December 28, 2014
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying:
“Fear not, Abram!
I am your shield;
I will make your reward very great.”
But Abram said,
“O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,
if I keep on being childless
and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?”
Abram continued,
“See, you have given me no offspring,
and so one of my servants will be my heir.”
Then the word of the LORD came to him:
“No, that one shall not be your heir;
your own issue shall be your heir.”
The Lord took Abram outside and said,
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
The LORD took note of Sarah as he had said he would;
he did for her as he had promised.
Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age,
at the set time that God had stated.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to this son of his
whom Sarah bore him.
R/ (cf. 1) Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R/ Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R/ Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R/ Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
R/ (7a , 8a) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
R/ The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
constantly seek his face.
R/ The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R/ The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations
which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R/ The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
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.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything,
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
so they may not become discouraged.
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.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Brothers and sisters:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place
that he was to receive as an inheritance;
he went out, not knowing where he was to go.
By faith he received power to generate,
even though he was past the normal age
—and Sarah herself was sterile—
for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.
So it was that there came forth from one man,
himself as good as dead,
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky
and as countless as the sands on the seashore.
By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac,
and he who had received the promises was ready to offer
his only son,
of whom it was said,
“Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”
He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,
and he received Isaac back as a symbol.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let the peace of Christ control your hearts;
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
They took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”
The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
—and you yourself a sword will pierce—
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.
When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
they took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord.
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.
The Word Among Us
Meditation: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
My son, take care of your father. (Sirach 3:12)
Have you heard of the “sandwich generation?” It doesn’t have to do with food; it’s the situation many adults find themselves in, sandwiched between children and aging parents who need their care. In fact, a 2013 study found that in the United States, one in seven middle-aged adults provide financial support to their parents and their children, and almost three times that amount provide emotional support.
So how does God make us holy in the midst of these pressures? Don’t forget, our relationship with God, though personal, is meant to be lived out in community and not just individually. And the first and most important community is the family! It’s precisely through the ups and downs of family life that God forms his character in us. It’s a give-and-take; sometimes it’s our turn to give, and other times to receive.
If you’re on the receiving end, let people care for you! Chances are you’ve given much to your family over the years. Remember: as you receive, you are also giving a gift. You are giving them the chance to show their gratitude and to grow in becoming more like Christ. Taking care of your needs could be a pivotal experience in their relationship with God. It’s also a great way for you to grow in detachment and humility!
If you’re being called to give more, try to see in each needy family member the Christ child himself. How would you love him? What would you give to him? Believe that in loving and serving your family, you are loving and serving Jesus—and that he will bless you deeply for it.
On this feast day, God wants us to know that we can all become holy families. Through his grace, your family can become more of a living reflection of his love and life. Your actions in caring for each other and receiving that care will actually enflesh his love in the world.
“Father, pour out your grace and make every family a living icon of your love.”
Psalm 128:1-5
Colossians 3:12-21
Luke 2:22-30
Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion
(Sirach 3:2-7,12-14; Psalm 128:1-5; Colossians 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40)
1. In the first reading, the book of Sirach teaches us of our responsibilities to our father and mother, with special focus on our fathers—and the rewards that go along with honoring them (e.g., forgiveness of sins, answered prayers, length of days, and delightful children). How do you (or did you) stack up against the responsibilities described in the first reading?
2. In what way has your relationship with your earthly father helped or hindered your relationship with your Heavenly Father, and your experience of his great love for you? If it has hindered your relationship, what steps can you take to change this?
3. The responsorial psalm tells of the blessings for those who “fear” the Lord? What does “fear of the Lord” mean in your life? What are the positive and negative sides of this fear?
4. The second reading presents the authentic atmosphere of a Christian family where kindness, love, mutual understanding, prayer, thanksgiving and joy in the Holy Spirit should be present. Which of these elements is the Lord asking you to bring more deeply into your home environment?
5. In the second reading, St. Paul also reminds us that forgiveness is a gift we have received from the Lord, and “that as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.” This means we must give this gift to others. To whom is the Lord asking you to give the gift of forgiveness to?
6. The Gospel reading describes the events surrounding the Holy Family’s trip to Jerusalem with Jesus “to present him to the Lord.” Trying to relate our own lives to the Holy Family’s life is a challenge. Theirs originated in crisis and prevailed through many challenges and hardships, including the final crisis—Jesus’ crucifixion. However, by looking to them as our example, we can find the strength to persevere, no what hardships come our way. What can you learn from the lives of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and how they lived as a holy, faith-filled family that you can apply to your own family?
7. The meditation ends with these words: “On this feast day, God wants us to know that we can all become holy families. Through his grace, your family can become more of a living reflection of his love and life. Your actions in caring for each other and receiving that care will actually enflesh his love in the world.” Do you believe that you are called to be part of a faith-filled, holy family, no matter what your situation or what are the challenges of your life? What are one or two steps you can take to make your own family more faith-filled and holy?
8. Take some time now to pray that your family, and all Christian families, would receive the grace to reflect our heavenly Father’s love to one another and to others. Use the prayer at the end of the meditation as the starting point.
A Christian Pilgrim
THE HOLY FAMILY OF NAZARETH AND THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY
THE HOLY FAMILY OF NAZARETH AND THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY
(A biblical reflection on the Feast of THE HOLY FAMILY – Sunday, 28 December 2014)
Gospel Reading: Luke 2:22,39-40
First Reading: Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Psalms: Psalm 105:1-6,8-9; Second Reading: Hebrews 11:8,11-12,17-19; Gospel Reading: Luke 2:22-40 (longer version)
The Scripture Text
And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.
And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him. (Luke 2:22,39-40 RSV)
At the beginning and the end of this passage about the Holy Family, Luke mentions that Mary and Joseph were observing the Law of the Lord. Clearly, here was a family where God was number one and everything was evaluated in the light of faith. They belonged to the larger family of the Jewish religion and their faith was supported by religious customs and ritual.
After eight days every male child was circumcised in observance of the ancient covenant between God and Abraham, the father of believers. In the case of a firstborn male a sacrificial offering was rendered to God as the source of all life. Then after forty days they had the ritual of purification of the mother which restored her to participation in religious service. Through the observance of these religious traditions the faith of the people was supported and the sacredness of life was kept in the forefront. The place of God in the family was deeply respected.
In our present time when there is a great push towards the secularization of society, the Law of the Lord is disregarded by many in the debates on family morality. Secularism is a pattern of thought and behavior which seeks to set humanity on a pedestal apart from God. Echoes of the first temptation can be heard: “… and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5 RSV) … having the right to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. Where traditional Christian morality is cast aside there is an alarming increase in the number of unmarried pregnancies, with all the consequent pains and pressures of the single-parent family.
Secularization lacks the vision of God’s faithful love and cannot find the grace or courage to say “forever”. It leads to cohabitation without the permanency of marriage or to civil marriages which are often little more than contracts until further notice. Secularism fails to appreciate the sacredness of sexual intercourse as an act which is open to cooperation with God in the wonder of creating a new human being who will have an eternal future. The fact that there may be unhappy marriages and bad families does not alter the claim that a good family provides the most natural environment for the growth of a child towards full human maturity.
Luke’s portrait of the Holy Family highlights their observance of the Law of the Lord. Jesus Himself would later clarify the essence of this law: love of God and love of one’s neighbor. Out of these two precepts flow the qualities of the Christian family.
The love of God will be clearly seen as the number one value in a Christian home. There will be time and place for prayer, for discussion on the deep mysteries of life and death, and for the sort of reading which will deepen one’s understanding of the faith and inspire virtuous action. As we like to pin up pictures of our heroes, so in the Christian home one will notice the pictures of statues which express religious devotion. Those who share the same faith will be moved towards its expression in liturgy. There is something lacking in a family where prayer is always a private affair and they never have any togetherness in liturgical participation.
The love of God inspires our love for one another in God’s family. Charity must begin at home. Home is where we are wanted: where the love is so deep that storms on the surface never threaten the relationship: where we sometimes let off steam and show our worst features but remain totally confident that we will be forgiven.
The Christian family reaches out beyond its doors to the immediate neighbors. Christian neighbors show sensitivity to the old, the lonely, the sick. They rally round in times of crisis, they anticipate needs and they stay in compassion with the broken-hearted.
It was not all sunlight and easy going for the Holy Family. They were to know emigration, searching for work, misunderstanding, and rejection. It would all be part of that sword of sorrow piercing Mary’s soul (Luke 2:35). But God was over all and that was enough for Mary’s peace. At Bethlehem the Child was swaddled in binding cloths so that His bones might grow straight and strong. In the years at Nazareth He was surrounded by an atmosphere of faith and religious observance which helped Him to mature in character and to grow in wisdom. Luke notes that God’s favor was with Him. For the face of God always smile warmly over the family which observes the Law of the Lord.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, to us the Holy Family is a model of religious observance, in prayerfulness and fidelity to God through light and darkness, joy, and sorrow, breaking and growing. Let Your Holy Spirit keep guiding us to become good disciples of Christ, and to spread His Good News to others we meet. Amen.
Insight Scoop
"Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (1597) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, December 28, 2014 | Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
• Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 or Gen 15:1-6; 21:1-3
• Psa 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 or Psa 105:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
• Col 3:12-21 or Heb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19
• Lk 2:22-40
The family today, in so many ways, is under scrutiny and even under attack. Some of the questions are about the very nature of this most ancient and central institution: What is a “family”? What is necessary for a family to exist? For what purpose do families exist?
On December 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI gave a Christmas address to the Roman Curia which focused on the family. He noted that “there is no denying the crisis that threatens it to its foundations – especially in the western world.” The family is important, he explained, because within the family exists “the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence. This is something we learn by living it with others and suffering it with others.”
He then said something that is worth pondering on this Feast of the Holy Family: “So it became clear that the question of the family is not just about a particular social construct, but about man himself – about what he is and what it takes to be authentically human.”
Put another way, the reality of the family is rooted in the truth of man: he is created by God so he can have eternal and life-giving communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The very first sentence of the Catechism makes this clear: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.”
And how is God going about the business of saving us? “He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church.” This is why the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, became man. This is why the Holy Spirit, through the sacraments, makes us God's “adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life” (CCC, 1).
God became a man and a member of a specific family so that all men and women might be able to become members of the supernaturally-constituted family of God, the Church. This means that each Christian family is a reflection of an eternal mystery, for it is “a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit” (CCC, 2205).
This is heady stuff, no doubt. Which is one reason the reality of the Holy Family is so important, for it reveals how true theology is lived out in true charity, in the daily work and rhythm of family life. Thus, the exhortation from Sirach: “Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them.” And similar words of wisdom from the Apostle Paul: “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Wives are to acknowledge the proper leadership of their husbands; husbands are to truly love their wives; children are to be obedient and respectful.
This is not about simply following “the rules,” but about giving oneself to others in selfless love, for it was the overflow of God's selfless love that brought about creation. This means recognizing the dignity and worth of others, while also recognizing our proper relationship with one another.
Benedict noted that today there is a serious crisis when it comes to “the human capacity to make a commitment,” the sort of commitments essential to true family life. The Son committed himself to the work of the Father and was born of Mary the Virgin. Mary committed herself to the word of God, trusting completely in the divine plan. Joseph committed himself to Mary and Jesus, obeying God despite the efforts it required.
And Jesus, on the Cross, cried out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). Christ was willing to die for a lost family, bringing into being a new family, in which we can become authentically human.
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the December 29, 2013, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
Humbly Honoring Mom and Dad
Dr. Mark Giszczak
December 28, 2014
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
First Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122814.cfm
Normally our strength remains untested. Most people don’t have to lift the heaviest object they possibly can at their day job or run as fast as they can on a regular basis. It is only in the heat of the moment, when a tree trunk has fallen on your dog or you’re being chase by a bear that your latent athletic talent is tested to its full potential. Hopefully, adrenaline kicks in! The same thing is true of love, of virtue. Often, we can think well of ourselves, but when we’re confronted by a difficult relationship, it can be challenging to do the right thing. The way we relate to our family reveals everything about our true character.
Context
This Sunday’s first reading from Sirach comes at the beginning of this long wisdom book. Sirach is one of the lesser-known books of the Bible since it is included in the Catholic canon, but not in the Protestant canon. The “canon” is the official list of biblical books. Sirach gives wisdom instruction, which is often couched in a kind of father-to-son style. Here at the beginning of the book, he expounds on the general duties we have toward God and toward others before getting into the rewards of wisdom and specific wisdom instructions. Our reading presents only part of a longer section on honoring parents (Sir 3:1-16).
Family: Testing Ground for Love
As children, the family is the first place where we are taught how to love, how to behave, how to obey and how to choose the good. In the best of situations, the family is a safe place for children to learn, to grow and to develop both physically and morally. It makes an excellent testing ground for love. The way we relate to our parents as children reflects how we will relate to God as adults. Learning to honor, obey and submit to our parents is a great preparation for learning to honor, obey and submit to God. The family, as a place of love, should teach us how to curb our selfish attitudes and love others. The first “others” we love are our parents and siblings, which trains us how to love those outside the family: friends, co-workers, even strangers.
Rewards of Honoring Family
Our reading from Sirach extracts the commandment to honor our parents from the Ten Commandments and fluently expounds on all the wonderful rewards of obeying it. Ephesians 6:1 emphasizes how it is the first commandment with a promise attached and Sirach certainly takes a crack at explaining to us all the benefits. (Notice that doing the most selfless kind of loving is the most beneficial, self-interested thing to do!) He teaches that honoring our parents atones for sins, preserves us from sin, stores up riches, blesses us with children, obtains long life and brings comfort to our moms. That’s a lot of blessing wrapped up in one command! What Sirach is showing us is that our behavior toward our family members, and in particular our parents, is reflective of who we are deep down and that it has serious ramifications in the rest of our lives. We want to receive the promise attached to the commandment: to live a long life in the promised land, which for us equates to our eternal destination.
The Triumph of Humility
One of the most upside-down virtues is humility. It feels contradictory to grow bigger by getting smaller, that is, to come closer to God by realizing our own small status. Here Sirach repeatedly emphasizes how we should submit to our parents and show them honor and deference even if dementia takes hold in their old age. It is a tough command to consistently live out in all circumstances. However, submitting to our parents—though it does not mean literal obedience in every particular—is a powerful antidote to pride. When we honor another as greater than ourselves, we recognize our own limited role in the world, the fact that we are not the center of the universe. Showing honor and obedience to our parents is a great way to recognize our dependence on God, whether it takes the form of a child’s obedience or caring for our parents’ bodily needs in old age. If it would not have been for our parents, we would not be here. Likewise, if it were not for God, we would not even exist.
Notice how humility, honoring our parents and loving God all flow from gratitude for the great gifts we have been given. We can give thanks to God for creating us and thanks to our parents for co-creating us with God. God did not have to make us. Our parents were not forced to bring us into the world. Though he did not have to, Jesus decided to come as a child and set an example for us by honoring his parents perfectly. When our “strength” is confronted with the challenge of loving and showing deference to our parents, we might remember his humble example.
Scripture Speaks: The Holy Family
Gayle Somers
Today, the Church gives us an episode from Jesus’ early family life to ponder. Why?
Gospel (Read Lk 2:22-40)
St. Luke tells us that after the wonder of Jesus’ remarkable birth, announced by angels and praised by shepherds, His parents did what all devout Jews did in that day after the birth of a firstborn son—they presented Him at the Temple in Jerusalem. There were two covenantal obligations on them that required their obedience. First, any woman who had given birth, thus incurring ritual impurity for forty days because of the blood that accompanies birth, had to offer sacrifice to “complete” her purification, enabling her to re-enter liturgical life again. Technically, this was not required of Mary, because the Church teaches that she gave birth with no violation of her virginity. Yet she submitted to it out of respect for the meaning of the law and to avoid giving scandal to others. Blood caused ritual impurity among the Jews because it was a powerful sign of death, and nothing associated with death could come into contact with holy people, places, or things. Ritual holiness symbolized life as God designed it to be, untainted by death (the punishment on sin in Eden). Respect for the holy promise of life from God’s covenant with His people made Mary want to follow the law’s prescription. This is reminiscent of Jesus’ desire to be baptized with repentant sinners in the Jordan River. The new Adam and the new Eve lived in solidarity with the people Jesus came to save.
Next, the law of Moses required all parents of firstborn sons to remember how God had spared Israel’s firstborn sons from death at the Passover, when He delivered them from bondage to slavery (see Ex 13:2; Num 18:15-16). In a sense, the parents “owed” these sons to God out of gratitude. In His kindness, however, God made provision for them to redeem their sons by making an offering. This ritual requirement planted very firmly in the family lives of God’s people how much He loved them and to what great lengths he was willing to go for them to live free.
So, we see that Jesus was born into a faithful, observant family, to parents who loved and honored God and who believed the requirements of their covenant religion were grounded in beauty, truth, and goodness. In this, Mary and Joseph become models to us, especially on this feast day, of how the family life established by faithful parents forms the foundation for the growth of children who one day grow up to be parents themselves. Remember the circumstances of Jesus’ extraordinary conception and birth. Do we wonder if His parents thought that perhaps the “rules” wouldn’t apply to Him, or even to them? If God had singled them out for such gracious, miraculous work, did that suggest their own holiness placed them beyond the law which was, after all, meant to regular the lives of sinners? If they were tempted to think this way, they resisted it and did not succumb. They humbly submitted to all that their religion required of them, confident in its objective goodness, no matter what they personally thought or felt.
While they were at the Temple, Mary and Joseph had the unexpected blessing of prophetic pronouncements by Simeon and Anna about their beloved baby boy. In this, they got more than they could ever have imagined as they planned their trip to the Temple. First, Simeon describes seeing the “salvation” God has sent His people in this little Child—a confirmation to them of what Gabriel had announced at the Annunciation. Simeon’s words “amazed” the Child’s parents. All parents long for great things for their children. Parental love always wants to see happiness and fulfillment in the future that lies ahead for them. Of course, none of us want to hear what Mary and Joseph heard next from Simeon: “this Child is destined … to be a sign that will be contradicted.” Not only that, but Mary would experience the piece of a sword as the Child accomplished the work God sent Him to do. On such a festive occasion as this Presentation, we should not miss the depth of meaning of Simeon’s prophecy. Even God’s own Son, born into the best possible loving, devout family, could not escape the suffering that is the lot of all of us ever since Eden. And yet, when Joseph and Mary heard all that Simeon and Anna had to say, could there be any doubt in them about the goodness and wisdom of God’s plan?
Confident of this, even though they had to absorb startling, even difficult, prophetic words, Joseph and Mary were able to return home to Nazareth and raise their Boy, trusting in the promises of God no matter what lay ahead.
Isn’t this what is required of all of us parents as we receive our children from God’s hands? Today’s Gospel reminds us to humbly submit to the religious obligations of our covenant with God, for His glory and the good of our children and ourselves. It also reminds us that every child baptized in this covenant is destined for greatness, because God loves us enough to make us His children, having willed us into existence. Finally, it gives us courage to accept the shadows of suffering that will inevitably fall into our family life, trusting that nothing ever conquers the goodness of God.
This is the kind of family into which Jesus was born and grew to manhood. By God’s grace, it can be our kind of family, too.
Possible response: Lord Jesus, help me remember that my family life is my first and best school for sanctity.
First Reading (Read Sir 3:2-7, 12-14)
This reading enables us to see that the family—its structure of parental authority and its potential for harmony and long-lasting joy—is God’s idea. “God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority He confirms over her sons.” This ordering of family life by God Himself is why the Fourth Commandment requires us to honor our fathers and mothers. Our relationship with God is not unaffected by our treatment of our parents, because, in a sense, they are standing-in for God, having cooperated with Him in our conception and birth. Obedience and reverence for our parents grows into obedience and reverence for God.
Possible response: Heavenly Father, thank You for creating families. Please strengthen us all in an age that is losing respect for strong family life.
Psalm (Read Ps 128:1-5)
God’s first commandment to man and woman, at the dawn of Creation, was to “be fruitful.” All through Scripture, blessedness is described in terms of fruitfulness. In the psalm, we see that “Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in His ways.” Reverence for and obedience to the Lord are the essence of blessedness. See how they are rewarded—by fruitfulness. First, the blessed will be able to literally “eat the fruit” of their handiwork. Their crops will yield great bounty. Then, “your wife shall be like a fruitful vine…your children like olive plants around your table.” Here is a beautiful picture of the blessing of family life, God’s great gift to His faithful people. What a wonderful corrective this is for a culture like ours that so often counts its blessings in possessions, not people.
Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.
Second Reading (Read Col 3:12-21)
In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul directs the Christians to treat each other as fellow members of God’s household. He exhorts them to live in the Church the way we ought first to live in our families: with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Life in God’s family requires us to forgive others as He has forgiven us. Love is the “bond of perfection” that holds the community together. The family is the best place to begin learning these virtues. St. Paul has specific instructions for families to enable them to be a place where this kind of life is a reality. He tells wives to “be subordinate” to their husbands, which means showing the respect he is due as head of the home. Husbands are to love and cherish their wives, not allowing “bitterness toward them” to fester. Children, not surprisingly, are to obey their parents. Fathers are exhorted not to “provoke” their children, because that discourages them.
In other words, all the virtues mentioned in the first part of this passage and given to the Christian community at large need to be vigorously practiced in the home, our most intimate Christian community. The result of this discipline (and it takes discipline to live this way!) will be “the peace of Christ,” our true place of rest.
Possible response: Lord Jesus, family life takes work. On this Feast of the Holy Family, please give us grace to practice the virtues St. Paul describes as the ones that lead to Your peace in our midst.
