December 26, 2010 – Feast of the Holy Family

Sir 3: 2-6, 12-14 Col 3: 12-21 Mt 2: 13-15, 19-23

The Sunday following Christmas always brings our focus to the Holy Family of Nazareth. Our readings today are filled with a variety of admonitions about respect, obedience, peace and tolerance – all virtues that are needed to live in a Christian household that strives to grow in the Spirit of Jesus.

Instead of focusing our attention on the list of recommended virtues, I’d like to focus our attention on something more subtle: the active role of Joseph and how he made his decision to settle the family in Nazareth. According to Matthew’s gospel, an angel visited Joseph in his dream and told him to, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Joseph did as the angel commanded but when he heard that Archelaus was the ruler in Judea, Joseph made a decision to move back to Nazareth in the northern mountain regions of Galilee.

One needs to know something about this Archelaus to understand why Joseph would have made the decision to travel four more days to Nazareth instead of moving to Bethlehem, the city of his ancestors. Certainly first century Christians would have known what we have to look up in history books or from The Dictionary of the Bible as I did to understand the story better. According to this book, Archelaus was cruel like his father, Herod the Great, but he did not have his father’s competence. Therefore, his rule brought with it riots and disorders with the Jews and Rome did not give him the title of king, like his father, but only the title of ethnarch. Joseph would have known this, and it would seem that Joseph regarded Archelaus as a dangerous ruler whom he did not want to encounter.

I had to wonder how Joseph would have known about Archelaus since he lived in Egypt before the move to Nazareth. There were no daily papers in his time. If he were like other men of his trade, Joseph would have gone to the local pub at the end of the day’s work before going home to dinner. Pubs functioned as a place for men to share news and evaluate what was happening in their homeland. Its purpose was political, the place where the people could become informed about the news and, of course, decide how best to respond to it. I like thinking of Joseph as the kind of man who had his ear to the ground, aware of the world around him. He was a man who kept current with the news, not a simpleton who lived life without a context. Seeing Joseph as the leader of his family, a savvy man who made decisions with all the information that he could amass, gives us insight into why God chose him to foster Jesus.

Joseph is not only a good role model for all parents who raise children in an exceedingly complex world but Joseph is also a good standard for environmental activists. We need to stay attuned to the data available to us in order to make good decisions. I am fortunate to live in an area where there are two local papers. The town paper is good for keeping up with local events, but the Los Angeles Times is a newspaper that gives much greater detail to international events and to environmental news. What I see reported in the newspaper in the morning is often the news that is being responded to by environmental groups in the afternoon or the next day. Finding reliable sources of information is as valuable to us as it was to Joseph and the Holy Family. When we want to take action that will have a positive impact on the world around us, we need solid data and analysis. This is why I’ve grown to rely on environmental groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others for my information.

The gospel focuses us on the informed choices that Joseph made for his family. We need to do as much for our families and our world. If we have not already begun the habit of reading good sources on the Internet or in news publications, this Sunday is a call to action. Sign up for news alerts at one or more of the organizations listed below on this blog. If we already use good resources, then the invitation is to use intelligently the information we have available to us for action. Joseph did not sit on his hands when the angel announced the death of King Herod, he was ready for action. Let us be ready for action on behalf of the Earth by keeping our ear to the ground, like Joseph, and make responsible decisions.