How do we live in
relationship with God and other?
To live in
relationship is to be blessed. This is the message of Psalm 128, which reminds
us that to walk in God’s ways, to live the way God intends for us
to live, is to embrace fully our relationship both with God and with
other. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways, the
psalmist reminds us: relationship is at
the core of human existence, and our awe – our fear of the Lord – allows us to cross any barrier to achieve it.
This weekend we
celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph with texts that remind us
that relationship – family in its
myriad forms – is a state or condition to be lived… and it takes work! Children, the Book of Sirach tells us, are to
honor and revere their father as they obey a mother’s authority. Relationships
change, they evolve, and yet we have no identity without them, just as we have
no identity without God. And so, as Paul
tells the Colossians, we must put on heartfelt
compassion, kindness, humility gentleness, and patience, but over all these we must put on love.
That love is the foundation of our relationship, the source of all
other virtues combined, modeled in the death and rising of Jesus. Thus, what we live in relationship in our
family is also meant to be lived in our identity as church, as we accept
our subordination to God and to other as essential to the bond of love, the bond
of perfection that keeps us together.
In Matthew’s
Gospel, Joseph will need to ground himself in subordination as he listens once
again to the angel of the Lord who
instructs him to flee to Egypt with
Mary and Jesus, and stay there until he
is told otherwise. Out of love for his
family, out of obedience to God, Joseph puts relationship first, that the
prophecies about Jesus might be fulfilled.
Jesus is blessed by his family as we are blessed with our relationship
with God and with other. May we continue
to live out that relationship as we walk
in his ways, living the bond of
perfection that is God’s love.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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