Today, we mark a great feast of the Holy Family in our Church in this first week of the Christmas season. Throughout the papacy of Pope Francis, the topic of the family has been at the forefront of our Church discussions. You may remember that the pope called a Synod on the Family during the early years of his papacy. That Synod looked at the questions and issues facing the family in our modern world, with a specific emphasis on the pastoral care needs of the family. The Church rightfully sees the family as the traditional unit upon which society is built, but in our modern reality, the family faces many changes and challenges. Families and religion have traditionally been two of the things that bind us together in society and that help form us as children, youth, and adults. Yet, Cardinal Walter Kasper from Germany has noted that in the past 50 years, modern society has been more about breaking down those things that bind us together, with consumerism and individualism becoming the more important values that are being embraced.
With all the challenges and obstacles families face in the modern world, the feast of the Holy Family that we celebrate today becomes even more important and relevant to our journey. We see many people in our society today on a quest to find meaning and significance in their lives, to find fulfillment and happiness. We see the Holy Family in the Gospel today moving twice according to the message they received from the Angel. They fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod. They then returned to their town of Nazareth when it was safe. Many families today also face a hard reality that causes them to respond in different ways.
Today's feast of the Holy Family declares the importance of the family in our human development and in the development of our faith. Any of us who are priests or consecrated sisters or brothers or lay leaders in the Church can attest to the way our parents and our upbringing had an influence on our vocations to serve in the Church. Today, we honor our families through the example of the Holy Family. I would like to close today’s feast with a prayer that Pope John Paul II wrote for the family.
Let us pray:
Lord God, from you every family in Heaven and on earth takes its name. Father, you are love and life. Through Your Son, Jesus Christ, born of woman, and through the Holy Spirit, the fountain of divine charity, grant that every family on earth may become for each successive generation a true shrine of life and love.
Grant that your grace may guide the thoughts and actions of husbands and wives for the good of their families and of all the families in the world. Grant that the young may find in the family solid support for their human dignity and for their growth in truth and love. Grant that love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of marriage, may prove mightier than all the weaknesses and trials through which our families sometimes pass.
Through the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that the Church may fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission in the family and through the family.
We ask this of You, God the Father, who is life, truth and love with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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