Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR B HOLY FAMILY - 29.12.02 Gen 15,1-6.21,1-3; Heb 11,8.11-12.17-19; Lk 2,22-40 We are God’s Family Our family is a Mini-Church. More that ever, today we talk about family: we call it ‘Nuclear Family’ and bemoan its restricted, inward-looking attitude: it has no memory of, & no belonging to a tradition; no rights and obligations to a wider and extended family. Today we welcome in our family many modern values like: increased freedom, responsible parenthood, adequate education for children, deep aspiration in women for equal rights with men, urge to let go of racial prejudices in trans-cultural marriages, desire for world-wide dialogue & sharing across nations, appreciation for all authentic personal relationships... On the other hand, our family is experiencing great difficulties: devalued sexuality & increased divorces, materialistic vision of life & permissive society, breakdown of family traditions & generation gap. Indeed, the institution of ‘Family’ spans across centuries and has undergone many changes and transformations. Today, we look to the Bible for insights, hoping to see better what is the will of God about family and God’s family. The word family comes from the Ancient Roman Empire, from the Latin ‘Familia’. At the time of Jesus, in both the Jewish culture and the Greco-Roman society, there existed a wider and more complex socio-economic structure of family. It included the basic nucleus of mum, dad & child as in the ‘Holy family’ of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, but it embraced also the concepts of tribe, clan and especially ‘house-hold’. When it came to the rich and powerful, each family was a large unit of 50 to 100 people. It was ruled by a ‘Head of the House’, who was invested with enormous power (the famous ‘Patria Potestas’ with power even to kill). Under this Head or Father were tightly ruled: wife or wives & concubines, married and unmarried children, grandchildren and all blood relatives; plus other related dependents and ‘clients’: the acquired people by adoption, resident workers & craftsmen who looked for patronage, protection or advancement, plus the purchase of slaves: all these constituted a ‘Familia’ (from the Latin ‘famulus’ meaning ‘servant/slave’) or a ‘oikia’, a Greek word meaning ‘House’. From it, we derive ‘par-oikia’ transliterated in English as ‘Parish’ = God’s House. We are the Father’s House: Today we are miles away from this old fashioned concept of ‘family’; we may even strongly object to such a strongly male dominated idea of family. However, this is the Christian world we come from: we resonate it every time we speak of God & ourselves: we are God’s household and family: in it He is Master of his House: and we are no ‘aliens’ but form the Father’s House, the House of God. Indeed when we say that we are the Church, the very word ‘Church’ is a Greek word (Kuriakon) meaning ‘Risen Lord’s House. In it there is always the sobering thought that we are adopted children but also ‘worthless slaves’ (Lk 17,10). When at Mass we pray: Eternal Father, we come as your ‘servants’...; we must not be surprised that the word ‘servant’ is ‘famulus’ and comes from a kind of ‘family’, where we are children but also dependent slaves.. Let’s not be surprised if our Christian family & Parish are based on an old socio-economic structure of: ‘House-hold’ - ‘Father’s House - Master of the House etc, typical of the Greco-Roman society. Today, we have moved a long way from such old fashioned legal concepts; these concepts take nothing from the tender language Jesus uses when talking about His Father, who never abandons us; & when we break our covenant with him, he invites us to trust in his mercy, always seeking us, ready to forgive. ______________________________________ |
