Choosing To Be The Holy Family

Parenting, like any vocation, is filled with both joy and anxiety. From the beginning of a pregnancy, with morning sickness and worry for the baby, to the teen years when our babies are making their own decisions and sometimes we can only pray for them, sometimes it can feel like the stress of parenthood will overwhelm us. At times like these, I try to think of the Holy Family.

Mary and Joseph weren’t rich, and they had all the same aggravations and stresses that every family has. Even Mary had to do laundry and cook dinner. Joseph had to work and get enough business to support his family. Just like all of us, they were also surrounded by a community. Certainly there were women Mary laughed with as their children played, and men that stopped by Joseph's shop to talk with him. But I can’t imagine there weren’t also people who whispered about the circumstances of Jesus' birth. It seems there must have been women who thought Mary was unfaithful, men who thought Joseph was a fool.

But for all that, they knew Who they were raising, and I can’t picture them as anything but happy together in the midst of their daily stresses. Even in doing dishes or making a chair, Mary and Joseph would have known that there was a much larger purpose in everything they did. And then I think of my own family. Isn’t the same true? Couldn’t I choose to remind myself of the larger purpose of everything we do? Couldn’t I choose to be happy amidst the clutter and never-ending chores? It’s not about the dishes and the laundry and the bills, it’s about raising and training immortal souls. Just like Mary and Joseph, my husband and I have been entrusted by God with these souls. How great the responsibility and happiness of the parents of saints! Yet, who’s to say I’m not also the mother of saints? I would hope that I am–that’s the goal! Sometimes I return home and take a moment before rushing in to complete the next thing on my list. I hear the girls laughing, and see our little white house in the woods with the lights shining, and I think, “Wow–what a cozy, happy place!” Why worry about the repairs that need to be done, the college tuition, the weeds in the yard? Would Mary and Joseph have done that, or did they just enjoy each other and their cozy home full of Love?