If the Solemnity of Christmas exalts God’s coming down from heaven to dwell among us, today’s Feast of the Holy Family honors the human context in which our Lord Jesus was born. It lauds Joseph and Mary, two normal persons who, in their attentiveness to God’s word and in their intelligent discernment, were able to cooperate totally in fulfilling God’s design.The Gospel proposed today, Mt 2:13-15, 19-23, portrays the figure of Joseph, always in a state of discernment, always “in communication” with God “through dreams” that is, through the inner workings of his consciousness. What needs to be done now that Herod is in search for the promised Messiah, where to go next now that Herod was dead, where to settle down with his family. One very striking thing I learned meditating on this Gospel is that Joseph did not practice blind obedience. He was told to go back to Israel, to the land of Judah. But where exactly? Bethlehem? Jerusalem? Should the boy grow near the temple if he were to serve God throughout his life?
I attended the mass today at the Caravita community and the preacher supplied an insight which I found very interesting. Joseph had to discern like a normal father; he had to take stock of his life, see what work he could do in order to sustain his family. He was a carpenter and where could there be more opportunities for work but in Nazareth, his and Mary’s hometown (cf. Lk 1:26-27). He has his workshop there, he has all the community support.
Attentive listening to God’s word, yes, but also openness to the whole complex situation of life: I would like to believe that this is among the most important virtues that both Joseph and Mary passed on to Jesus in the process of his human growth.
There is one last point in the homily I heard today which left me reflecting further. Still on the theme of family, the priest briefly asked the community to pray for couples who after being “in-love” become disillusioned; they break up, part ways. He asked, “what could have gone wrong there?” Perhaps the fact that they didn’t grow enough to be loving persons. How true, I think: being “in-love” is the point of entry into a potential life-long relationship but if the relationship does not help each person to grow and become more “loving” (the ideal here is 1 Cor 13:1-13), it probably won’t last. What a goal!
