Over the holiday season, I was at a local mall when I spotted a beautiful six-month-old gurgling and smiling as if he couldn’t imagine anything better than lying in his pram while his mother and grandmother shopped.
“Well, aren’t you a happy camper?” I cooed, completely enchanted with the child.
I kept a respectful distance until I developed a rapport with the two women, then I came a little closer and allowed the baby to tug on my finger while we traded stories about delivery, birth weight and child development. After a few minutes and a healthy dose of compliments for the exceptional infant, I wished the two a Merry Christmas and excused myself. As I exited the store, I saw the two of them talking. Perhaps they were discussing a potential purchase. Perhaps they thought it was nice for a complete stranger to come up and effuse praise on their baby. Perhaps they rolled their eyes and said, “Geez, what a weirdo!” I’ll never know.
We’ve all been in this situation. Either we are the parents on the receiving end of the compliments or we are the kind strangers giving them. The scene plays out in a myriad of different ways and can be interpreted differently depending on the situation. A well-dressed maternal type in a high-end store is going to be looked at a little differently than say…. a hunchbacked old woman in mismatched clothes at a bus stop – even if the sentiment in both situations is sincere. We size people up and make judgments in order to determine are they merely kind or a potential kidnapper.
I can’t help wondering what it was like for Mary and Joseph when the well wishers bombarded them after Jesus’ presentation in the temple. It must have been a strange and uncomfortable situation for them. I mean, here they are still coming to grips with the uniqueness of their family situation, have probably gotten used to the gossip and now they are miles from home, living in a cave, surrounded by strangers and nowhere near their home “parish.” Within days they will be forced to flee, but in the meantime, they have to contend with a couple of people who heap praise on their son and announce to all in sundry that He is the one God sent to save the world.
What must have been going though the Holy Family’s head when the man told God to take him now that he had seen the Messiah? Did they ask themselves, “How did he know? Did God tell him or was it merely a good guess?” And what about Anna, the prophetess? There is simply not enough ink to flush out this character properly, but we know that she too starts telling everyone who will listen who Jesus is and what He is going to grow up to be. I can practically picture Mary tugging on Joseph’s toga and saying, “We’ve gotta go” while Joseph is wondering if every kook in Judea landed in Bethlehem for the Census. After all, Jesus didn’t come out of His mother with a halo or a nametag. He looked like an ordinary newborn. So how did they know?
Mary and Joseph already have a lot on their plates…they’ve been given a great gift, but it is one that came with a lot of excess baggage and it’s not like these people were complimenting Christ on His big blue eyes or how well he behaved during His Bris. They were implying something big…something Mary and Joseph weren’t prepared to deal with or to answer for after just one week. Parents of exceptional children typically have time to come up with a standard answer for those occasions when someone points out their child’s uniqueness…but we don’t know what God told them to do if someone should happen to “out” the kid as the Chosen One.
My guess is that in those early years, the Holy Family probably craved those moments when they could fade into the woodwork and be simply a nice, normal family. They probably longed for the day when the scandal of Jesus’ conception and birth died down and they could return to Nazareth and get back to normal life.
But as every parent can attest…there is no getting back to normal after a baby is born. You must get used to a new normal and as your child develops and becomes who God intends them to be…you’re life will never be the same. You don’t have to be the parents to the Son of God to know that. And you don’t have to have the Christ child for people to stop and offer comments you didn’t ask for, nor were expecting. Still you have to roll with the punches using the each compliment to balance out the various difficulties you will face as a parent. The well-wishers mean no harm after all. A baby represents all that is good and miraculous in this world. In their tiny hands, they hold all of our hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow and the belief that any one of them could be the one to help end all suffering, cure any disease and truly bring about peace on earth.
Today’s readings for Mass: 1 JN 2:12-17; PS 96:7-8A, 8B-9, 10; LK 2:36-40
