O Holy Family and Feast Days of Obligation

Sunday was the feast of the Holy Family. I wonder if Jesus gave the same look to Mary and Joseph that my 12 year old gives to me whenever I ask a question. The look where they sigh, roll their eyes a bit, but not extremely, and maybe put one foot forward as if they are going to stomp their foot like a three year old. The kind of look that is produced when one asks "Is your homework done?"

As parents, we often struggle with the talents and possible futures of our children. We spend a lot of time (and money) encouraging our kids to find their interests and talents. We monitor their progress. Sometimes we have to give them a little push when we know that they can do something but they hold back. At other times, we have to slow them down, and nurture and develop their talent before they move on to the next level. There are those times when suddenly we witness our children come into their own with their talent. A sense of awe at what the child has accomplished is mixed with the realization that the child and their talent has moved beyond parental control.

Can you imagine how Mary and Joseph felt when they found Jesus in the temple once they got past that immediate fear of not being able to find a child? There had to be that sense of amazement that their child had taken huge step into his future. But at the same time, did Mary and Joseph also have that feeling that in a sense their child had outgrown them, and that they would not be able to protect him. They could be comforting and encouraging, but now the development of the talent was all within the hands of the child. It had to be one of those sometimes harsh moments of reality when you realize your baby is not ababy, and in this case, not even a child anymore.

Now, normally on Jan. 1st, we would attend mass because it is a Holy Day of Obligation. This rather new idea in the US Roman Catholic Church where if the Holy Day of Obligation is on a Monday, then you are not obliged to go to mass confuses and somewhat saddens me. I am more than willing to bet the decision was made based on church attendance and priests shortage. I just find it confusing to say these days are important, but not important if they fall on a Monday. Then I am confused by attending mass on Sunday, and focusing on the Feast of the Holy Family, and the Solemnity of Mary isn't mentioned. None of the hymns were even about Mary. Now, on the other hand, I would have felt bad if the focus was only the Solemnity of Mary and no mention of the Feast of the Holy Family was made.

So, my parish did offer 1 mass this morning for the Solemnity of Mary. I thought about going and didn't go, although if it was a real Holy Day of Obligation I would have gone. Normally, my parish offers 2 morning masses. Today there was only the one. It was at 10 am. Although I was up and even dressed, I just wasn't ready to go out, I was kind of enjoying the fact that I didn't have to get up and go to work this morning. I also wasn't up to dealing with the unorganization that would have accompanied mass. For some reason, our parish really doesn't prepare the added mass for a Holy Day of Obligation (usually they add a 7 pm mass). They don't assign or request ministers of the Word, Eucharistic Ministers and sometimes altar servers. If you ask the priest if they need Eucharistic Ministers, the priest usually has no idea, and they have no idea of how many they might need. It is always up to the ministers to go into the sacristy and check if help is needed. It's weird. Most of the time, it just seems like the attitude is "we added this mass for those of you who can't come in the morning, but we aren't putting any extra work into it." It's not like people don't attend, but I guess we are at fault because we can't make a 6:30 or 8:30 am mass (hard to do if you start work at 7:00 am). I really just need to find if a parish by work does one around the lunch hour. Probably not, I'm sure my parish isn't alone in acting the way that it does.

Happy 2007!