Feast of the Holy Family (Maternal Heart of Mary Chapel, Lewisham) 12th January 2003

Can any good come out of Nazareth?

On one level, the feast of the Holy Family reminds us of the centrality of the family in God's plan, and presents us with a model of virtue for our imitation. On the other hand, we must admit the uniqueness of the family of Nazareth, composed as it is of a virginal marriage, a sinless bride, and a Child, miraculously conceived, Who is God as well as man.

And yet the uniqueness of this holiest of earthly families is the key to one of the most important aspects of the feast which the liturgy invites us to consider: the Mystery of the Church.

Because Christ and the Church can never be separated, both the Christmas and Easter seasons present to us feasts of the mystery of the Church which proceed from the life of Christ. At Easter and Pentecost, we shall see how the Church makes effective Christ's work of  Redemption; during Christmas and Epiphany, the liturgy contemplates the participation of the Church in the Mystery of the Incarnation.

Today's feast sets before us the Mystery of the Church as the Family of God: the Holy Family to which we, as brothers and sisters of Christ re-born in baptism, all belong.

And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. Christ's voluntary subjection to His own creatures did not end when He left Nazareth to commence His public ministry. It continues even now in the Holy Family that is His Church. Because it is in the Church that the human and the Divine meet - and the human element is sometimes less than edifying! - we may be tempted to take scandal in the Church: but the fact remains, that is how God has chosen to carry out His work. The marriage of Mary and Joseph was a true marriage, and so the sacramental economy and the primacy of charity represented by that Plenitude of Grace which is Mary, are ordered under the hierarchical authority of the Church that is foreshadowed by the Patriarch, Joseph. What God has joined, man must not divide. No true communion in grace and love can exist where Apostolic authority is ignored or denied.

As the old saying goes, you can choose your friends but not your relations. When there is trouble in the family the temptation is to move out in order to get some peace. If one takes a few sticks of familiar furniture, and moves in with one's friends, one can certainly enjoy a congenial arrangement. The only problem is, it is not one's family. So it is with the Church of God: moving out is no solution. Move into Pleasantville if you like, but I assure you it is not in the neighbourhood of Nazareth.

I think it is to impress upon us the need to persevere in the Church as She is, not as we might like Her to be, that the liturgy places before us today one of the most curious episodes in the Gospels. Why is it, I wonder, that Mary and Joseph did not straightway make for the Temple when Christ's absence was apparent? Their knowledge of His identity and mission would after all have made the Temple the most obvious place to look. This time Joseph - unlike the occasions of Mary's pregnancy and the threat of Herod - is instructed by no dream. And so Mary and Joseph go about seeking Christ sorrowing, and find Him only at length. What a lesson for us! If the Just man, Joseph, and his sinless wife find that Christ eludes them whilst in His Temple, dare we complain at Christ's apparent absence, we who are so often blinded by unruly passion and sin? Our Lord's explanation to Mary and Joseph is a warning, and perhaps a rebuke, to us: "How is it that you seek Me elsewhere, outside of My Temple, outside of My Church?" He asks. For it is still in His Church that Christ remains about His Father's business. It is after all not for us to demand to know what that business is.

If we are to build up the Holy Family of the Church, as well as to persevere in the midst of difficulties or in the face of misunderstanding, we have to put on all those virtues which St Paul encourages us in today: mercy, benignity, modesty, patience, forgiveness - and above all, the bond of perfection which is charity. The liturgy will empower us in these virtues if we allow it, and their practice will in turn render the liturgical life more fruitful. We should aspire to live out the wonderful exhortation that St Paul makes to the Colossians: in gratia cantates in cordibus vestris Deo (singing in grace in your hearts to God) . Isn't singing together one of the great joys of family life? How could this be any less the case in the Holy Family of God's Church.

Can any good come out of Nazareth? The Rex absconditus , the Hidden King abides there, and every true and abiding good with Him. May our response be that expressed in today's Gradual: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

                                                                                                           Rev Glen Tattersall