Year A Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Readings: Sir 3:2-6.12-14; Ps 128:1-5; Col 3:12-17; Matt 2:13-15.19-23

At first glance, the Holy Family appears to be a traditional family. But it is not, at least not if we believe what we profess in the Creed: “by the Holy Spirit [Jesus] was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”¹ While Jesus is God’s Only Begotten Son, he is the adopted son of Saint Joseph. On the other hand, we are God’s adopted children through Christ.

One effect of our rebirth in baptism is that we become members of God’s family, the Church. God is our Father and the Church is our Mother and Mary is Mater Ecclesiae, Mother of the Church and so our mother. Therefore, God’s family is not a traditional family but an eschatological one.

What does it mean to say that God’s family is eschatological? Perhaps it’s best to let Jesus answer. Later in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, when his Mother and brothers turn up unexpectedly, he asks: “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”² He then answers his own question: “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”³

Is this to say that blood family is not important? Of course not! But it does give us the divine perspective and helps us to grasp that because of baptism our identity is found in Christ, who “by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”⁴

As to family, the section of the Book of Sirach from which our first reading is taken is a commentary of sorts on the Ten Commandments. In light of Jesus’s teaching that “The whole law and the prophets depend on” the two great commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself”- it is easy to extrapolate that the first three commandments have to do with loving God and the final seven are how you love your neighbor.⁵

But the fourth commandment, the placement of which is not random, “Honor your father and your mother," occupies a unique place between the first three, which are about loving God, and the final six about love of neighbor.⁶ Parents, even missing, absent, or deceased parents, occupy a unique space between God and other people.

You may not be aware of it, but your perception of God, at least in part, was formed by your parents. For those of us who are parents, this realization should frighten us a bit. Do you see God as an angry judge, a cosmic cop, a galactic killjoy? Or do you see God as the loving, caring, merciful, and kind Father he is, like the father of the prodigal?⁷

Pope Francis, in his Christmas homily, spoke beautifully about God’s fatherhood:

God does not love you because you think and act the right way. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you. You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you. How often do we think that God is good if we are good and punishes us if we are bad. Yet that is not how he is. For all our sins, he continues to love us. His love does not change. It is not fickle; it is faithful. It is patient⁸

This, my sisters and brothers, is parenthood, fatherhood, and motherhood, whether biological, adoptive, or spiritual.

God, whom we can call “Our Father” because of Christ, delights in the very fact you exist. God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it! It is this unconditional, unfeigned, self-sacrificing love that sanctifies family life, no matter what form the family might take, traditional or non-traditional. The genuine love of parents for their children and, for partnered parents, real love for one another expressed as affection can make any family a holy family.

Praying Morning Prayer this morning, I was struck by the last verse of the hymn, which is about Saint Joseph:

Guardian and foster-father of the Christ,
Honour to you, so chosen by our God!
Husband of the Virgin Mary, you are first
To show us Christian love⁹

It was just this kind of love that led Joseph to take Jesus and Mary depart home and head for Egypt, thus making his family migrating refugees. It cannot be an easy choice to take your family, packing only what you can carry, leave your home and set out. But this is what Joseph did, just as many parents do in our day. Let’s not forget, a Nativity scene lacking immigrants, Jews, and Arabs, is just a barn scene featuring animals.

Spouses, whose marriage is a partnership of the whole life, love and honor each other by selflessly serving each other.¹⁰ Marriage between Christians is never a 50/50 proposition. Rather, it calls on spouses to give 100%, especially when you feel you’re not being met half-way. Of course, this is way easier said than done. Fathers do not provoke your children to bitterness. Remember, how they see you shapes their image of God the Father.

Catholic homes are the domestic Church. If your home is to be constitutive of Christ’s Church, then you need to exhibit “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”¹¹ Because there are no perfect families, we must patiently learn to apologize, to bear “with one another.. forgiving one another.”¹² We must do this because it is what God our loving Father has done for us through his Son.¹³

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1 Roman Missal, “The Ordinary of the Mass,” sec. 18.^↩
2 Matthew 12:48.^↩
3 Matthew 12:50.^↩
4 Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes [Pastoral Constitution on the Church], sec. 22.^↩
5 Matthew 22:37-40.^↩
6 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Section Two: The Ten Commandments.^↩
7 See Luke 15:11-32.^↩
8 Pope Francis, Homily for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Midnight Mass.^↩
9 The Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. I, Morning Prayer for Holy Family, 397.^↩
10 Code of Canon Law, canon 1055 §1.^↩
11 Colossians 3:12.^↩
12 Colossians 3:13.^↩
13 Colossians 3:13.^↩