FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF JOSEPH, MARY AND JESUS

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. (Mt 2,13-15.19-23)

Now after they [the wise men] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” … When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

On the Sunday between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus.

One might ask: Why do we celebrate a feast for the Holy Family of Nazareth? We have just celebrated Christmas and we focused on the birth of Baby Jesus. On New Year’s Day we will celebrate Mary as the Mother of God. Why do we dedicate a Sunday to the Holy Family?

I can think of two reasons. First, to focus a little bit on Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth, and his mission as guardian and protector, the father figure of the Holy Family. Second, as Christmas is greatly marked by angels from heaven singing and giving the Good News of Christ’s birth, we may easily get lost with the beauty and festivities that surround this feast, and forget that this Holy Family is a normal family that faced difficulties and problems, along with the joy of educating and being educated by the Child. It was, then, deemed necessary to have a day in which to reflect on the normality of Joseph’s and Mary’s family so we could have them as “the model of all Christian family life”, as Benedict xvi said during his visit in Nazareth in May 2009.

A few questions come to mind. How can the Holy Family be a model for all Christian families? We have to accept the fact that not all men, not all husbands can be called “righteous men” like Saint Joseph, as St. Matthew called him when relating the story of the birth of Christ. Likewise, not all women, not all wives can be called “full of grace” like the Virgin Mary was called by the angel of the Annunciation. Surely, not all the children in the family, sons and daughters are “obedient to their parents” like Jesus was, as St. Luke said at the end of his story of the young boy Jesus.

So, as the Holy family of Nazareth is so unique, so unlike our families, how can it be a model for our families?

We can think of two important things. There is only one Holy Family, with its peculiar personality, mission and grace. Each Christian family, every family in fact, has its own identity and is urged to cultivate it and bring forth its fruits. Each family has its own place in human history. We are not called to mimic the Holy Family, but we are all called to be holy as persons and as family. The Holy Family is a model for our families in the same way that painters use models to inspire them. Each painter looks at the model and paints what each one sees from where he is standing. If you have several artists painting the same model, you will surely have several different pictures that will reflect the personality, the genius of each painter. That is how the Holy Family is a model for Christian families.

Indeed, Christmas showed us the lights of a new-born baby who is the Good News everybody was waiting for. The gospel reading today shows us the dark shadows the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to face. They are practically the same that families face today: there was no decent place for the family where the child could be born; the family had to flee and become refugees in Egypt because Herod was killing children in an effort to kill this child; Joseph was afraid to return to Galilee and preferred to go to Nazareth. In their day to day running of their lives Joseph, Mary and Jesus faced the same problems people face today, and they can be models to inspire and encourage us and whose help we can ask as protection and intercession.

The second thing is that the gospel says that there were angels telling Joseph what to do when action needed to be taken. Yes, he had angels to inspire him and we do not have them… or do we have angels around us? No, we do not have angels like those presented to us by painters and sculptors, with wings and halos, who tell us what to do. But yes, we have angels, messengers who inspire us to do the right thing according to the Word of God, and because they have no wings and no halos around their heads we run the risk of not recognizing them as inspirations sent to us by God. But then Joseph himself faced this problem, for the gospel writer tells us that the angels appeared to him in a dream. He was not better served then us. He had to work out in faith and in prayer what the message was. Was it a dream fruit of his own sleeping mind, or was it a real message from God? Should he dismiss it as a dream, or should he take the thing seriously? We have to face the same problem: Is what the Church is asking of us coming from God or is it just tradition or, worse still, the result of people in authority wanting to impose their ideas on others? We too, have to work these things out in prayer supported by the gifts of faith, hope and love, in the company of the community of believers.

Yes, then, the Holy Family can be presented to us as a model not only for the family but also for each one of its members. Let us be righteous like Joseph and pay attention to the ‘angels’ God frequently sends us to guide and inspire us to do the right thing. Let us be like Mary and treasure all the words of God and ponder them in our heart. Mary was the servant of the Lord and she was ready to serve even when she did not understand what the angels and Jesus himself told her. And let us be like Jesus who “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, being born in human likeness” (Phil 2, 6) in order to save us from our own selves and teach us to behave like humans and enjoy our humanity with all its limitations. Then we can sing with the angels of Christmas: “Glory to God and peace on earth”.