The Incarnation of the Son of God makes him our Brother, so that all of us are children of God and we are all brethren. All our relationships are transformed. In the words of the second preface of the Nativity: he who is invisible in his divine nature has become visible in ours so that, raising up in himself all that was cast down, he might restore unity to all creation and call straying humanity back to the heavenly kingdom.
The context of our first reading shows us the need for the healing of relationships. Hannah, the childless wife of Elkanah, is not his only wife. There is also Penninah, who has children. Sensing her husband’s preferential love for Hannah, she makes a point of taunting Hannah every year, violating the sanctuary of the Ark of the Lord. Hannah is consoled by her husband’s love, more to her than seven sons. She also prays for a child and vows her firstborn to the service of the sanctuary, the very place of her humiliation.
If relationships are to be healed, the healing must surely begin the family. It is in the family that we learn to love one another.
The Gospel for the feast of the Holy Family describes to us the third of the seven sorrows of Our Lady: her anguished search with Joseph for the child Jesus. St Luke relates that they spent three days without him. This points to those other three days, foretold by Our Lord and noted on the day of the resurrection by the disciples who were going to Emmaus: the three days Our Lord’s body was in the tomb. Both this association and the perception of the popular devotion warn us not to underestimate Our Lady’s distress, her real pain.
In reply to his Mother’s rebuke Our Lord asks two questions, which do not really enable his parents to understand his behaviour: we may suppose that while they had been making their way to Jerusalem they had planned how they would spend the precious days in Jerusalem, but they had not understood Jesus’ intentions. Whatever those intentions may have been, Our Lord returns to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and is submissive to them: there,in the home, he grows in wisdom, and in favour of God and other people. For twenty years or so he is simply the carpenter’s son at Nazareth. The episode points towards the greater afflictions of Our Lady at the Passion and prompts her to return to Simeon’s prophecy in the ponderings of her heart. The more seriously we take this episode of the Gospel the more we may be helped by it in preventing and , if need be, resolving, misunderstandings in the family. The Holy Father has pointed out to us three words which need to on be our lips often: “Please, sorry, thanks”. To ask how the family, parents first, react about an initiative we are considering. That is ‘please’. Sorry. To be ready to apologise for one’s failures, omissions and mistakes appropriately and promptly. Thanks. To be appreciative of what the other members of that family do for us. This is surely what gives joy to everyone, and encourages generosity and unselfishness which prepares us for responsibility outside the home. Let us above all be thankful to God our Father who sends us his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, to guide us to unity in his beloved Son.