The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

“… the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” Lk. 2:22

Sacred Scripture is a story book …  a manuscript revealing to us the story of who God is and what goes on in the heart of the divine.

But it’s not told through a set of facts, charts, graphs, and dense theological lectures. Instead, it’s expressed through stories.

Why?

Because most of us don’t think abstractly. Rather we’re fascinated by images and symbols. And that’s what stories provide for us. They move us. They enchant us. They fascinate us. Stories make us want to listen to them, to act them out. And stories call us to step into them and make them our own.

Apparently, God like stories too. As the great Jewish writer, Elie Wiesel, once penned, “God made humans because God loves stories.” Each of us gets the opportunity to act out in our own life a story about who God is and how passionately God has fallen in love with each one of us.

One of the most attractive of all the stories that Sacred Scripture tells us is that of the birth of Jesus – the birth of the child who will become the face of God, the reflection of God in time and space.

And a major part of that story involves the equally powerful tale of Jesus’ human father and mother, Joseph and Mary. Today, Luke, one of the master storytellers of all time, tells the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – not as individuals, but as a family.

Through this story Luke helps us understand how deeply committed this family was to fulfill all the Jewish expectations of being “right” with God. This family sought out God’s every blessing as they began their life journey together.

However, the story then widens to include two grandparent-type figures named Simeon and Anna. Their presence suggests that this child has a unique importance, a special calling – that he is the one “destined for the rise and fall of many in Israel” and one who will be a “light to the Gentiles.” When Simeon further announces that a “sword will pierce” the heart of Mary, the family story takes on a somber tone. Now we know that this “holy” family will suffer like any other.

This troubling dimension to the story hints that this “holy” family will re-define the kind of family that Jesus will ultimately be dedicated to: the family of all humankind, a family gathered from the very ends of the universe.

Luke’s gospel story then goes on to tell the tale of how Jesus will come to call God his Father, and emphasize in very dramatic ways how Jesus’ divine sonship, powerfully depicted in his baptism, will, from that moment on, take precedence over his ties to his human family.

Joseph will no longer be talked about. Mary’s heart will be pierced.

A greater story will now dominate:

The powerful tale of Jesus’ healing and preaching and calling everyone to a conversion of heart and mind. It will include the horrifying tale of his crucifixion and his death on a cross.

But the story will ultimately end in triumph. It will close with a brand-new story – a tale of resurrection; a tale of victory; a tale of the development of a new “holy” family of God, the Church.

Even today that story continues with a new cast of characters – you and me. We are now writing the story of Jesus through our own lives.

We have become the “holy family.” It is now our tale to tell.

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.

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12/20/2017