Today, we mark a great feast in our Church, on
this first Sunday after Christmas Day as we continue to celebrate the Christmas
season. Today, as we continue our celebration of the
joyful Christmas season, which will last two more weeks, we celebrate the feast
of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Throughout the past year, the topic of the family
has been at the forefront of our Church discussions, with Pope Francis
convening a Synod on the Family. Last fall, a Synod was convened looking the
questions and issues facing the family in our modern world, and next fall, a
Synod will be convened in order to make proposals that will specifically
address our Church’s pastoral care of the family. The Church rightfully sees the family as the
traditional unit upon which society is built.
And the Church sees the family reality the family is facing right now,
with all sorts of 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 Kapser from Germany has
noted that in the past 50 or 60 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 world, the feast of the Holy Family that we celebrate today becomes
even more important and relevant to our journey of faith. We see many people in our society today on a
quest for finding meaning and significance in their lives, for finding
fulfillment and happiness. And they are
looking in a lot of places to find those things. Simeon in today’s Gospel reading from Luke was on
a quest as well. He was looking for the
Messiah. Three different times in the Gospel, it says that
the Holy Spirit was guiding Simeon in this quest, and that the Spirit revealed
to him that he shall not die until he sees the Messiah with his own eyes. We don’t know how the Holy Spirit revealed to him
that the Jesus was indeed a very special child, but at the moment he saw Jesus
and his parents, he took the child Jesus into his arms and pronounced his quest
accomplished, saying that he was ready to depart from this world. But Simeon’s focus and quest was not
self-centered or narrow-minded. He saw
in Jesus a gift for all the people: a light that would be revealed to the
Gentiles and all the nations, a Messiah who would bring glory to the people of
Israel.
We know from our reading on Christmas day from
the beginning of John’s Gospel that Jesus is the Word of God made incarnate in
our world. Yet, today’s Gospel points out that after Jesus
and his parents returned to their home town of Nazareth, after they had
fulfilled what was required of them by presenting Jesus in the Temple, Jesus
grew up there filled with wisdom and became strong. Saturday evening I had a baptism in our parish,
which is such a joyful occasion for our Church and for our families. The baptismal rite states that the parents are
supposed to the first teachers and the best of teachers to the child in the
ways of the faith. The Church family, the friends and loved ones,
the godparents, the catechists and the priests and the lay leaders in the
Church have a role in shaping the faith of the children and youth, yet the
primary responsibility in the eyes of the Church falls to the parents and the
immediate family. And even though Jesus was Son of God, he was influenced and formed by his parents,
by his family, his community, and the environment.
F. And that is what is brought to our attention
today on the feast of the Holy Family: the importance of the family in our
human development and in the development of our faith. Any of us who are priests or consecrated sister
or brothers or lay leaders in the Church can attest to the way our parents and
our upbringing had an affect on our vocations to serve in the Church. Today, we honor our families through the example
of the Holy Family. I want to close today’s homily with a pray that
Pope Francis wrote in honor of the Synod on the Family that convened at the
Vatican last fall. It is a fitting
prayer to have in our hearts as we celebrate the Holy Family today. Let us pray:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love,
to you we turn with trust.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic Churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again
experience violence, rejection and division:
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
may the approaching Synod of Bishops
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
graciously hear our prayer.
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