Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Sunday – 27th December 2020 — Gospel: Lk 2,22-40
Law Observant Jewish Family
The birth of a child is an occasion that evokes family, religious and social traditions. Luke keeps child Jesus central in this narration and as a means to glorify God. Mary and Joseph were faith-filled individuals, who were obedient to God’s request. God blessed them as a result of their willingness to do God’s will. Yet, that blessing did not mean worry-free, easy life. They had to deal with the issue of Mary’s pregnancy, had to travel a great distance when Mary was to give birth, and leave their homeland and journey to Egypt to avoid Herod’s murderous acts toward the child. In all these, Joseph respected Mary and both of them accompanied Jesus on the path of the discovery of God and of the plan that God had prepared for their child.
The Gospel presents how the parents of Jesus respond to their child by attending to the obligations called for in Lev 12,3-8. It is a sacred responsibility demonstrated by Mary and Joseph and of Jesus orthodox upbringing. Just as they travelled to their civil community to fulfill the requirements of being counted in the census for the government, they travelled to their faith community to fulfill their requirements of presenting a new born before God. The religious observance of Mary and Joseph teaches Jesus to be observant of the Law from the time of his birth. Within the frame of Jesus’ observant upbringing, Luke presents two regulations – the purification of the mother and the dedication of the firstborn male child. The occasion of Mary’s purification becomes Jesus’ presentation, where the focus is on the arrival of God’s peace demonstrated in the life of Jesus. Thus visit to the temple serves as witness to the presence of the peace of God.
The eminently reliable elderly persons in the temple, Simeon and Anna, have faithfully awaited the intrusion of a faithful God and bore witness to the presence of God that leads to peace on earth. The experience of hospitality by these holy persons adds significance to the religious devotion of Jesus’ parents. Having experienced welcome and reception by their community, Mary and Joseph obediently respond as the children of God and feel comfortable in the House of God. While they accept their child as a gift of God, they accept him as one who owes his first allegiance to God and so they consecrated him to God. Thus they accept their vocation in the midst of some perturbing aspects: they marvel at what was said about him, and accept that sufferings will accompany their task as parents and will be complete on the cross through his redemptive death.
