Politically incorrect family life

The first two readings on today’s Feast of the Holy Family say things about family life that are politically incorrect in today’s world.

The second reading (Colossians 3:12-21) is a great test of a parish’s mettle, for the Lectionary gives the option of omitting the last few verses: the passage that begins “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands...”

Sadly, too many celebrants, readers, and liturgists would choose to take the option of omitting that passage rather than speak honestly and faithfully about what God is telling the world in these verses.

The first reading (Sirach 3:2-6,13-14) also may appear, from its first words, to be cut from what some would call patriarchalism run amok: “God sets a father in honor over his children…”

The first reading goes on to tackle some other topics of family life that are often perilously ignored: the problem of care for the elderly, especially those suffering from dementia.

None of us are perfect in our family lives (I certainly am not), but what God is reminding us in today’s readings is critically important for all of us and for society -- even as the elites keep pushing society down a very different path.

The world’s path is advertised as “autonomy” but comes with its own kinds of slavery.

What God calls us to is love: expressed in commitment and mutual care – parents and children, husbands and wives, young and old, brothers and sister s, close friends and relatives.

May our lives be politically incorrect with the love of God.