This past Sunday the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family. I always chuckle a bit at the cycle C Gospel reading from Luke which was read this past Sunday. It is one of the Gospel readings where Christ's humanity comes out. It shows that a twelve year old boy 2000 years ago is not unlike a 12 year old today. Today, as then, twelve year old children are desirous to start to make their own way, and that means they may be naughty, at least in the eyes of the parents.
To set the scene, Jesus traveled with his parents, Mary and Joseph, to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. The scripture says it "was according to festival custom." Jerusalem was about 100 miles from Nazareth and due to thieves people often traveled in a caravan, that is a group of persons. I suspect, Joseph and Mary and a few relatives were with them making up the caravan, with others on the route to Nazareth or beyond. At the time, Nazareth was a small village. The Gospel says, in part, "After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but they did not know it." They thought he was elsewhere in the caravan and they looked up and down the many pilgrims and found he was not there. They then returned to Jerusalem and found him, three days later, in the temple. It is supposed that Mary and Joe spent the night with the Caravan before returning to Jerusalem the next day.
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| Painting from 14th Century Siena, describing the incident at the Temple. Notice the scowl on Jesus' face |
Jesus was not just hanging out in the temple, but was found "in the midst of teachers, listening to them and asking them questions." and it goes on to report that "all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers." I guess being the son of God helped.
Then comes the best part. The Gospel gives words, but words alone lack intonation, tone, or the type of voice Mary used, but the Gospel has her saying: "'Son why have you done this to us? You father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.' And he said to them, 'Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?'" I find this kind of a sassy answer, sure he is the son of God, but he could provide a bit of respect to Mary and Joseph. There was no "Sorry." And, what is Joseph to make of the whole deal? Here is correctly points to his father as God, but poor stepfather Joe must have felt rather small. The Gospel goes on to say that he returned to Nazareth with them, and was obedient. Yet it also records that his mother kept all these things in her heart. I wonder if it was her heart or her mind. I mean, really, if she was like my wife this incident would be placed in the recesses of her mind to be brought out at the appropriate time. If Jesus was a free-range kid in present day United States, law enforcement and the FBI would be out helping with the search. Pope Francis says Mary was right to begin with a question, before denouncing his behavior. I too would have begun with a question, but more emphatic, like "What in the world (replace with a four letter word that begins with H) were you thinking?"
There are two other occasions that come immediately to mind of Jesus being somewhat naughty or sassy. One, is when he overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple, which perhaps is excusable. Yet, pilgrims often provided offerings of money so was getting a change doing a service for the many pilgrims that went to the Temple? The other time is at Cana, during the wedding. After Mary tells him they have run out of wine he gives this: “Woman,” he says, “what concern is that to you and to me?” Fr James Martin commented on the harshness of this language: "For those who doubt the harshness of that language, the Greek phrase ascribed to Jesus at Cana ("Ti ēmoi kai soi?") is the same that a demon shouts at Jesus in Luke ("Ti hemin kai soi?"). Basically, 'Who are you to me?'" Yet, Mary plays it cool, she simply put her son in his place by telling the servants to "Do whatever he tells you." Jesus is left having to perform his first miracle or disobey his mom. I suspect it was an easy choice. I think he chose wisely, or else she would have reminded him of what did at age twelve and some type of argument would have ensued which Jesus would never win. Although, Jesus being God, probably already knew she would bring this up. The point being, a man cannot win an argument with their wife, or their mother. Not even Jesus.
Discussing the reading on the way home from mass last Saturday night, my wife was non-cholent at Jesus' waywardness. I said, if it was one of your kids at twelve, it would be a different matter. She said God was protecting Jesus. Heck, she is perturbed when our kids do not respond to a text she sent. So imagine what she would be like if one of them were lost for three days. She had anxiety when the three of us were at the Boundary Waters for ten days or so. I guess, it is different for Jesus.
There is the old saying "You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you cannot pick your family." One reading for the Christmas Vigil mass is the genealogy of Jesus. It goes back to Abraham, meaning about 42 generations from Jesus. What this also shows is there were in fact some ne'er-do-wells in Jesus' lineage. As Fr Ron Rollheiser has written:
We see, for example, in Jesus’ genealogy a number of men who didn’t exactly incarnate the love, justice, and purity of Jesus: Abraham unfairly banished Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, rationalizing that God favors some people over others; Jacob, by scheming and dishonesty, stole his brother Esau’s birthright; and David, to whom Jesus explicitly connects himself, committed adultery and then had the husband of his mistress murdered to cover-up an unwanted pregnancy and in order to marry her.
Imagine that, the son of God coming from a dysfunctional family? In other words, it is not unlike families today. I think if we all go far enough back there would be a few unsavory types. With its myriad of rules the Church seems to demand perfection, but even Jesus' lineage had characters who were nasty. As Fr Martin wrote this past week,
In other words, while the Holy Family was holy, their lives were not free from stress, disagreement and even conflict. This should give us all hope for our own families. Not only does Jesus understand our struggles with our families, and not only is he with us in those struggles, but he doesn’t expect our families to be perfect. Holy? Well, with God’s grace, we can strive to be loving, charitable and forgiving and thus, we can aim for holiness.
Perhaps that is why the teaching of mercy should be one the church's greatest doctrine, because people are not perfect. Anxiety and stress can get to all of us. Heck, watching the Packers against the Vikings was a stress inducing event, even though one had to laugh at how poorly the Packers played, and Matt LaFailure coached for three quarters. Given this, I have to think God understood my getting upset at the Packers incompetence, from coach to players.
The Packers committed penalties at critical moments. I guess those infractions were minor compared to Jesus not communicating with his parents that he desired to stay behind. But, he was a twelve year old, whose three days at that age, presaged, those involved in his death, and resurrection. The insolence of a twelve year old is really nothing new, and is probably built in our DNA. Children, people, even the son of God will be naughty at times.
