Love your family who are “not so holy”
Outreach
At the end of the reading, Father Gentili said, turning to a church full of noisy children and tired parents: "I know you are wondering: why read all this? ".
And he explained that even in the genealogical tree of Jesus there are not very edifying figures. Abraham walked the slave Agar and his son Ismael; Jacob stole the firstborn from his brother Esau; Davide planned Uria's death to marry Betsabea. And among women, Rahab, a prostitute, is included in the genealogy. The lesson? The families of Jesus were also imperfect.
When we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, we can be tempted to idealize Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Of course, Jesus is the Son of God without sin, Mary was conceived Immaculate and Joseph is holy. But this does not mean that their family life was free of tensions.
*Padre James Martin, SJ è un gesuita statunitense, scrittore e conferenziere. È direttore editoriale della rivista America e autore di libri molto noti, tra cui “Jesus: A Pilgrimage” (Gesù, un viaggio alla sua scoperta, EMI, 2015) e “Building a Bridge” (Un ponte da costruire, Marcianum Press, 2018 ). Quest'ultimo affronta il dialogo tra la Chiesa cattolica e la comunità LGBTQ+.
