After Mass a couple approached me. They looked bedraggled. Standing in front of them, taller than either, was a gangly youngster. They said to me, "Father, our son is still in high school. But you can have him."

I smiled and said, "Thanks." But, fortunately for me - and for the boy - it went no farther.

In today's first reading we hear about a couple who actually did turn their son over to the care of a priest. Especially for the mother it must have been a great sacrifice. Hannah prayed many years for a child and was of advanced age when she and Elkanah conceived Samuel. After nursing him (three years, as was the custom) she informed her husband she was taking the boy to the sanctuary for him to become a "perpetual nazirite." (1 Sam 1:22)

Now this seems like the oddest reading for Holy Family Sunday. It tells about the apparent breakup of a nuclear family. But that would be a quite superficial interpretation. What is happening is not disintegration, but unity on a much deeper level. I'm convinced that if we are going to save the family (and we must if the Church and society is to have a future) we need to first recognize something worth more than even the family. The Catechism states it succinctly:

That's what today's Old Testament lesson - and Gospel - are about. In the latter (Lk 2:41-52) we have another reading which at first seems jarring for a Sunday emphasizing family. The twelve year old Jesus separates himself from his mother and guardian for three days, causing them an anguish most of us can barely imagine. Perhaps parents whose child has disappear may understand the torture: Was he kidnapped? Did he run away? Is he alive or dead? Certainly being an only child intensifies the distress.

I cannot explain why Jesus did this to his parents. Somehow it must relate to the Pascal Mystery which also involved "three days." Mary did not get an answer which satisfied her. Rather she "kept all these things in her heart." (Lk 2:51)

Now Jesus is clearly not teaching impertinence. Just the opposite. The only description we have of his next years is that he "was obedient to them." But at that moment he had to be in his Father's house. (v. 49) The terrible suffering in that scene can only be understood in relation to a tie that truly is absolute.

If we are going to save the family - and indeed begin to understand the sufferings of our lives - we must put God first. And consider the time spent in our "Father's house" as the most valuable of all.

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