The Church continues to celebrate the Christmas season for two more days. For many of you readers, it might not “feel like” Christmas anymore. You might be back at work or school, busy catching up on the work that was piling up while people slacked off during the run-up to “the holidays.” I’m busy too, of course, but it still “feels like” Christmas to me, because I do my daily prayer cycle that priests have to pray right in front of the beautiful Christmas crib that we have in church. The prayers still are focused on Jesus’ incarnation and birth, and the Church is still beautifully decorated for Christmas.
For all of us, two of the Christmas season feasts remind us how Christmas should be part of our lives every day, even after the Christmas season ends tomorrow: the Holy Family and the Baptism of the Lord. (Unfortunately, both of those get “bumped” off Sundays to weekdays this year, because Christmas on a Sunday leaves no room for them on the Sunday calendar).
The feast of the Holy Family reminds us that Christ and His Church don’t merely tell us what to do and how to love, they point to a concrete model for us to imitate in our own lives. Our Lord Jesus of course had the unique privilege of choosing His family (Mary as His mother and St. Joseph as His father on us) precisely so they could teach us what love is. That love starts in the family, with the commitment the husband and life make to surrender their lives to each other in a permanent covenant, so that their love can be shared with their children.
There is a very sad case of a local technology coordinator from some of our local west side Catholic schools which I think illustrates this. You might have read about her on the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer recently. She is suing the Church because she was fired after having a child (without a husband) by immoral fertilization techniques. The article reports her hinting that the Church is being hypocritical, because she wanted to welcome a child into the world and a child is a gift from God. Further, since she is not a religion teacher, she claims this shouldn’t matter. But of course, the way we live our lives (and model them after Christ) teaches too, and has everything to do with our faith. While it is true that many parents do well in circumstances they do not choose raising a child as a single parent, the goal and ideal is always to do it the way Christ taught us – by His own example – to give every child the love of a mother and father united in Christ. To deliberately choose otherwise is simply inconsistent with our Christian faith. Our family life is not so much about what we might want to claim for ourselves, but what we give to God, according to His plan.
The feast of Christ’s Baptism also reminds us of something important. Jesus certainly had no sins to be cleansed of, but still chose to be baptized by his cousin John to reveal what baptism in Christ means to us, and to teach us how closely our baptism connects to our Christian mission. Unlike Christ, we do need baptism – which not only forgives sins, but opens the door to a life in Christ – so that we have the power – and the relationship as sons and daughters of the Father – to enable us to live our day to day mission of serving Christ as His disciples.
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