How do you define family?
Long before the word family
came to signify parents and their
children, its meaning was much broader, referring to a collective body of
persons forming one household, including relatives and servants alike. This context may help to explain the readings
we hear for this Sunday's Feast of the Holy Family, where, while Jesus, Mary and Joseph
certainly do play a central role, a broader sense of the word, one focused especially
on relationship through faith, is called for.
We begin with God’s promise, in the Book of Genesis, to the
childless and elderly Abram that Abram’s descendants
shall be as numerous as the stars in the
sky... because Abram has faith, a faith that will become a model of righteousness for
generations to follow. To be sure,
Abram’s new nuclear family is cause for celebration, but the true focus here
seems to be Abram’s right relationship with God, an intimate relationship in
which God proclaims himself to be Abram’s shield. It is relationship that Abram’s descendants should
pursue as well, as evidenced by Psalm 105:
the psalmist calls upon the people of Israel to give thanks to the Lord, look to the Lord, constantly seek his face.
God seeks a relationship with us; we, in turn, are to be hearts that seek the Lord, in faith. And it is ultimately Abram’s faith, as the Letter to the Hebrews
reminds us, that allows him to obey
God’s call, offering up his son Isaac when
put to the test. Abram is the model of
intimate relationship with God through faith.
We have similar exemplars of faith in our reading from
Luke’s Gospel. Both Simeon and Anna have
long awaited the consolation of Israel,
looking for evidence of God’s presence, and promise, to the Jewish
community. When Mary and Joseph, faithful Jews, present their
son Jesus at the temple, the Spirit
moves both Simeon and Anna to recognize that their waiting—a patient waiting
that has ever deepened their relationship with God—has been rewarded. Open to God’s presence, faithful until their final years, Anna and Simeon see God’s salvation for all the peoples embodied by the child whom Simeon takes into his
arms.
What is the lesson here?
Perhaps, at least in part, we are to understand that, before all else,
it is our relationship with God, God our
father (Isaiah 63), that allows all other relationships to flourish,
including those we file under the modern rubric of family. It is our intimacy with God through our faith in God’s promises, in other words,
that allows us to embrace, not only our own nuclear families, but a universal relationship with all peoples, with that greater family
that consists of humankind at large, truly a holy family to be celebrated, both
in the microcosm that is Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and in the macrocosm
that is our world.
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