents sitting among the teachers

 

‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us,

that we should be called children of God; and so we are’

(1 John 3.1)

 

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The carol, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ tells us that:

 

Christian children all must be

Mild, obedient, good as He.

 

Despite the carol speaking of his ‘wondrous childhood’ and saying that Jesus is ‘our childhood’s pattern’, it sometimes sounds like Jesus wasn’t a mild, obedient child.

 

Take this morning’s gospel reading, for instance.

 

Jesus joined his earthly family on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover, ‘according to custom’ (Luke 2.42).

 

So far so good.

 

But when his parents returned to Nazareth, Jesus was not with them: that wasn’t mild and obedient. 

 

They supposed him to be with a wider family of relatives and acquaintances.

 

So they turned back and spent three days searching for him.

 

Mary and Joseph’s search echoes another search for Jesus in Jerusalem when on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to search out Jesus (John 20.15).

 

The upshot of both those searches is that Jesus is in the Father’s house.

 

The searching Mary Magdalene found him and is told by Jesus that he must ascend to the Father, to be, as it were, in his Father’s house.

 

Mary and Joseph found him in the Temple, which he calls ‘my Father’s house’. (Luke 2.49)

 

‘Why were you looking for me?’ Jesus answers.

 

The answer is obvious to any parent: we couldn’t find you; we were worried; we were scared.

 

The one who shows the way was not lost.

 

Rather he points the way to where we are all called to be, in the Father’s house, much as he did to Mary Magdalene at the resurrection.

 

Little do we understand the implications of this, and what it means for us as the Church.

 

That’s important as we celebrate today the Holy Family of Nazareth.

 

They’re not called the model family, or the ideal family, less still the perfect family, but the Holy Family.

 

To celebrate the Holy Family is to celebrate what family life is, and why it is so significant and important, because it is the crucible of holiness.

 

The family is the place where our character is forged, for good or ill; the wider family, at its best, gives us scope to stretch our wings in discovering who we are; the widest family of all – the Church - is the place where we bring who we are into relationship with other brothers and sisters to whom we are not biologically related.

 

It is in the Church family – which as we know is not a model, ideal or perfect family – but a holy one which shapes and forms us as Christians, true sons and daughters of the Most High.

 

The family which dwells in the Father’s house is defined by those who gather around Jesus, a family defined by fidelity to God the Father: “Here are my mother and my brothers!” says the Lord, “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3.34, 35)

 

This doesn’t cancel out his family ties with Mary, Joseph and his wider earthly family – quite the contrary - he extends his family, so that those who walk in his way can reach the same level of intimacy.

 

As our second reading put it, ‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are’ (1 John 3.1)

 

May God bless the families from which we come and together may we, as his holy family, dwell in the Father’s house all our days.