(Homily for the Feast of the Holy
Family, Yr. C)
There
is no gainsaying the fact that Christmas is a family time. For it is a time of
re-union of families for the celebration of the Birth of Christ. It is fitting therefore,
that during this family time yearly we reflect on the Holy Family of Nazareth:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We call it “the Holy Family” because it is the most
holy of Families: Mary was immaculately conceived and was sinless, Joseph was
her chaste spouse, and Jesus was the Son of God. Not only that, but also
because they were faithful to God and to each other. Today we
celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and indeed the event of Christmas in se
is a feast of God’s entrance to the human family. In his project of salvation
of mankind God thought it wise to begin the decisive phase from and within the
context of family. Thus, he sent his Son to be a member of the family of Joseph
and Mary. A closer glance at the readings of toady readily suggests that the
pivot around which revolves the message of this day forbearance and faithfulness
expressed in the dynamics of love,
patience and togetherness. And that is what other families are called to
appropriate. The first reading and the Gospel in particular brings us to
the consideration that our human
families triumph in their trials upon connection to and with God. And the
second reading brings us to the consciousness that we are God’s children, we belong to Him, we all are members of a
larger family: God’s family. The readings therefore, provide different ways
of understanding the importance of the family.
The first reading (1Sam. 1:20-22.24-28) presents the value of the family and the gift
of children. The gesture of Hannah, the mother of Samuel in this passage is
really touching. She prayed and made her supplications ardently to God, asking
God to heal her barrenness, and she made a promise to God, that if God answers
her prayer and gives her a son, she will dedicate and offer him back to God, to
serve God in the temple. And indeed, God
did answer her prayers and she obtained the grace she prayed for: SAMUEL, gift
of a male child. Samuel is the fruit
of Hannah’s patient prayer and of God’s faithfulness. After receiving the
gift of a child Hannah took Samuel to the temple to offer him back to God, as
an exchange, so that Samuel will dedicate himself all the days of his life, to
the service of the Lord.
Indeed, in this episode there is an
important message for us today, and that
is the message that children are gift from God, they belong first to God and
then to the parents. And as such, the parents have the obligation “to give
back” their children to God, though not necessarily in the manner of Hannah,
but by showing and helping them to discover the face of God, walk in His
ordinances and finally to help them discover God’s project on them, their
vocation. The second message that emanates implicitly from this family is the
fact that the family of Samuel, Hannah and Elkanah is animated by a religious
spirit, be that as it may, every authentic Christian family, would be happy to
offer any of her members to the Lord. Christian parents ought to be happy and
joyful if the Lord chooses their children for His service, and not to be a
barrier to them. Above all, in
connection with the childhood of Samuel, Jesus could be seen as the
eschatological prophet.
The episode of the Gospel (Lk. 2:41-52) accentuates the difficult rapport that could exist between parents and
their children, as seen apparently in the family of Nazareth, but experienced presently
in the families of nowadays. In the episode of the loss of Jesus in the
temple, as narrated by St. Luke, what shines through is the spirit of
submission and obedience of the family of Nazareth to the prescription of the
law of Moses. However, Luke did emphasize it at the occasion of the
circumcision (Lk. 2:21), and at the
occasion of the presentation to temple, and the purification of Mary (Lk. 2:22). Here, it has to do with the
law according to which after 12 years, all Jewish men have to participate to
the celebration of the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, at the
feast of Shelters (cf. Deut. 16:16)
in the temple of Jerusalem.
In this episode the family of Nazareth
appears in the light that we least expected, but that points to the fact that,
the family of Nazareth is like every other family. Even in the family of
Nazareth, there was a time when the rapport between the parents and the child
appeared difficult. After the feast of Passover in Jerusalem the parents of
Jesus could not see him, he disappeared into the thin air, they had to go back
to Jerusalem in search of Jesus, they looked for him three days, and when
finally they saw him in the Temple sitting among the teachers, Mary questioned
Jesus: “My Child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and
I have been, looking for you” (v. 48).
And he (Jesus) responded “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must
be in my Father’s house?” (v.49).
But “they did not understand what he meant” (v.50), as St. Luke reported, who
knows for how long Mary and Joseph remained in this state of incomprehension.
Above all, however, from the family of
Nazareth emanates some indications on how to confront and resolve the problem
of the difficult rapport between parents and children:
●From the
response of Jesus we see that the problem finds its solution, if we put God in
the first position, God as our absolute value. In the passage we see Jesus’
growing awareness of his unique filial relation with God, as manifested through
the appellation “my Father”. This awareness certainly will be the foundation
for his later obedience to the Father’s call.
●From the
comportment of Mary, “who stored up all these things in her heart” (v.51), she was meditating, reflecting
and connecting all the words and happenings concerning Jesus, in order to
understand the mystery surrounding Him. Parents have to learn how to look for
solutions through a reflective attention, in meditation and prayer, rather than
resorting to the frenetic ways of resolving issues, especially family problems.
●From Mary and
Joseph, Parents have to learn to respect the inclinations, the aspirations and
the freedom of choice of their children, even though they are obliged to give
them guidelines and advice.
The second reading (1Jn. 3:1-2.21-24) considers the Christian family as a community of
God’s children. Truly, the most profound reality of our being Christians does
not lie on the acts of worship, but on the fact of being children of God:
“Beloved, what great love the Father has for us, to be called his children, and
that is what we really are”. Therefore, God
is our Father, he loves us, not just because we are his creatures, but
particularly because he has made us to be reborn through grace, by virtue of
the merits of Jesus Christ and by the work of the Holy Spirit; we are “new
creatures” and we participate in the divine life.
St. John went further to affirm that
“until now we are children of God”, but we shall be God’s children fully in the
life to come, when “we will be like him, because we shall see Him as He is”,
already on this earthly life we know Him covertly and imperfectly, but in
heaven we shall see him directly face to face. The Christian community therefore, is a community of persons that have
not only the bond of blood in common, but the supernatural bond of grace.
As we celebrate the feast of the Holy
Family, it is the church’s intention to present the Holy Family as the pattern
of Christian family life. However, it behooves us to understand that the Holy
Family was not a smooth and problem free family, rather it was a family with
her numerous problems, misunderstandings and internal conflicts, yet they
remained faithful to each other. That is why it could be suggested as a
paradigm to our Christian families. The Holy Family was a family with special grace but
yet a family with trials. The Holy
Family is the model for families because despite their many trials, the family
remained faithful and united
If we cursorily look back, we cannot
but remember how Mary conceived through the Holy Spirit (Lk.1:35), without the knowledge of Joseph; how Joseph decided to
pack her belongings and ready to drop her (Mt.
1:18-19), before the angel came and changed his mind (Mt. 1:20). What about their troubles, trials and insecurity in
Bethlehem (Lk. 2:8b; Mt. 2:13-14),
all those angels (Lk. 2:9.10), the
shepherds (Lk.2:8), the wise men (Mt. 2) with their stories that even
Mary didn’t understand? The gospel passage of today, indicated how poor they
were, to the extent that they were not able, to sacrifice the normal offering
of a Lamb at the occasion of the circumcision of their Son, rather they
presented the gifts of the poor: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Lk.2:24; cf. Lev. 12:6-8).
Besides, we heard the rather unhappy
prophecy of Simeon, that a sword will pierce the heart of the Mother (Lk. 2:35). We cannot but remember
their flight to Egypt in the middle of the night (Mt. 2:14), with the cries of the murdered children in Bethlehem
everywhere. We recall how He (Jesus) ran away from them, and how they had to
search for him for three days, before he was found in the temple (Lk. 2:45-46). Remember what the mother
told him: “My child, why have you done this to us?” and his seemingly unhappy
reply: “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my
Father’s house?” (Lk. 2:48.49).
Behold, these difficulties did not stop, even as He grew up, for we still
recall that episode when they heard about his preaching and miracles, how Mary
and some members of the family got scared, they went after him, to get him back
home, thinking that he had lost his mind (Mk.
3:21). We cannot but remember the marriage event at Cana (Jn. 2), they didn’t seem to have
understood each other (Jesus and Mary).
Above all, the Holy family was not an
easy Family, not even a very normal family, but they excelled in one thing, and
that is where we have to take them as model and paradigm for Christian
families; and that is the fact that
despite all these odds, they remained faithful to each other. The faithfulness of Joseph to Mary, even
though not being the father of the child. The faithfulness of Mary to Jesus, when she heard about his arrest and
condemnation, she went to Jerusalem to be with him, she stood by him till
death. Mary indeed is faithful like a rock. And Jesus in turn remained faithful
to the Mother even at the point of death, for some of his last words were for
Mary: “Mother, behold your Son. Son, behold your mother” (Jn.19:26-27). We are called therefore, as families, little
churches to appropriate the virtues of the Holy Family, especially that of
faithfulness and forbearance. We are
called to be faithful like them!!!
As we
celebrate the feast of the Holy Family today, we pray that our human families
torn apart by the presages of hatred and violence may imbibe the virtues of
love, forbearance, togetherness and faithfulness that distinguished the Holy
Family. We
pray that the Holy Family of Nazareth may obtain graces for our families, may
preserve them in serenity and concord, so that Christian couples will remain
duty bound to realize the model of marriage and of family designed and desired
by God. Amen!!!
(Fr. Vitus M. C. Unegbu, SC)
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