Vol. 5 No.16 DoM Gospel Reflection— Luke 2: 41-52
The Feast of the Holy Family—December 27, 2015
By Mary Ann McConnell
Come Lord Jesus. Come and visit your people. We await your coming. Come O, Lord.
Here we are 3 days before Christmas – we are waiting but wasn’t Thanksgiving just last week?
I feel sure we have all been trying to make this Advent a season of grace, a time when we would journey deeper into God’s love and into the real meaning of Christmas. I do want to witness to the fact that here at St. Ignatius in this Marian Center, we have had the opportunity to deepen our knowledge through beautiful theological commentaries; we’ve heard personal witnesses of conversions to stronger faith and family and to pray without ceasing for people in our life who need our prayers. I can only respond with a grateful heart and a thank you to everyone here for their part in for preparing us for this Christmas 2015.
But before we are ready to hear and contemplate the Feast of the Holy Family, lets briefly walk through this Advent to see where we have been. On the 1st Sunday of Advent our gospel reading from Luke warns us to stay alert, be vigilant and pray because one day soon we will stand before the Lord. The 2nd Sunday of Advent, Luke tells us about John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and precursor. John’s message to us is one of repentance as he says “prepare the way of the Lord…All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” In the 3rd week, Luke gives us John’s words of anticipation of the coming of Christ. He states he is not the Messiah, the Christ. He is not even worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. As we lite the 4th candle on the Advent wreath, Luke tells us of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. We hear that the infant in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy and she proclaimed to Mary – Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And now in 3 days we will celebrate the Nativity of our Lord. Emanuel – God is with us. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. In our nativity scenes, the Baby Jesus is layed in mangers all over the world. Our merciful, loving, all-powerful God takes on our human nature. Christ our Savior is born. We rejoice with family gatherings, wonderful foods, gifts and with songs and hymns of Silent Night, Holy Night, O Little of town of Bethlehem, and Come all Ye Faithful. We as the Mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, cousins, caretakers take a well-deserved rest.
Now we are ready to celebrate and talk about the Feast of the Holy Family. Since it comes on the heels of Christmas this year, it is certainly not any less important for us. God chose to reveal is son through a family – a human family like we belong to. Can we or do we identify with the Holy Family? It is probably fair to say that none of us feels that our family is just like the Holy Family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph can seem to be too unreachable an ideal for our family. We may feel there are way too many difficulties that we face today – it is a different world.
Well let’s go back in scripture to where Mary was betrothed to Joseph. They were to be married and become a family. Even though there were not united in a carnal way their marriage was a true marriage. Mary and Joseph were united to bring Jesus into the world to protect and raise him. The Holy Family had only one child, but this child, Jesus, fulfilled the promise made to Abraham.
Do you have the same image as I do of the Holy Family? I have always pictured them in my mind walking hand in hand. Jesus helping Joseph with his carpentry while Mary prayed, cooked and cleaned the house. They were always joyful and problem free. But Is this really the true or whole picture?
Remember in ……Mary was with child and was suspected of being adulterous woman. Joseph knew he was not the father and quietly planned to divorce her. Their family was forced to leave their country to escape their child’s being killed. Mary experienced the loss of her husband and was left care for herself and her child. Mary then had to watch her son be put to death. The Holy Family was human and had to deal with difficult and devastating issues like we do. Jesus, Mary and Joseph know and understand our families’ ups and downs.
The significance of the Feast of the Holy Family unfolds when we come to understand the deeper truths it reveals. It was Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) who saw the family unit breaking down and sought to promote the observance of this feast day in hopes it might instill into Christian families self-less love. And it was Pope Benedict XVI who spoke of life of the Holy family in Nazareth. He said “The House of Nazareth is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
The Christian family is considered the first cell of the whole Church. It is the place where we begin our journey towards holiness. The Incarnate Word, Jesus, became one of us. He was born into a human family. This was not by accident nor was this incidental. No by God’s design Jesus became man, and was raised in a family in Nazareth. He transformed family life. The family is where you learn sacrificial love – a mother and a father pouring out their love for each other, for their family, their child, their sister, their brother. This is at the very heart of the vocation of a Christian Marriage.
How can our family become more holy? For me it may be captured in St. Paul’s words.
“Brothers and sisters, put on as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another, as the Lord has forgiven you so must you also do. And over all these put on love that is the bond of perfection.”
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