“Can anybody find me somebody to love?” So asks Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the rock band Queen. While most people would probably not consider Mr. Mercury to be a theologian, his famous question is actually at the heart of today’s feast of the Holy Family, and even points to the essence God himself.
Most people would probably easily recognize the desire that we all have to be loved. But what Queen is asking for is not that someone love us, but that we have somebody to love. You see, love isn’t really love unless it has an object. You need a lover and a beloved. Love never exists in isolation.
Today’s feast offers us the image of the Holy Family as an example of this love. But the Holy Family, indeed any family, is really called to be an image of a much greater love, the very love of God. Since love cannot exist in isolation, our God who is love, is not an isolated singularity but a communion of love. This relation of three persons in one God we call the Trinity.
So Freddie Mercury really hit on the greatest mystery in all of creation. Love is what God is. Love is what we need. But most of all, in order to live in love, we really need somebody to love. Fortunately, God has given us the perfect place to give and receive love, our families.