Feast of the Holy Family

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Genesis 15:1-6, 21:1-3
Psalm 128
Luke 2:22-40
Normally the Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas, but this year, because Christmas was on a Sunday, we commemorated the Holy Family on Friday since the octave of Christmas (New Year’s Day) is always celebrated as the Solemnity of Mary, the mother of God.
During his weekly public audience talks, early in his pontificate, Pope John Paul II spoke frequently about marriage and the family, and over the course of five years, those talks became known as his “Theology of the Body.” Given the sad state of decline of marriage and family in the modern world, some of John Paul the Great’s thoughts on the subject are worth recalling as we begin a new year. John Paul believed that the family finds its identity and mission in God’s plan for humanity. Here’s what he said:
“In God’s plan, the family has been established as an intimate community of life and love, and the family has the mission to become more and more what it is, that is to say, a community of life and love. The essence and role of the family are in the final analysis, specified by love. Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God’s love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church, His bride. Every particular task of the family is an expression and concrete actuation of that fundamental mission.”A “community of life and love.” What more could we hope for in our own families? This is God’s plan for us and for the continuation of humanity. This is how we are meant to beget and raise children: in a community of life and love, father, mother and children. Every parent knows that when a child is born to them, everything changes. The entire world takes on a new context because love abounds in the birth of a son or daughter. We become transfixed with the joy of loving that child and wanting to make virtually any sacrifice to ensure their safety and well-being. Marriage and family, John Paul says, reflects the inner life of God Himself in the Holy Trinity, a community of love so intense that the three persons are a singularity, comprising the One True God.
The mission of the family described by John Paul II is “to become more and more of what it is, a community of life and love.” As parents we nurture and cherish our children, teaching them what it means to love, to forgive, to take responsibility, to become fully human. We teach these virtues by words, actions, and example, which necessarily requires discipline of ourselves and our children. We perform these actions out of love and respect for the inherent dignity of each person, father, mother and each child, so that we may all grow in love. In imitation of Christ, we make many sacrifices for the life and love of our family, knowing that the gift of self is more important than any material goods we can give our children. No gift if more important to a child than the gift of love as expressed between husband and wife, demonstrating the strength and security of the family itself.
As parents we also have a responsibility to teach our children the great truths about good and evil, right and wrong. If children don’t learn these truths in the context of their family, they will never learn them. At the heart of these great truths is Jesus Christ who described Himself as “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” When standing before Pilot, Jesus revealed the reason why He came into the world:
“The reason I was born, the reason why I came into the world,
is to testify to the truth. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice.”
(John 18:37)Sadly, many people in the world have forgotten or ignored the Truth as revealed by Jesus, and they live as if God does not exist. Relying on themselves alone and choosing their own truth, they hold up the individual as the most important and basic unit of society, rather than the family. It’s no wonder then that marriage is at an all time low ebb, with only 51% of American adults being married. That’s down from 72% just 25 years ago. People are more focused on themselves and their personal freedoms, rather than a spouse or family. Not only have birth rates plummeted throughout the world, more children than ever are born out of wedlock, and raised more often than not in poverty, with a single parent who struggles to serve as both father and mother. In this cult of individualism, children are not welcomed into a “community of life and love,” but rather, seen as a burden to be avoided, and in many cases, destroyed before birth. Having lost sight of the Way, the Truth and the Life, this worldview epitomizes the culture of death where marriage is under attack as attempts are made to deny it’s sacred status and its very nature as the institution in which children are brought into the world. Redefining marriage as merely a legal arrangement diminishes the true purpose and mission of the family.
Recently a group of students at Harvard, that bastion of liberal thought, published a column in the student newspaper calling for young adults to “Reclaim Marriage.” They got it right when they wrote:
“Marriage is not merely a union of hearts and minds, nor is it only a romantic or sexual partnership. It is a comprehensive union that unites a husband and wife across all dimensions of the person. These norms mean that marriage fosters a distinctive stability and provides an extraordinary opportunity for the flourishing of those who enter into it. In marriage, a husband and wife share all the challenges and joys of life -- especially the burdens and blessings of raising a family -- making the former less trying and the latter more bountiful. Compare that to schizophrenic lifestyles of casual sex, open relationships, cohabitation, etc, all of which lack the uniting value that makes marriage so fulfilling. These types of relationship are poor imitations of marriage, aiming for fulfillment, but flying wildly off the mark.” (The Harvard Crimson, Oct 25, 2011)As we begin a new year, let’s all pray for our families, and for the sacred institution of marriage and family. If we make Christ a part of our marriage and family, we invite His guidance as spouses and parents. In doing so we are sure to receive His grace and blessings on our efforts to create a “community of life and love” that defies the culture of death and promotes the culture of life. By “guarding, revealing and communicating love” we live the mission of our family and we prepare our children to become loving, forgiving, and able to find their own fulfillment and happiness in this life and the next.