Feast of the Holy Family at Mississippi Abbey

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. You know the story very well. The child’s life was at risk. A person of enormous wickedness was determined to destroy the infant whose goodness, innocence, and destiny were a threat to his reign. But the quick actions of his parents saved the child’s life. So, he grew to youthful maturity and amazed teachers with his gifts. He had extraordinary powers that he would put to good use against the most evil force in the world. If you ask some children the name of this amazing boy, they are likely to reply, “Harry Potter.” Who is this fictional boy who captured the imagination of children all over the world?

Harry Potter is a British school boy who discovers he is a wizard with magical powers. Children are fascinated by his world of flying broomsticks, paintings whose characters move and talk on the canvas, blankets that make one invisible, magic wands, and dementors who are perfect devils. In this land of fantasy, the author presents the problems of life that many children encounter: broken families, confusing friends and enemies, suffering and death. With a little guidance, the fictional story of Harry Potter might help children come to a better appreciation of the real story of the boy Jesus and his family. Harry Potter narrowly escapes death as an infant when he and his parents are attacked by the evil Dark Wizard. But Potter’s innocence and goodness keeps him from all harm, except for a lightning shaped scar inflicted on his forehead by the Dark Wizard when he tries to kill the boy.

The child Jesus also narrowly escaped death when the soldiers of King Herod the Great failed to find him. The lightning shaped scar on Harry Potter’s forehead is a sign that he avoided death. The scars of Jesus’ crucifixion are signs that he truly died and rose again.

The author, J.K. Rowling’ writes about Potter’s anguish over the loss of his parents. It’s a common anguish among children whose parents have died or separated. My mother died when I was ten, my father when I was fifty. I still feel the pain. Rowling herself suffers from the sting of her mother’s death. She writes, “I miss her daily, I still hear her voice, it is very painful.” When Harry sees his parents in a magical mirror he hopes that this window into another world foreshadows his future reunion with them.

It’s hard to lose one’s parents. It’s even harder for parents to lose a child. The love Mary and Joseph have for Jesus pierced their hearts with fear when they realized he was missing. It is every parent’s nightmare. And when they find him, their amazement is expressed in the same words of astonishment used of those who see the risen Christ. Mary and Joseph didn’t know what losing and finding Jesus really meant. So, Mary asks him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” His reply confused them: “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?” Their response is not recorded. Maybe it’s a good thing we are not told what Mary and Joseph said next.

The happiness of the Holy Family’s reunion didn’t last long. Joseph’s death left Mary as a single parent with a growing boy to take care of.  J.K. Rowling writes about her own experience of sorrow. Her marriage only lasted a year before it fell apart. She became a single parent with a child to raise. She was in dire poverty, depressed and angry for messing up her life and letting her child down. So, she took up her pen to earn a living writing stories about a boy who overcomes evil by his special gift of wizardry.

There’s a hunger in all of us for the supernatural. So, Rowling weaves stories about of a world of magic intermixing with the real world of England and Scotland. Underdogs become winners; people suspected of mischief turn out well; someone who is trusted becomes a traitor.

The story of Jesus intermixes the real world of Palestine with the supernatural world of divinity, with miracles exceeding all fantasy. Temptations by devils, plots by Pharisees, betrayal by friends, tragedy on the cross, and the happy ending of Paschal victory. Harry Potter’s magical broomstick, fades into insignificance compared to Jesus actually walking on water, really being transfigured on Mount Tabor, truly rising transformed from the dead, and ascending gloriously into heaven.

After we lose ourselves for a while in Harry Potter’s world of good and bad wizards, we can look at our world with fresh astonishment. The boy, Jesus—his powers, his miracles, his triumph over death—it’s all real. And what could be more amazing than bread and wine becoming the very body and blood of Jesus, making us like him, truly children of God, divinized, destined to share the family life of God in the magical kingdom of heaven?