Alternative Readings:

• Genesis 15:1-6, 21:1-3
• Psalm 105:1-6, 8-9
• Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19
• Luke 2:22-40

Families are important, but not easy; and so the Church shows immense wisdom in assigning the feast of the Holy Family to the first Sunday after Christmas, when all of us may have felt the strain of family life. The first reading for next Sunday indicates that our family, whatever you may feel from time to time, is the gift of God to us.

Abram is married (and 75 years old!), but childless, and when God tells him, “Don’t be afraid; I am your shield”, he gently points out that he has no children, “You have given me no offspring”. Then comes the astonishing moment, when God takes Abram outside and says, “Now look at the heavens, and count the stars, if you can count them…that is how your descendants will be”. Then we hear the author’s comment, “And he trusted in YHWH, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness”. There now follows rather a long gap, and we pick up the story, six chapters later, when God finally delivers on his promise, “And YHWH visited Sarah as he had said”, and she gave Abraham a son, “and Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sarah had borne him, ‘Isaac’.” A happy conclusion to the tale, but thoughtful readers will recall that in the chapter immediately following this, Abraham is going to be asked to sacrifice the son thus given him. Family life is not easy.

The psalm, on the other hand, is full of what God has done, “Sing to YHWH, call upon his name, and sing his praises among the peoples”. And notice how the psalmist is reflecting on the way God has dealt with his people, especially in the patriarchs. It is appropriate, after our first reading, that precisely the names of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac are mentioned (though in a slightly unexpected order). Our families only work properly if God is recognised for who God is. And God, of course, can cope with every challenge that even our family throws at him.

If God is in charge, what response can families possibly make? The second reading makes a suggestion, once again mentioning that not entirely functional family of the first reading; and the suggestion is, simply, “faith”; “it was by faith that Abraham was called and obeyed, to go out to a place…and he went out, not knowing where he was going. Sarah is likewise listed as an example of faith, accepting the power to conceive, “because she thought the One who promised was faithful”.  And the result? “From one man, and he more than half-dead, were born [offspring] like the stars of heaven in number, and like the sand by the sea-shore, which is uncountable”. And the passage refers, somewhat coyly, to Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, “for he calculated that God was able even to raise from the dead”. It is not easy, being family, unless we recognise God at work among the family members.

This is what Mary and Joseph manage in the gospel for next Sunday. They do exactly the right thing, bringing “him” (Jesus, of course) to Jerusalem “to offer him to the Lord, as it is written in the Law of the Lord”. But because God is in charge, something quite unexpected happens, and they encounter two other people who, like Mary and Joseph, and Elisabeth and Zachariah, step out of the pages of the Old Testament; and now they learn the significance of the family which they have just brought into the world. The first of these is Simeon, “just and pious, and waiting for the comfort of Israel”. He is now given to realise that here is “the Lord’s Messiah”; he sings to God “Lord, now dismiss your slave…in peace”, and interprets Jesus as “salvation…for all peoples, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel”. Mary (families are never easy) is also told, “a sword shall go through your soul”. Then we meet Hannah, who praises God, and identifies Jesus as “Jerusalem’s redemption”. After this the family returns to Nazareth, and, we are told, “the child grew and was strengthened, filled with wisdom. And God’s grace was on it”. This family’s offspring is evidently going to be remarkable.