The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Year B (2017)

The other day I was speaking with someone who was dreading the holidays with her ‘dysfunctional family’ (her words). It got me thinking about that word, dysfunctional, and how it implies that there is an opposite, functional, family, out there, somewhere.

Of course, nowadays, we have blended families; non-traditional families; single-parent families; grandparent families; sister-wives’ families, and nuclear dyad families (I had to look that one up: it’s a husband and wife with no children).
 
There’s an old story of a child who is not the product of human parents; he came into existence because of 19 ^th century technology. He drops out of school, falls in with bad companions, runs away from home, abuses addictive substances, and has a problem with telling the truth.

This child’s life story was finally made into a movie in 1940—the title was Pinocchio.
Walt Disney is held in great honor as the godfather of “family entertainment” whose animated stories are all about upholding traditional “family values.” But let’s take a closer look.

Ø In Aladdin, we have a homeless street hooligan who indulges in petty theft and survives by learning the ways of the street.
 
Ø In Beauty and the Beast, we are given a motherless heroine who lives with her slightly whacky father.
 
Ø In The Lion King, the cub Simba believes his father’s death is his fault—unaware that it was his murderous uncle’s doing.
 
Ø In The Jungle Book, an orphan grows up in the wild, raised by a family that consisted of a panther, a bear, and a pack of wild dogs.

If we step back a couple of centuries, we find that these and other stories all involve what we call today dysfunctional families—and we didn’t even bother to mention any wicked stepmother!

So, let’s not obscure the point of today’s feast—it’s not a day to celebrate marriage and perfect families. It is a day to celebrate the fact that Jesus is truly one like us.

The Holy Family whom we honor today is one in which Mary’s husband raised a son who was not his biological child; who lived in a war-zone, were oppressed by a foreign conquer, endured the stress of living as refugees, as poor as poor can be.

Families have always been under stress, facing challenges and seemingly insurmountable odds. The pressures or troubles that bother our families today may be different than those of the past, but they still exist.

Embracing a scriptural view of the family never means rejecting those who don’t accept our beliefs; however, it does mean being strong enough in our faith to insist that there is a God and that God calls us to live in certain ways, and that Christ taught very clearly about family and family life.

“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Jesus points to the disciples and says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” When you follow Jesus everything changes, including and perhaps the strongest, most natural ties any of us can have.
 
The Church reminds us today, by giving us this feast, that because Jesus was born into a human family, we are all called to make Christ the center of our own.
 
Yes, God could have chosen any number of ways to enter human history, and the way he chose was to have Jesus be incarnate of a woman – the Blessed Virgin Mary – and be raised by her and Joseph in a household common to that time.
 
That we celebrate this feast today, on New Year’s Eve, also offers food for thought, for it ties into the calendar practice of new beginnings. Many of us will make resolutions for the New Year. Many of us will break them shortly thereafter! But following the example of the Holy Family can strengthen our resolve to grow in faith and joy, and give us the confidence to weather the storms of its difficulties.
 
As we look ahead to this new year, and think about the families in which we reside – whether they are by blood or by choice – let us entrust them to the Lord.
 
And as we prepare to receive our Blessed Lord in this Eucharist, let us be open for the grace necessary to unite ourselves and our families to Christ and his Church, in the same way Jesus united himself to his family, and to ours.