by Br. Mark Orcutt, O.S.B.

     Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  For someone whose family has made them miserable over the holidays or to someone who has been beaten up in the name of somebody else’s version of family values, this feast may seem like the last straw; but do not be discouraged.  As we have seen, the actual family of Jesus was not immune from real life problems.

     In fact, today’s Gospel pictures the Holy Family going through yet another crisis.  Now they are political refugees, one step ahead of King Herod’s troops; the only way out is to escape across the desert.  They are poor, the life of this Family is a relentless series of opportunities to learn that “just to the extent that we do as we think [God] would have us, and humbly rely on [God], does [God]enable us to match calamity with serenity” (Big Book of Alcohol Anonymous p. 68).

     So what can be done in the face of all the misery in the world, suffering that is no worse over the holiday but seems worse?  What needs to be done is what St. Joseph does; when God’s messenger, the angel, tells him to get up and do something; he gets up and does it.

     In his gospel, St. Matthew uses the word for “get up” that he uses here thirty-three times, more than any of the other Evangelists.  It is, in addition to its other meanings, the word he uses to describe Jesus being raised from the dead.  Most of ordinary life is about “getting up,” although not necessarily from the dead. More often “getting up” suggests for us to “get up” and follow God’s plan for our life not just during the holidays.  Maybe if we do, one day at a time, we’ll find it possible to deal with the miseries of our lives and match calamity with serenity.

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