Rest from the Journey: The Domestic Church

Readings for Sunday, December 27, 2009, the Feast of the Holy Family

There are several possible combinations of the readings this Sunday, but they all focus on the family, which theologians have termed the Domestic Church.  The first option for the First Reading speaks of the blessings love and obedience can have in a family.  Obedience maintains the structure of the family and therefore leads to an abundantly blessed family.  When our lives are put in order, they demonstrate holiness and blessedness, so it is no surprise that an orderly family is a conduit of God's grace.  The second option for the First Reading, my personal preference, is the story of Hannah, the Old Testament spiritual matriarch.  I call her spiritual matriarch because she had only one child (so did Abraham, at least legitimately), but through that one child, she had many.  Hannah offered up her son Samuel as a nazirite, a man consecrated to the Lord, and following the tutelage of Eli, he became the spiritual father of the Israelites.  Abraham waited his whole life for his son and was willing to offer him on Mt. Moriah's peak; Hannah waited her whole life for her son and gave him up to the Lord.  Abraham became the father of many nations, Hannah became the mother of the Nation of Israel, a precursor to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose Magnificat is based on her own canticle (cf. 1 Sam 2:1-10, Luke 1:46-55).  Imagine the battle that must have gone on inside her, consider the temptation: should I go back on my vow to the Lord?  Should I keep my only son or offer him according to my promise?  My vow to the Lord I will fulfill.

The first option for the Responsorial Psalm mentions the home and the family, while the second mentions the court of the Lord, the household of God.  These are both wonderful psalms and I enjoy reading them.

The first option for the Second Reading speaks of virtues, the virtues which must be practiced by those who seek peace, especially peace within the Domestic Church.  The latter part of this reading has the option of being cut, which is unfortunate because it excludes an important teaching on the Church and the family.  Many pastors follow this option, cutting out the "wives be subordinate" line, much to the detriment of their flocks.  The self-sacrifices of obedience and service between spouses is the model of love that is to be lived out by the whole family.  In losing this aspect of marriage, particularly in favor of a spirit of individualism, we lose the meaning of the family and the unity that holds society together.  The second option for the Second Reading details the love of God that joins us and makes us His children; to live in this love, we must follow His commandments, which Jesus expounded as living out God's will in love.

The first options for both readings demonstrate the structure of the family while the second options for both readings demonstrate how the family is consecrated to the Lord.  A family that is consecrated to the Lord is no less a family, rather, it is more a family.

The Gospel wraps up both these lines of thought.  Jesus Christ, although God and Creator of all, is also a Son, the Son of a family, of flesh and blood parents, and as such "He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them" (Luke 2:51).  Even God is obedient to His parents (all the more reason for His Mother to Immaculate).  Further, Jesus Christ had been consecrated to God (cf. Luke 2:21-40) and now goes about the work of the family in society - to teach, to evangelize, to build up the Church, to worship God.  He introduces His human family to His Divine Family.  Jesus Christ, the centerpiece of the Holy Family, is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.  At this age, He was apprenticing with his earthly father, Joseph, but He has from all eternity seen all that His Heavenly Father has done.  He fulfills his Divine Mission in and through His humanity, including His human family.  The task of the human family, consecrated to God, is to consecrate the world to God.  There is a half-jocular battle cry proclaimed at my alma mater, "Procreate and Dominate!"  It is the task of the Catholic family to overcome the secular, to overcome the sinful, to overcome the dictatorship of relativism.  We do that by doing what only a family can do: multiply into a diversity beyond description, but remain unified in a love beyond imagining.

Now, for an aside: one of my favorite professors at Franciscan University of Steubenville, the head of the Catechetics Department, Ronald Bolster, used to tell us, "it St. Joseph were to write an autobiography, he would have to title it Everything Was Always My Fault, think about it...something goes wrong at home while he's sitting down at the breakfast table with the family.  The Messiah and the Immaculate Conception glance at each other with raised eyebrows.  It had to be Joseph's fault!  It always had to be Joseph's fault!"

May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph offer your family before the throne of our Almighty Father, who gives us every good thing.

His Servant and Yours,

Micah