Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, Decemberl8, 2008
Faith Alive
Southern Cross, Page 9
Families learning ft
By Mary Jo Pedersen (CNS)
T he Scriptures and ancient histo
ry reveal little or nothing about
the Holy Family’s everyday exis
tence. We can assume they were a
common, first-century Palestinian
family whose physical and social
environment differed radically from
the experience of modem families.
But the value of their story goes
beyond historical details. Like most
family stories passed from one gen
eration to the next, a deeper truth
emerges in the Holy Family story.
Knowing that Jesus experienced
family life with every possible
human challenge and joy is a com
fort to families today because we
can be assured that Jesus has been
there and is with us as we struggle
and enjoy our own families.
The Holy Family was not the first
family to be on a journey while
pregnant and unable to find a safe
place to have their baby. They left
quickly and were probably without
provisions for the baby’s birth.
Many pregnant women who are
without basic necessities and not
welcomed elsewhere live in our
local homeless shelters.
Nor is the Holy Family unique in
its flight to Egypt to escape an
oppressive regime. Each year
America welcomes refugee families
from every comer of the world.
They come from countries where
their lives are in peril or their liveli
hood destroyed. They move from
apartment to apartment or city to
city in search of safe housing and
employment.
Joseph and Mary had to make a
difficult decision to uproot them
selves, leaving family and friends,
work and security, even language
and culture for the benefit of their
child. Herod’s declaration that every
male child be killed put Jesus’ life
in jeopardy, causing Mary and
Joseph to suffer this painful separa
tion from all that was familiar and
secure.
What family has not faced the
complicated decision about what is
best for a child?
From the very beginning, Mary
and Joseph chose life, the life of a
child who did not come according
to their plan. They chose to put that
child first at great sacrifice to them
selves. They eventually saw their
beloved child through very difficult
circumstances, and they let him go
gracefully as he matured.
What parents have not swallowed
hard at some of their children’s
decisions and circumstances?
We know some things about the
Holy Family by observing Jesus in
the Gospel stories. He was versed in
the Scriptures. He trusted God’s
will. He spoke with confidence
about his relationship with God.
Jesus must have been taught his
Scripture lessons at home along
with how to pray.
Though it was unpopular in his
social circles, Jesus felt free to
accept strangers and outcasts as
brothers and sisters. That kind of
attitude did not come from the soci
ety in which he was raised.
The work of passing on the faith,
respecting others and teaching chil
dren to pray remains a challenge for
families today as well. A child’s
spirit of charity and compassion,
prayerfulness and faith are learned
first by osmosis at home. Mary and
An image of Joseph working with Jesus as a “common, first-century
Palestinian family” did appears in Saint Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe,
New Mexico.
Joseph took their religious duty seri
ously, preparing Jesus to live by
faith in God’s will.
As I recall my early parenting
years, the vision I had for my family
was shaped by the sculpted image
of the Holy Family that still graces
our home today. Not because it was
a sentimental representation of
God’s own earthy family, but
because the stories and prayers
around that statue inspired me to
seek something more for my family
than simply food, clothing and edu
cation.
Like all memorable family stories,
the story of the Holy Family
inspires, encourages and instructs
today’s families in what is essential
for physical growth, and in wisdom
and grace.
Pedersen, a veteran coordinator of
marriage and family spirituality pro
grams, lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
She is the author of For Better, for
Worse, for God: Exploring the Holy
Mystery of Marriage, Loyola Press,
December 2008.
By Father Lawrence E. Mick (CNS)
few years ago, the television show “Joan of
Arcadia” used as its theme music a song
called “One of Us,” written by Eric Bazilian and
sung by Joan Osbourne. I would not rate it as a
great song, but it pointed to an important truth.
The first line of the refrain summed up the
premise of the show: “What if God was one of
us?” God appeared to the title character ip vari
ous guises, such as a school janitor, a small child
and a cute teenaged boy, and Joan had to learn to
respond to God in all these disguises. ’
The Christmas season carries a similar mes
sage. What if God was one of us? That’s what we
celebrate in this holy season—that God chose to
become one of us, to live among us and to share
our life.
We are so used to this idea that we can easily
forget how amazing this claim is. The God of all
creation, the Lord of the universe, took on human
form and was bom as a little baby in Bethlehem.
One of us
The audacity of that claim can spark doubt.
Maybe God just looked like us. Maybe Jesus
wasn’t really human. Maybe he was really just
the divine God wearing a disguise— not fully
human but appearing to be human—as he
appeared in “Joan of Arcadia.”
The feast of the Holy Family is one way the
church reminds itself that Jesus was fully human,
bom as a helpless infant. He needed parents to
care for him.
I suspect most people can easily recognize the
link between the celebration of Christmas and the
feast of the Holy Family, because we are used to
seeing Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus in
the manger scene.
Some may be a bit surprised, though, to hear
the Gospels that are proclaimed on the feast. One
year we hear about the flight into Egypt, another
year about the presentation of the child in the
Temple and the third year about Jesus getting lost
when he was 12.
If we think of Christmas as just celebrating the
birth of Jesus, then these Gospel accounts seem a
little out of place, coming just a few days after
Dec. 25.
But if we remember that Christmas really cele
brates the whole mystery of the incarnation, of
God taking on human flesh, then these stories
simply remind us of the very human events Jesus
experienced in his early life.
Those who know the story of Jesus and believe
that he was truly human and truly divine no
longer have to ask the question that the theme
song posed: “What if God was one of us?” We
know that God has become one of us. As we pro
claim in the fourth eucharistic prayer, Jesus was
“a man like us in all things but sin.” He is truly
one of us!
Father Mick is a priest of the Archdiocese of
Cincinnati and a freelance writer.