Situated on a mountain ridge north of the Jezreel valley, Nazareth was a relatively isolated village in the time of Jesus with a population less than two hundred. Jesus spent the greater part of his life in Nazareth. Yet, those years remained shrouded in silence. The evangelists give us scant information of what Jesus’ life was like as he grew to manhood. However, reading the biblical narrative in light of recent archaeological evidence gives us a glimpse into the early years of Jesus. As a boy and young man living in first century Nazareth, Jesus grew up in an environment of simple, hard working families who lived in a close-knit community. Unlike present day Nazareth with its mixed population of Jews and Arabs - some Christian, some Muslim - Nazareth of Jesus’ day was thoroughly Jewish. 

Nazareth, located in the North, was part of the Galilee and, thus, distant from Jerusalem. Living near the battleground between the Jewish freedom fighters and the Roman rulers, the residents of Nazareth kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders. However, the town was too insignificant to attract the attention of the Romans. 

What the Court of the Gentiles was to the Temple, Galilee was to the nation. Here, in Jesus’ day, there was ready contact and easy access to the foreigner. Jesus’ home town, while not isolated from such contact, nonetheless surrounded him with the faith and piety of his people.

In the simple home where Jesus grew up, Joseph’s calloused hands taught him not only the trade of carpentry but the goodness of work as well. The daily round of household chores that Mary did impressed upon him the duty and the beauty of the love expressed in the ordinary details of family life. Prayer and work, study and rest, along with constant contact with others in a small community, made Jesus appreciate the value of his own family and openness to others.

In God’s providence, Jesus spent thirty years in Nazareth and less than three years in public ministry. Here, in the humble dwelling place of Nazareth, God placed before our eyes his plan for the family to be an intimate community of mutual responsibility in love. How important, therefore, is the lesson of the home of Nazareth. This small, out-of-the-way village is not insignificant. Jesus’ hidden years in the home of Nazareth shed a needed light on our day.

Today, there are many challenges facing families. In our present cultural context, the ideal of fidelity in conjugal love and solidarity with others, the responsibility of raising children to be God-centered and service-oriented and the task of remaining connected with others in harmony and peace are not easily achieved. From Nazareth, there comes the truth that the bonds of family formed by parents and children living, working, praying and resting together are the foundation for the development of a healthy, well-balanced individual and the secret to unite society in peace.

 

In our society, family life is undermined by “the various forms of the erosion of marriage, such as free unions and ‘trial marriage,’ and even pseudo-marriages between people of the same sex.… [These] are instead an expression of anarchic freedom that are wrongly made to pass as true human liberation” (Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Participants in the Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome, June 6, 2005). Our cultural context fosters the idea that a person can do whatever he or she wants. However, the Holy Family’s humble home in the tight knit community of Nazareth with its lesson of mutual responsibility for the good of the other holds out for us the way to create an authentic school of love. The home is the place where our young, like Jesus in his human nature, can grow to mature individuals willing to offer their lives for the good of all.

 

[This is the second of two parts.]