What does it mean to be family? Our readings this Holy Family Sunday focus on the
relationships that define our connectedness, a connectedness that goes beyond
simple blood ties and is defined first and foremost by love in all of its
myriad manifestations.
It may be hard to imagine that the author of Sirach, a sage
who lived in Jerusalem in the second century B.C., could have advice that holds
for our very different, and very modern, families today. Yet Sirach’s teaching is simple: if you live
family, if you pay attention to that relationship, acting responsibly toward
one another, all will be well. Each generation
is responsible for being a model of behavior for the generation that follows,
and each member of a family has the obligation to maintain the relationship at
all costs, even when things change or evolve.
Children have responsibilities to their parents – to honor and revere their father; to respect a mother’s authority. In
this way, the integrity of the notion of family remains intact. And love remains possible.
Psalm 128 similarly suggests that our familial relationship
is key to living out relationship as God wishes it: we are to walk
in God’s ways, so that we bear
the fruits of our activity, the epitome of which is suggested in the image of your children like olive plants gathered
around the familial table. In this
scene, there is no barrier to relationship, only blessings from the Lord, an abundance of love. In his own way, Joseph is portrayed in
Matthew’s Gospel is clearly walking in God’s
ways, quite literally: when the
angel of God appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to flee to Egypt with his new family,
Joseph doesn’t hesitate. Off they go in
the night, returning only when the angel returns with new instructions. Listening to God the Father, Joseph discerns
the way and is a model parent, acting out of love in every moment.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians describes our call to
relationship – with God as well as with one another – as one modeled in the
death and rising of Jesus, a relationship grounded in love as expressed through
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness, and patience. This is
the life that we, as Christians, are called to, a transformed life,
particularly as it is manifested in our life in community, all bound by the
same responsibility: to love, for it is
love before all else that solidifies our connectedness as family, enabling us to feel true peace in our hearts.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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