You do not need to be a social scientist to know that the model of the family today does not reflect the image of the family of Nazareth.
Our Church and its teachings on the family have been under the microscope at the 2015 Synod but there was no attempt to reconcile the family to as world 2000 years ago.
Marriage , sexuality and human reproduction were/and are second to simple loving relationships. We are a long way from staring with a vision for all loving relationships.
Today it is more difficult because people are in constant adjustment as parents grow older and children grow up.
People with different interests want to talk about the family in their own way. Single parent families because of death or divorce or preference; parents who are really grandparents because of the need to emigrate and work; and even same-sex parents
Much of this change is problematic and the Church tries to guide people towards wise and happy living.
But even in the best families, happiness is not easy to achieve and, through the media, we know about abuse, violence and dysfunction.
But the family survives – sometimes just – and is a treasured part of life for most of us.
We cannot give into the dark-side of family and doubt the goodness of family life. Defeatism.
The celebration of the Holy Family is precisely to focus on the goodness of family life; the love of family and the importance of family.
In a world where individuality is important we should not forget that families serve each other. The parents of Jesus take him to Jerusalem to introduce him to his religion and faith = to consecrate him to the Lord. (They do not put him in a religious school!)
They escort him back to Nazareth.
They give him example and education in the moral life (themselves) and he grows in maturity.
He grows closer to God in his family and so we call it the Holy Family.
This highlights where families are important: as places to learn in an atmosphere of love and goodness. (not closeted away in separate rooms glued to networks)
But where children only grow in self-interest and cannot wait to escape; where they somehow lose their faith or sense of God; and when they only become angry and bad tempered. Something has gone wrong.
It is not usually the fault of parents though many feel guilty about it.
It is no doubt the invasion of the society in which we live and their exposure to values outside the family; especially through the media.
So, to some extent, families must embrace a way of life that is different from the world around them in which they live.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph had no such problems. Their world corresponded with their inner world of believing and waiting on the Messiah to come.
We do not have this and so we must create an atmosphere of faith within the family that becomes the first Church as John Paul II often said.
The Holy Family is the model of three important relationships. The deep love between Mary and Joseph; loving respect of Jesus (their child) and of his unique mission; last, the relationship with God that binds families to values of love, kindness and respect.
Set loose from any kind of spiritual relationship; all human togetherness will splinter and it does.
Relationships are not holding together today: divorce is rampant and assumes its own rationality and unhappiness is held together by a lack of trust and dishonesty.
No foundations and anything goes.
The Holy Family may well be naïve by today’s living but, if anything, it shows the importance of valuing love above all else.
