Fr. Robert Hale, OSB Cam
 
 
When a man joins our monastic community, we have a saying that we don’t just get one person. He brings within his psyche his mother, his father, any brothers and sisters and other relatives, or friends, who have influenced him. In terms of his early formation—both nature and nurture - the man who comes has already received a human formation well before he comes to us for his monastic formation.

We ask, “Is it not the same with Jesus”? When we take him into our hearts, and into our whole lives, hopefully, we’re also taking in his “nuclear family”: Mary and Joseph and perhaps his family members Zaccharia and Elizabeth and certainly his cousin, John the Baptist. The truly human Jesus developed in his mother’s womb taking his flesh and blood from Mary.

Jesus grew in wisdom and he was nourished in that growth by Mary and Joseph, the important husband in this Jewish family who had such influence on Jesus. So we receive them also with Jesus. Certainly we see in Jesus the openness of Mary to God’s will and plan.  Her “Magnificat” could almost be a prayer of Jesus himself. Its praise of God the Father, the rejoicing spirit, the commitment to the hungry, the lowly.  And in later gospel accounts, we see in Jesus his mother’s loving care for others, as manifested in the marriage of Cana and her steadfastness all the way to the Cross and beyond. All these are evident qualities of her son.

And with Joseph, we see a husband’s availability to God’s surprising providential plan (not always easy!), his persevering care of Mary and Jesus, his deep, meditative stillness. Again, all qualities of Jesus.  New Testament scholars speak of Jesus’ “Abba mysticism,” his deep, loving intimacy with God as his ‘daddy’—the correct translation of the Aramaic “Abba.” Where did Jesus get this father image and trust and love if not from Joseph?

In every feast of Jesus, do we not also celebrate them? In every Eucharist, do we not also spiritually receive them? They are the decisive paradigm for every Christian family.  Perhaps they can inspire us to honor and give thanks for our own parents, for everything we received from them, beginning with our very lives. We can pray for them, give thanks for all that is positive which they did give us.

And besides our biological family, there is our spiritual family now. This family is most important for Jesus. Remember he said:  “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers”? And pointing to his disciples he said: “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Those disciples were not perfect. One betrayed him to death, another denied him three times at a most crucial moment, and with the exception of Mary, the other women and the beloved disciple, the rest abandoned him.

In today’s language we might refer to it as a “dysfunctional family”—perhaps like our own. But presumably it isn’t just dysfunctional. “Where sin did abound, grace did more abound”-- and still does, as St. Paul assures us.

St. Benedict conceived of his monastic community as fratres, brothers— the term he uses again and again. His community model therefore is not a military model, a platoon of soldiers, fighting the enemies of Christ; nor is it a team of workers for a company, seeking highest efficiency and prophets. Nor is it a social club.

No, we monks are brothers. Brothers don’t always agree on everything, they can be very different one from another, but they remain, persevere in being bonded in flesh and blood. And we are bonded in the flesh and blood of Christ, nourished thus daily in the Eucharist.

So at this time, let us celebrate our faith and families, and recommit ourselves to be more united in the bond of our beloved and loving elder brother, the incarnate Christ.