The Feast of the Holy Family usually leads us into the family – into the Holy Family and into our own families. We think about our relationships with those closest to us, with our parents, our siblings, our children.
Our first reading this week from the Book of Sirach (Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14) takes us in that direction. The focus on honor and authority doesn’t perhaps sit so well with the spirit of our modern times – family relationships aren’t the same now as they were 100 years ago, let alone 2,500 years. That said, the necessity to care for aging parents remains a constant. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians (Col 3:12-21), his expectations about the relationship between spouses, and between parents and children, also show the character of his time, but the focus on love and respect remains foundational for any family to survive.
But then our Gospel reading points us to something else (Mt 2:13-15, 19-23). That reading speaks to the relationship between the family and the world around them, the outward connection rather than the internal view. Matthew very clearly positions the family of Jesus alongside all those families that have been uprooted by threats of violence, who flee to distant places in search of safety, who try to return home only to find that the people in charge may have changed but it’s still not safe, so they are on the move yet again.
Forced migration because of violence or poverty, climate change and war, has been part of the human experience for ever. There have been periods and places where those people have been offered welcome, in line with the call of every patriarch and prophet in the Scriptures, from Abraham to Moses to Jesus. Our time does not seem to be one of those. The voices calling for people to be turned away, to be shut out, seem very loud.
We have to listen to a different voice. Paul, as so often, speaks to us with that voice when he says: “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”. The followers of Jesus, living as part of his holy family, should “over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control [their] hearts”.