The Feast of the Holy Family

(December 26, 2009) This Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in honour of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family. This feast was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1893, on the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany; that is to say, on the Sunday between January 7 and January 13. In the calendar promulgated in 1969, the feast was moved to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, between Christmas and New Year's Day. The feast was kept as special day to consider the dignity of the family and to show our respect to the persons of the earthly trinity. From its early days, the church placed special emphasis on the importance of Family as a key unit in the structure of the Church. The Christian family, in fact, is the first community called to announce the Gospel to the human person during growth and to bring him or her, through a progressive education and catechesis, to full human and Christian maturity. The Holy Family is the name given to the family unit of Jesus: The Divine Son of God Jesus, his mother Mary, and his foster-father Joseph. We know very little about the life of the Holy Family through the Canonical Scriptures. They speak of the early years of the Holy Family, including the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, and the finding of Jesus in the temple. Various non-canonical works, including the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, try to fill in the blanks. However, even though these apocryphal works may contain some truth from oral tradition, they have been deemed unworthy of canonical status because of the way they present Jesus. While the exact details of the day-to-day life of the Holy Family may be unknown, we can still learn a lot from the stories we do have.
Devotion to the Holy Family is a recent development, but one that naturally grows out of a love for Jesus and his family. Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Mgr François de Laval, a Canadian bishop who founded a Confraternity. Its popularity increased during that time as several religious congregations have been founded under this title. The Holy Family also became portrayed in popular art of the period. On October 26, 1921 the Congregation of Rites under Pope Benedict XV inserted the Feast of the Holy Family into the Latin Rite general calendar. Popes before and including Benedict XV, especially Leo XIII promoted the feast as a way to counter the breakdown of the family unit. The Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the Feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general. Our family life becomes sanctified when we live the life of the Church within our homes. This is called the "domestic church" or the "church in miniature." St. John Chrysostom urged all Christians to make each home a "family church," and in doing so, we sanctify the family unit. The best way is by making Christ and his Church the centre of family and individual life. Also, poverty, lack of health care, and other social justice concerns must be addressed by faithful Christians because of the negative effect these conditions have on the family unit. St. Paul gives us some advice on family life in Colossians 3:12-21: Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
The concept of a Christian family covers a wide variety of traditions and of religiosity, from very conservative to very liberal. The key value of Christian families includes mutual respect among the family members. The Bible gives the precept to honour the father and the mother and this is how the children are expected to relate to their parents. It is not that Christian parents don't have conflicts with their children and vice-versa, but the ideal is always present and will always serve as a reminder of the proper relationship. Christian parents are also very aware of their responsibilities toward the children, especially the responsibility to pass on these values to the children. Equally important for the family is the relationship with God which is expressed through the prayer. Prayer is an important part of any individual Christian practice. The Holy Family feast is a good time to remember the family unit and pray for our human and spiritual families. We also take this feast to reflect on the value and sanctity of the family unit, and to evaluate our own family life. Finally, we can use this feast to ask ourselves what we are doing to promote the family within our own cultures, neighbourhoods, and communities. The story of Jesus tells us that God chose to come into our world by being born as an infant. God, who created us in love, is showing us that God wants our love by coming to us in the neediest form of human life: a newborn child. That meant that God wanted to be born and to grow up in a human family, just as each of us does. The very first way that God encountered humanity in our flesh was in the family. The family is the place where Jesus grew and became strong and filled with wisdom, taught by Mary and Joseph. The family is the place where we grow and learn all the important lessons of life. When we read the Gospel that speaks of Jesus’ early years, we see that it was not all wonderful, not all peace and light, not all ideal for the Holy Family. The gospel tells of the family travelling to Jerusalem to fulfil their religious obligations on the birth of their first son. We are told that they offered the required sacrifice, which for them was a pair of small birds. The normal sacrifice would have been a sheep. But they were too poor to afford that offering and had to give something less.
In Jesus, God has experienced human poverty. When our families today have to do without, when our families have to learn to manage without enough, they know that Jesus is with them. Jesus has been through this and understands their worries and fears. While Joseph and Mary could not give Jesus wealth or a lot of material things, they gave him the example that taught him how to live. Jesus grew up in a family that practiced its religion. Jesus’ family observed the laws of their faith such as travelling to Jerusalem to dedicate the first born to God in the temple. Jesus learned the words of the Bible; he learned how to pray to His Father in the words of the Psalms. He learned that his relationship with God, his Father, his Abba, was not just a private matter between him and God, but involved a whole community of people. Jesus lived in a family for whom obedience to God’s law was simply an accepted assumption of life. Jesus grew up in a family that believed that the family existed to bring new life into the world, to satisfy the emotional needs of its members in ways that are beneficial and that help foster respect, faith and love. They followed the word of God in the book of Proverbs: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
These are things that all our families do and can do, especially since we have Jesus present within our families to strengthen, encourage and guide us. In the Holy Family we see our own belief as Catholic Christians in the meaning of the family. Pope Benedict, speaking on the family says: Mary and Joseph taught Jesus primarily by their example: in his parents he came to know the full beauty of faith, of love for God and for his Law, as well as the demands of justice, which is totally fulfilled in love. Our families are called to do this as well. Our families can indeed be small communities of love that value the gift of life, that support and encourage one another and that see in its faith and its religious practice a treasure of great value to be continued, to be passed on and to be lived. Our families can be all of that for we have the power of God’s Spirit within us to do this. We are aware how the Sacred Scripture repeatedly underlines the importance and centrality of the family. The book of Genesis narrates the creation of the first man and woman, and the family is portrayed as having a central role in creation. Other Old Testament books speak of the love to be found in the family, which is also where children are taught wisdom and the virtues. The New Testament continues with the same theme of the family placing before us the example of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. St Paul in his writings extols the place of the family in the Church. The Church sees in the family the first natural society, with special rights that are proper to it, and places it at the centre of social life. For each individual the family is the cradle of life and love where they are born and where they grow. The climate of affection that unites the family is also the place where we learn about truth and goodness. Moreover, the family unit is a community of persons where moral values are taught and the spiritual and cultural heritage of society are passed on. The family is also essential in ensuring people are strong in their commitments, and promote both social responsibility and solidarity.
A person's beliefs about God and the depth of his faith in the ultimate are greatly influenced by the family. Those who are brought up in a family where religion is a strong influence will tend to be religiously-minded. This can be taken one stage further by saying that those who are brought up under the strong religious influence are able to shape their life in the right direction. The family in the modern world, as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by the many profound and rapid changes that have affected society and culture. Many families are living this situation in fidelity to those values that constitute the foundation of the institution of the family. Others have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life. Finally, there are others who are hindered by various situations of injustice in the realization of their fundamental rights. Knowing that marriage and the family constitute one of the most precious of human values, the Church wishes to speak and offer her help to those who are already aware of the value of marriage and the family and seek to live it faithfully, to those who are uncertain and anxious and searching for the truth, and to those who are unjustly impeded from living freely their family lives. Supporting the first, illuminating the second and assisting the others, the Church offers her services to every person who wonders about the destiny of marriage and the family. In a particular way the Church addresses the young, helping them to discover the beauty and grandeur of the vocation to love and the service of life.
We conclude with the words of Pope Benedict XVI at Nazareth during his pilgrimage to the Holy land in the month of May 2009. The Holy Father says: “All of us need, as Pope Paul VI said here, to return to Nazareth, to contemplate ever anew the silence and love of the Holy Family, the model of all Christian family life. Here, in the example of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, we come to appreciate even more fully the sacredness of the family, which in God’s plan is based on the lifelong fidelity of a man and a woman consecrated by the marriage covenant and accepting of God’s gift of new life. As we reflect on these realities here, in the town of the Annunciation, our thoughts naturally turn to Mary, “full of grace”, the mother of the Holy Family and our Mother. Nazareth reminds us of our need to acknowledge and respect the God-given dignity and proper role of women, as well as their particular charisms and talents. Whether as mothers in families, as a vital presence in the work force and the institutions of society, or in the particular vocation of following our Lord by the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, women have an indispensable role in creating that “human ecology” which our world, and this land, so urgently needs. Here too, we think of Saint Joseph, the just man whom God wished to place over his household. From Joseph’s strong and fatherly example Jesus learned the virtues of a manly piety, fidelity to one’s word, integrity and hard work. In the carpenter of Nazareth he saw how authority placed at the service of love is infinitely more fruitful than the power which seeks to dominate. How much our world needs the example, guidance and quiet strength of men like Joseph! Finally, in contemplating the Holy Family of Nazareth, we turn to the child Jesus, who in the home of Mary and Joseph grew in wisdom and understanding, until the day he began his public ministry. Here I would simply like to leave a particular thought with the young people here. The Second Vatican Council teaches that children have a special role to play in the growth of their parents in holiness. I urge you to let the example of Jesus guide you, not only in showing respect for your parents, but also helping them to discover more fully the love which gives our lives their deepest meaning. In the Holy Family of Nazareth, it was Jesus who taught Mary and Joseph something of the greatness of the love of God his heavenly Father, the ultimate source of all love, the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.”