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Holy Family Sunday Lk 2/41-52 |
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| Background: One might almost want to accuse Jesus of violating
“family values” in today’s gospel story. He is surely acting in with some
lack of consideration for his parents. Perhaps the origins of the story are in an attempt
– always strong in the Gospels if underplayed by some contemporary Christians -- to emphasize the humanity of Jesus. In any case
we have here one more story that indicates how ordinary and human the Holy Family seemed
to be. In the so-called “hidden years” Jesus stayed well hidden. It’s not
altogether clear what “family values” means today. It does not seem to preclude
adultery or divorce because of its most vigorous proponents are publicly guilty of both
– and show no remorse. All it seems to stand for is punitive attitudes towards gays
and opposition to feminism. In any case authentic family values would emphasize respect
for the dignity of all members of the family regardless age or gender. That comes hard for
some kinds of people, especially men. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time there was a family which decided
that it wanted to go away for Christmas to some place warm – the family lived in one
of the snow belts. Actually it was only the mother who wanted to go. The kids objected
because they wanted to spend Christmas with the friends. The father objected because he
liked to shovel snow with his power-driven snow plow. The dogs didn’t get to vote
because they wouldn’t go to a warmer climate anyway but to a kennel (where they would
make themselves right at home with the other Christmas orphan dogs). Anyway the mother
wanted to go away more than the others didn’t so she won the argument, though neither
side was completely gracious. WELL, they left in plenty of time for the airport, but got
caught in a traffic jam and missed their plane by five minutes. They had to sleep at the
airport and catch a plane the next morning. Unfortunately the morning plane was cancelled
and they had to wait stand-by for the afternoon flight on which they all got on (though
spread out all over the cabin) at the last minute. The plane was late in landing at the
warm place, because of thunder storms and high winds. They got to their hotel to find that
their reservations had been cancelled because they had not show up in time. They were put
in another hotel with a skimpy and unheated pool, but that didn’t matter because the
weather was so bad that swimming was impossible. They played Jeopardy in the lobby of the
hotel. Only on the last day of their Christmas vacation did the weather warm up and golf
and tennis became possible. The mother felt terrible, but the others said they didn’t
mind because it had been a fun trip anyway.
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