THE HOLY FAMILY

One of the things that astonished me back in the eighties was the  attack on the Holy Family as a model for family life.   Because divorce is rife, because there are quarrels with children, because there are so many suffering spouses we cannot apparently have a model of what family life should be.     I found the whole things rather ignorant and insulting to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.   They were a real human family in which there was love and indeed disagreements.   The love of Joseph and Mary is something that a husband and wife for a start could contemplate.   We saw how Joseph accepted Mary and spent the rest of his life with her, providing for both her and Jesus.  No, it was not a sexual love but even this is worth thinking about in our society of today.  Husbands your wife is not just there to be used she is there for real love and real warmth and a real relationship.   Joseph sacrificed himself and what is a marriage without sacrifice.   Mary the housewife was the homemaker and would welcome Jesus and Joseph at the end of the working day with a smile and a meal.  As parents they would also ensure together that Jesus was well versed in the Jewish Faith for that was their duty to God.   If Jesus is truly human it is because he experienced family life just like the rest of us.   It is time the nonsense about the Holy Family stopped.


 


 

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