Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
I grew up in a very devout Catholic family. Perhaps, it was devout to a fault. We went to church all the time, my brother and I went to Catholic school, there was family prayer morning and evening, there were holy pictures in every room, and often at weekends a priest or nun was at the family dinner table. As my brother and I got older, some of this seemed a little too much. One day, my brother had had it. Truly upset about something, he said to my dad, “Coming back home from anywhere feels like I am going to church.” My brother meant is as a critique. My father took it as a compliment. After all, the home is called the “domestic church.” My family was not the perfect family. But then, which family is? Perhaps this the reason that a feast dedicated to the family is so appropriate.
The Feast of the Holy Family is a relatively recent development. Though some devotions began in the mid-1600s, in 1892, Pope Leo XIII issued the apostolic letter “Breve Neminem Fugit”, highlighting the Holy Family as the "domestic church". He did this in response to social pressures on the family. Originally, the feast was celebrated on the Sunday after the Epiphany. In 1969, after the Second Vatican Council, it was moved to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas.
Family Origins
The development of the Feast of the Holy Family may be recent, but the family itself goes back to Creation. In creating man and woman God also created the human family. The family has been under pressure from internal and external challenges since the beginning. Internally, whether it was the sin of our first parents or the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the first family faced many challenges. In this context, I am not surprised that one of the Ten Commandments is, “Honor thy father and mother.” Again, today’s first reading instructs the care of the elderly when Sirach says, “Those who honor their father atone for sins; they store up riches who respect their mother” (Sir 3:3-4). And again, “My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him” (Sir 3: 12-13). We see this tradition of caring for family members continue into the New Testament. Today’s second reading not only urges children to obey their parents but also instructs parents not to provoke their children. Husbands and wives are urged to love each other as Christ has loved the Church.
The family also faces challenges from external forces. In today’s gospel reading, the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had to flee Herod’s violent threat. They migrated to Egypt and then back to Nazareth. Many families did not escape and became of victims of Herod’s brutality. It reminds us of today’s immigrant and refugee families who flee their homeland to protect themselves from poverty and violence, only to be subjected to new threats and more brutality in the places they take refuge.
It is in this context that the Holy Family of Nazareth is presented as the true model of family life. The Holy Family faced internal and external challenges just like the first human family and just like our families today. This feast helps us to find inspiration in the life of the Holy Family and encourages us to do everything to nurture, love, and protect our families from all that threatens it.
The Dignity and Sanctity of the Family
The dignity of the family revolves around its sacredness. The family is sacred because it is created by God. This original sanctity of the family was infused with a new sacred dignity at incarnation. Christmas tells us that of all the ways in which God could have come to save us, God chose the human family. Jesus’s conception, his birth into a family, and his life in the family, gave a new dignity and sanctity to family life. Through Christ, the family has been divinized in a totally new way. In Catholic life, individual families are formed by the Sacrament of Matrimony. The family is a sacrament of God’s love.
In this sense, today’s feast is not only a time for us to honor the Holy Family and find inspiration in them, but it is a call to think of our families as holy and to honor it as sacred. No family is without its challenges and threats from within and without. This makes it all important that we protect the God given dignity and sanctity of our families.
Strategies to Keep the Sanctity of the Family
Scripture and Catholic theology gives us some very important strategies to honor the sanctity of the family. First, as Paul says in today’s second reading from Colossians, the home thrives when there is “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love.” The home is the place where we should be good at “bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” (Col 3:12-14). Often, we are at our best when we are at work, among friends, and strangers. But it is the people we live with and those who are closest to us who deserve our kindness, humility, and love the most
Second, each family needs a spirituality. This is what Paul meant when he said to the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom as you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Each family should develop its own unique spirituality – prayers, rituals, devotions - that makes the home a sacred, safe, healthy, nurturing, welcoming, and love-filled space. For example, in the past there used to be the consecration of the home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today, we have bundling plan for insurance and family plan for cellphones.
And finally, as Catholics, there is no better strategy honor the sanctity of the family than to celebrate the Eucharist together Christ. Christ dwelt in a family and sanctified the home. Christ dwells in this Church. But through the Eucharistic presence in Holy Communion, Christ dwells in us, in our families, and in our homes. My brother was so right. Going home should feel like going to Church.
Today, let us bring ourselves and our families before the altar. May God bless our families and homes. May God bless and all families and homes, especially those that face separation, addictions, threats, dangers, illness, and tragedies. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph