Year C / Christmas Season / Feast of the Holy Family
Readings: 1 Samuel 1:20-22,24-28 / Psalm 83.2-3,5-6, 9-10 (R/v cf 5a) / 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24 / Luke 2:41-52
“Turn your eyes, O God, our shield, look on the face of your anointed” (Psalm 83.10)
Our Responsorial Psalm ends with this line. This is the psalmist’s cry for God to look over the King of Israel. It ultimately points to the Messiah, the anointed one of God. Generations of Jews prayed in hope for God’s Messiah to come as their salvation.
Simeon also prayed for the Messiah. To him, God revealed Jesus as Saviour. Some might echo Simeon as we adore Jesus in the crib this Christmas. “Lord…Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of every people. A light to reveal You to the nations.”
We believe Jesus is God’s salvation in our lives. Isn’t this why we keep looking out for Jesus?
The act of looking features prominently in today’s gospel reading. The Holy Family is actively looking. Mary and Joseph went to look for Jesus when he was lost. They were anxiously looking for him everywhere. When they found him, Mary said, “your father and I have been looking for you.” Jesus replied, “Why are you looking for me?” I imagine Jesus returning home and looking at Mary and Joseph to learn how to live and pray, to be obedient and grow in wisdom with God and others.
The act of looking is indeed part of family life. Parents looking out for their children. Looking to care for them. Looking to forgive them. Looking to affirm them. Looking to delight in them. Children too look at their parents and godparents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and even each other. Looking to learn how to live and care, to be good and loving, to be faithful to God and loyal in relationships.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. This family offers us a pattern of faithful Christian living so that we can have fullness of life. We can practice this by imitating how they look for Jesus.
Mary and Joseph’s anxiety as they look for Jesus is our anxiety when we are distant from him. Our worry grows when too many days pass and we seem to lose him. So, we search for Jesus, looking to find him again.
Consider how we do this. We pray harder, perhaps longer, when we cannot find Jesus in prayer. We challenge ourselves to be more like Jesus, selfless and giving, when we find ourselves becoming self-centred and self-absorbed. We seek Jesus out in a retreat, a talk with a spiritual director, even conversation with fellow parishioner, when our lukewarm faith slides us into complacency. We humble ourselves and seek Jesus’s forgiveness when we sin. Even here and now, we have sacrificed other wants to come to Jesus in the Eucharist at this time; we do because we need Him.
Mary and Joseph remind us that finding Jesus is hard work. They teach us to persevere, stay focused and be determined in our search. They instruct us to trust God to find him and where to find Jesus: in God’s House, the temple, where he is teaching the elders. Finding Jesus like this astonishes us too: “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?”
Jesus himself teaches us how to look for him. We do, when we like him, seek to be in God’s presence. When we like him, choose to be obedient to God. When we like him, let God nurture and grow us in His wisdom. Consider the many times we have imitated Jesus and found ourselves growing to become more like Him, the fullness of God’s image and likeness. Others will look at us and judge how Christian we are by our life and our love. What will they say?
Looking for Jesus also enlarges where we look for him, how we find him and what new understanding comes to us through our encounters with him.
Listen to this story of St Benedict and the novices. They were praying before the manger in their chapel on Christmas Eve. There was a loud knock. No one got up. Everyone was focussed on the Infant Child The knocking got louder. No one moved. They were all adoring Jesus. The knocking continued incessantly. St Benedict got up, opened the door and let a beggar into their midst. He prayed beside them. When prayer ended, the beggar disappeared. ‘Where is he?’ Who is he?’ the novices asked. ‘He is Jesus,’ St Benedict said. ‘He came to pray with you and for you. You didn’t really look.’
The novices had to learn how to experience divine presence, obedience and growing in wisdom within the community they are – with each other and with Jesus as one with them, one amongst them, one for them. We too live and learn in the community we call ‘family.’
As a Christian family, we hear echoes of the way the Holy Family looks for Jesus in our second reading. We can look for him by believing in him, loving one another, and keeping the commandments. Indeed, we will do these best when we look out for one another. For together, in our shared joys and pains, challenges and opportunities, we can turn our eyes to look for Jesus.
Finding him will more than calm us; it will be our satisfaction and delight. Shall we do this daily?
Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
photo: Camila Franco on Unsplash
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