Today is the first Sunday of our Christmas season. Even though the Christmas season is only 2 weeks long in our Church’s liturgical year, we have a group of special celebrations within this time. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. Tomorrow on January 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. The feast of the Epiphany is the Sunday after that. The Christmas season concludes on Monday, January 8 with the Baptism of the Lord.
As we celebrate Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as the Holy Family in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, we think back to the 4th Sunday of Advent, when we heard about the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary, telling her about the upcoming birth of Jesus. In today’s Gospel, the Angel appears, but this time to Joseph again in a series of dreams after the birth of Jesus. The Angel gives Joseph instructions as to what he needs to do in order to protect and take care of his family. When we think about the feast of the Holy Family that we celebrate today, we probably think about the families in which we grew up, and if we are adults, the families that we are developing now ourselves. In the other readings we hear today, we hear of attributes that we should aspire to in our families: honoring and obeying our parents, and showing compassion, kindness, humility, and patience toward one another in our families. Those are great ideals, but sometimes our families fall short.
The one word that struck me when I was thinking about today’s celebration was the word “holy.” We celebrate the holy family today, but what does it mean to be holy? We throw the word “holy” around so much when we talk about faith – we even sing the “Holy Holy” every time we celebrate mass together. But, perhaps we are not quite sure what the word “holy” really means for us as followers of Christ. Many believers may mistakenly believe that to be holy, we need to run away from the world. Or that to be holy we need to be in church praying on our knees all day long or praying the rosary every hour of the day. But, being holy doesn’t mean walking around with a halo, not being allowed to have any fun, or despising the things of this world. Being holy is not about withdrawing from the world or about being stoic all the time. Rather, being holy is to brings us life and to refine who we are as human beings. Being holy is not put a damper on our emotions, but rather to elevate them. Holy people are probably the most joyful people we can meet.
On our journey of faith as Catholics, we are called to attend Mass each weekend, to spend time in prayer and in spiritual formation, and to do good works of charity and mercy as fruits of our faith. However, none of those things are what really define holiness. Holiness is about how we respond to God’s call for us in our lives, how we are guided by the Holy Spirit. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were led by God in their lives as they traveled to Egypt and to other places as part of God’s plan for them, then as they returned to Nazareth where Jesus was raised by his parents in the Jewish faith. In the spirit of the way Mary, Joseph, and Jesus lived their lives in holiness, we are called to be holy as well, to live each moment of our lives in what God is calling it to be, in living with the goal of being a disciple of Christ in the forefront of our minds. In holiness, we are to surrender to God’s will and we to desire to have our faith in the center of our lives. In our call to holiness, one of the most important things is knowing when to say yes in life and knowing when to say no. In holiness, we engage in life. Like we saw in Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, in the way they lived in holiness, we are called to engage in life in all of its difficulties, its struggles, and its tensions, but we are to do so in a way that reflects the fidelity we have to the will of God.
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