Holy Families and the Peace of Christ
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Lectionary: 17
Every family experiences some suffering. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was no exception. They were Holy, but they experienced difficulties and suffering.
For Joseph, it was a dark time. He was warned by an angel in a dream that Herod wanted to kill his newborn son, and his family had to depart for Egypt in the night. Egypt was part of the Roman Empire, but well outside of the reign of King Herod. It was not home, but Egypt was full of Jewish settlements, so it was not entirely strange to them. Egypt’s Coptic Christians have many stories and legends about the time the Holy Family spent traveling around Egypt, and how the Holy Family brought blessing to the people of God in Egypt. These are a source of great joy to the people of God even to this day. This was a dark and difficult time, but God was in control. Because Joseph was obedient, the Christ child was protected and the Holy Family’s time in Egypt brought blessing to the people of God, and fulfilled a prophecy – “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
When Herod the Great died, Joseph was again instructed by an angel in a dream, and told to return to Israel. When he heard that one of Herod’s most wicked sons ruled over Bethlehem, Joseph was afraid. Joseph gets up right away and begins the journey, but he keeps listening to God, and changes his destination from Bethlehem of Judea to Nazareth of Galilee. Again, God is in control, and uses Joseph’s obedience to fulfill a prophecy. Jesus’s ministry in and around his home region of Galilee became a source of joy, hope, and healing to the people there.
Even if our family is holy, and even if we are obedient to God, we will have difficulty. We will have dark times. We will experience suffering. At times, we will be afraid.
To be holy is not to be free from suffering.
To be holy is to allow God to use us in the midst of our suffering, and to use our suffering to bring about God’s glory. Saint John Chrysostom tells us that God, who is full of love for us, mixes pleasant things with unpleasant things. God does not give us only dangers or only consolations, but makes our life a mixture of both. This is what God did for and with the Holy Family, because they were obedient.
For many of us, family is complicated.
For most of us, “Holy” is not the first word that comes to mind to describe our family.
For us, much of our suffering is not caused by things outside our control, as it was for the Holy Family, but is the result of sin and error for which we are responsible. For us, the wisdom of Sirach and of Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians are helpful.
The Ten Commandments include an obligation to honor our father and our mother, and attaches a promise of well-being and long life to those who are obedient to that commandment. It is the first commandment that promises a reward for obedience. In Sirach, we read that honoring our parents is accepted as penance for our sins and ensures our prayers are heard.
There is no need for a commandment to do what is easy.
I do not need a commandment to eat, to sleep, or to show respect for someone who is deserving of respect and kind to me. The very fact there is a commandment suggests that, sometimes, it is not easy to respect our parents. We think they should have known better. We think they should have chosen better. We think they should have loved better.
And it is the same for our children. They should have known better. They should have chosen better. They should have loved better.
These things are all true. They should have. We should have. I should have.
As a son, a husband, a father, and a grandfather, I have made and continue to make many mistakes. I know this is true of all of us. Some of these mistakes were innocent, ignorant or foolish. Others were the result or evidence of pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, greed, or laziness; they were sin, or the result of sin.
This is why we must choose to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, loving and forgiving towards one another. This is why we must choose to let the peace of Christ control our hearts. All of us, and each of us, fail. We make human mistakes, and we sin. As long as we cling to bitterness, anger, or unforgiveness towards ourselves and others, we rob ourselves and our families of the peace of Christ.
Even if we are holy, we will have suffering. God loved the Holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but God allowed them to suffer. When we suffer, it is not because God does not love us. On the contrary, if we will allow it, God wants to use suffering to bless us, bless our family, and bless the world around us. We cooperate by being obedient, and by choosing to be thankful.
Jesus Christ has given us the power to end cycles of sin and suffering within our families, and make them holy. We exercise that power by choosing to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forgiving and loving. We do it by choosing to subordinate our wishes to others’, instead of clinging to our pride. We do it by loving sacrificially, as Christ loved. We do it by obeying legitimate authority, and by exercising parental authority legitimately and kindly.
The Christmas Octave will come to an end on January 1, with the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Christmas time will end with the Epiphany of the Lord on January 5. Ordinary Time will begin on January 13, after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
But, the joy and peace of Christmas can be ours always, and our family can be a holy family, if we will allow the peace of Christ to control our hearts.
