Already rebellious: special Vocation
(Lk 2:41-52)
The Gospel passage is disconcerting because it seems to portray a distracted family and an authentic, surprising, already surly and rebellious Jesus.
Lk is writing more than half a century after the Lord's death and resurrection, and he wants to bring out the character of Faith and inclination of his communities still in search.
The bloody story of the Master had to be understood and internalised in a way that was not immediately apparent; not even to those closest to the Messiah.
It seems that the Holy Family went up to Jerusalem every year for the Passover (v.41).
Our Adolescent shows signs of particular vocation, even before becoming an adult and required to observe the Torah [in Israel, 13 years old].
From the tone of the narrative we note a Jesus eager to feed and immerse himself in the still unexpressed Mystery of the Father.
Dreaming of discovering his Will, he stayed in the holy city to fully understand the Word of God - without being satisfied of impersonal, abbreviated catechisms.
First expressions of Jesus in the third Gospel mark the character of his whole story.
He firmly detached himself from the religiosity of the ‘fathers’ (v.49).
The Lord begins to distance himself from ideas common even to his family of origin: he does not belong to a definite clan.
His will be a divine proposal in favor of all the women and men of the world.
So Jesus has even more honoured the fidelity to God of his parents (vv.51-52) by accepting the whole spirit of their teachings, and digging further - sensing their ultimate meaning.
As if to say: in Him the sacred Scriptures become accessible, with the reading’s key of his whole story and Person.
Life for us - even before Baptism and public events.
Lk writes to encourage believers who did not yet fully understand about personality [and dramatic outcome] of the new Rabbi.
Like Joseph and Mary, they had to realise that it is not easy to understand the Son of God and accept his uniqueness of character, even to the point of earthly defeat.
In the figure of the Holy Family, we too are invited to «return to Jerusalem» (v.45).
Well, observing the autonomy of Christ, we will gradually be able to open ourselves to the unprecedent vocation that we carry within us - because we are ‘born again’ in Him.
And in the face of disconcerting events, we will learn to guard the personal Call - like Mary.
Because She too did not find it easy to enter in her Easter: the ‘passage’ from the religion of traditions and common expectations to the Faith in the Son.
But She «preserved through» Word and events (v.51b), without stopping halfway.
The movement of Salvation familiarizes everyone in the dynamics of bewilderment [from narrowness] and finding [of a Presence within the different presences] in order not to narrow the horizons.
[Holy Family of Nazareth (year C)]
Shades and ferment of Love
(Holy Family of Nazareth)
How is it that Jesus had such sublime words on Love? And where did he learn the language of love?
God wanted to have Family as an icon of himself, so that in the exercise of domestic virtues, soul would become an oasis of peace, and would turn into gift.
Among the many possible ways he had of coming, he has chosen the forge of the hearth, because it remains the true school of loving kindness, the place in which the Creator’s design is fully manifested.
The family is the primer and syllabary of love because it is the image of the Trinity. In fact, the relationship of love between spouses, sustained by faith and prayer becomes poetry that supports, and does flourish.
The family together in mutual submission receives the eye of God and thus overcomes each trial.
From the intensity of relationship – which is a sign of the supernatural - then tenderness comes, the smile of the soul and an anticipation of paradise here on earth.
Spousal love: image of the Trinity that doesn't close itself, nor become narrow-minded. So: the nuclear family becomes a springboard for mission, a gateway to a reality without fences and barricades, the universal Family.
Jesus did experience of motherly love, of a mother's heart beating for her son, for it's in the mother's heart that the sons can find rest.
This is the characteristic of the feminine genius, in the experience of gestation before, and then in the life. The mother makes room inside for growth within the womb, and then feeding, educating and supporting, by welcoming, maturing and respecting the identity of the other...
Christ experienced paternal love, more manly and demanding maybe, but able to care and protect. He experienced a model of hard work, attention, (ready suitcases always) and presence.
Like us, Jesus lived the right to receive love, but he also satisfied the love of his parents. Because even filial love strengthens the family and helps not to disflake it.
In short, it's in the family that Jesus lived the experience of all the nuances of love, in the arms of Mary, and on Joseph's side. This is the model that the liturgy proposes today so that we too draw from the perennial sources and do not become dangerous crock pots, emptied and wandering.
Here's the secret...
In the Holy Family of Nazareth there was no opposition or resistance to the Word of God. Their life was not easy, but in contrast to what is happening around and maybe even in our homes, in moments of crisis, difficulties and even misfortunes were not a reason for mutual estrangement and collapse.
On the contrary, obstacles became a stimulus to dialogue, for union, for service towards the weaker one and (at the moment) most in need of help.
The couple have always moved together, in agreement and with heart and mind turned to God in making their choices. They did so, not to cultivate a selfishness circle, but to live a warmth that overflows.
For the Christian, the Family is the core of society and cannot be devalued, but it should not be considered or lived as an idol. Even Jesus at one point distanced himself from certain environmental constraints and opened himself to horizons of wider scope.
He was born into a Family, to become a citizen of every land, because every child is a gift from God to all humanity. Restricting the prospects and pleasing oneself to a small world of affections and interests that ignore universal fraternity means demeaning what remains a simple stage in a growth, to leap towards other destinations.
The Family is yes a small domestic Church wanted by God as a syllabary of the many nuances of love [sponsal, maternal, paternal, filial] but like ‘ferment’.
As a solid platform it must then allow us to boldly take flight, with a leap towards life.
(Homily to the young people of Taizé, Rome, December 30, 2012)
[St Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (December 29, 2024)]
