C: Feast of the Holy Family (30 Dec 2018) - MEMBERSHIP BY ASCRIPTION - Lk 2:41-52

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family believing that the family composed of St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ is not only holy but is the quintessential model for all families in the society.

Joseph, the father, displayed his utmost dedication to raise this family according to Jewish customs and practices (Lk 2:2-5,21-24,42) and to ensure that it is safe from any harm (Mt 2:13-14,20-21). Mary, the mother, had shown her perpetual support to Jesus from his birth (Lk 2:7,19) to his death (Jn 19:25-27), and even beyond (Acts 1:14). Jesus, the son, proved that he respected his parents’ tutelage on him (Lk 2:51-52).

Meanwhile, Joseph and Mary, as husband and wife, remained in their love and understanding of each other amidst many hurdles in their relationship (Mt 1:18-25). In sum, each of them stood up to their respective roles in the family excellently, making them not only saints but model citizens for everyone at all times and all places.

However, despite their admirable behaviors and attitudes, problematic is the complexity of their affinity with each other. We know that Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus (Lk 1:31), a true son of David (Mk 10:47; Lk 18:38-39), even if Joseph is directly linked by Matthew and Luke to King David genealogically (Mt 1:6,20; Lk 3:31). Additionally, Joseph is traditionally regarded de jure as Mary’s husband but within a special kind of arrangement called “chaste companionship”, i.e., they did not have any marital encounters with each other (Mt 1:25).

Mary, on her part, was the true carrier of the infant Jesus in her womb. But the biblical account describes her experience as being a mere vessel of the Son of God; missing there is her putative biological contribution to Jesus’ genes since he is described as the pure Word made flesh (Jn 1:14) through the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:20; Lk 1:35).

Furthermore, Jesus, in our gospel today, bluntly admitted that his true Father is somebody else (Lk 2:49). This claim is substantiated in many biblical verses where he mentioned that his father is God who sent him (e.g., Jn 8:16,18,26,29,42). Succinctly, what we perceive in the Holy Family is a union not of blood relatives with direct genealogical link with each other, but of several individuals who decided to be dedicated to one another as family members.

What we learn then above is that what matters most is not the biological connection among members, rather it is the ascription of each one in building a family/community that truly counts. Thus, people of different ethnicities and nationalities may begin to bond with each other, as well as individuals from different religious and societal associations. In short, communities are supposed to be very inclusive, not exclusive. Tribalism should not be encouraged, as what Pope Francis implies in his Urbi et Orbi message this Christmas, saying, “By his incarnation, the Son of God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity!”

Our society nowadays propagates the proliferation of exclusive assemblies that marginalize minority groups. Muslims are easily tagged as terrorists, refugees as opportunists, and blue-collar migrants as uneducated. The concept of white supremacy continues to linger in popular discourses and is widely felt in the Global South, evident in neo-colonial economic policies. Of course, it is never true that the so-called “white race” is superior to the black, brown or yellow. In fact, the revealing truth of the matter is that there can never be any means of determining which color or race does a single DNA belong to.

Appropriately, Jonathan Hall, a distinguished scholar of the Greek Classics, claims in his study: “Already in the 1960s research suggested that there is often greater genetic variability within a single group than between two distinct groups. More recently the discovery of the entire sequence of the human genome has revealed that the visible physical traits commonly employed to differentiate human groups account for the minutest fraction of an individual’s genes and that in strict terms there is only one biological race – viz. the human race” (Hellenicity, 14).

If science, literature and history can never categorically prove and distinguish races, then it is safe to say that all discourses on colors and races are simply constructed. If these are all created, then it follows that family ties can also be created and ascribed to… as Joseph, Mary and Jesus did in a familial relationship of care, dedication and love despite the absence of clear-cut biological ties with one another.

- Rex Fortes, CM