Signposts On The Way

Since the end of November, stores were already cornering the “Christmas” stuff and filling the shelves with red hearts, awakening in the consumer's mind the need to look to the future (February!).   Despite my personal judgment, since I admit this is something that upsets me, I think it is reasonable to say that we live in a society that capitalizes on getting people to set our sights “what’s next,” and separate ourselves from what IS at hand, here and now.  It is as if marketing and social media is set out to feed our tendency to live in a state of “pre-occupation”.  That is, busy ourselves with what does not yet exist, and may never come.

 

The reality is that we are still celebrating the octave of Christmas, rejoicing that God-Is-With-Us, and within this context, the liturgy of the Feast of Holy Family calls us to be “occupied” with only one thing:  the will of the God of Life.  The Gospel describes a family that was composed of an extensive network of aunts, cousins, siblings, neighbors and other relatives who annually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Joseph and Mary lost sight of their son, because they assumed that he was among the other boys and girls, playing, making mischief, enjoying himself.... It is not until they are to gather as a nuclear family for bedtime that they realize that Jesus was not among them.  It turns out that Jesus, at age twelve, had already expanded his consciousness and recognized the importance of relating and establishing communion beyond his natural family.  

 

When Mary and Joseph, admitting anguish and anxiety, find Jesus and “scold him,” he answers them: “Did you not know that I must be occupied with the things of my Father?”  It turns out that Jesus, barely entering adolescence, begins to live what he later preaches throughout Galilee, the importance of living in broader, healthier and more loving relationships, what he calls the ‘Kingdom of God,’ and to occupy ourselves in making that Kingdom present, without worrying about the future and only asking for ‘our daily bread’ (cf. Matthew 6).  This leads us to ask ourselves, what things am I currently occupied with?  Alternatively, what things do I PRE-occupy myself with, distancing myself from what IS and from those who are here and now?  To celebrate Christmas is to recognize that we are all part of a SACRED family that includes not only people of every race, nation, language, religion, economic condition and political party, but one that includes every living BEING.   Jesus was not “lost,” but rather was questioning our limited sense of what constitutes a family and placing us in the only moment that should ever occupy us, the present moment.