Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
I’ve been on a kick recently of listening to audiobooks while I do chores like tidying the house, folding laundry, or washing the dishes. It’s been fun and I found a YouTube channel of a girl who reads and I think she does a great job! I found her because she was reading a book from a series I was looking for, but once I finished the series I just checked to see what else she has on her channel and I found “The Giver.” I definitely remember reading it in school and remembered some little details like how they can’t see color, but the boy learns all the colors. I haven’t read it in a long time, and I thought I’d give it a listen.
[You can skip this part if you read this in school recently ;)] The Giver is a dystopian book about a group of people who try their best to create a perfect society. And you could argue that they get pretty close. The people get assigned jobs based on their temperament and skills, they can apply for a spouse and one will get assigned and they become a family unit, they can apply for two kids total. Every morning, they have dream sharing, and at night they share their feelings from the day. And after school they either have childcare or volunteer hours, but Jonas is turning 12 so he’ll get his assignment for work and start training after school soon! As you read we learn that once spouses have raised their kids they move to a new section to live with the childless adults, until they finish working and retire at the appropriate age, then they go to the “House of the Old” where they are cared for and respected until eventually when they are old enough they have a release ceremony where they are released from the community to go to “Elsewhere.”
This life is the only life that the characters know, and in some ways, it seems to work for them. They are all very obedient, they apologize if they break a rule, no one is rude, no one interrupts. Because the rules are observed and big life decisions are made for them, there are no divorces or mid-life crises. Everyone is content.
Then the main character Jonas is selected to be the receiver of memory and we learn that there is one person in the community who bears all the memories of the past, there are a lot of good memories like sledding, but there are also terrible memories starting with breaking a leg, but including warfare, starvation, racism, and so many more. One of the favorite memories that “the Giver” shares with Jonas is of a Christmas Eve night, there is a fire and decorated tree, and a little girl hands out the wrapped packages, and sits on her grandparent’s lap while everyone takes turns opening their presents. In this memory, the Giver tells Jonas, the feeling that is so warm and comforting, is love.
Families are beautiful units of love. Not a family where spouses are assigned and children are assigned, but a family that grows from the love of a husband and wife, a love that creates an entire life for them to lavish their love upon. Family can certainly be complicated, especially at this time of the year people might be grieving over loss or struggling with division within their family. But the family, ordered how God intended it, is a beautiful vision of love.
We can learn a lot from our first reading about what God says a family should be like. Sirach tells us everything that God has said about families – a father is in honor over his children, a mother has authority over her children confirmed by the father, it goes on and on and it tells us that parents deserve respect in the family, both father and mother.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family – Mary the Mother of God, St. Joseph the Carpenter, and Jesus the Second Person of the Trinity. Quite a family set up. We can look to the Holy Family to be inspired. Mary’s “fiat” or yes, Joseph who receives messages from the angels in his sleep and is so obedient in every instance, and Jesus, God become man for us, to live and then die for our sins that we would be forgiven. This is a family that is a perfect and amazing image of love. This week, call on the Holy Family to help you to be a better sibling, or parent, or spouse.