December 31, 2023 - "Feast of the Holy Family"

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I thought that it was wonderful to see so many people attend the Masses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  After all the Christmas Masses were concluded, I was pleased to have Christmas dinner with my Stehle cousins who live in DC.  Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family--which is celebrated on the Sunday between Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  I was surprised to find out that the devotion to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph developed rather recently—in the seventeenth century.  Built on the Gospel accounts, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are looked upon as an excellent domestic unit representing the ideal family life.  To promote family life and build up devotion to the Holy Family, a feast of the Holy Family was established for the Universal Church in 1921.
 
The Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours for today quotes from an address that Pope Saint Paul VI gave when he visited Nazareth on January 5, 1964.  The Holy Father said on that occasion that Nazareth was a kind of school where we could discover what the life of Christ was like and even to understand his Gospel.  At Nazareth we can observe and ponder the simple appeal of the way the Son of God cam to be known, profound yet full of hidden meaning.  St. Paul VI thought that here in Nazareth we could come to realize who Christ really is.  We can also sense and take account of the conditions and circumstances that surrounded his life on earth:  the places, the tenor of the times, the culture, the language, religious customs, in brief everything which Jesus used to make himself known to the world.  St. Paul VI noted that here everything has meaning and here we can learn the importance of spiritual discipline for all who wish to follow Christ and to live by the teachings of his Gospel.
 
Saint Paul VI mentions three lessons that we can learn from the profound school that is Nazareth:
 
First, we learn from its silence.  If only we could once again appreciate its great value.  We need this wonderful state of mind, beset as we are by the cacophony of strident protests and conflicting claims so characteristic of these turbulent times.  The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God’s inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers.  Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God.
 
Second, we learn about family life.  May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be.  May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplifying its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings; in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children—and for this there is no substitute.
 
Finally, in Nazareth, the home of a craftsman’s son, we learn about work and the discipline it entails.  I would especially like to recognize its value—demanding yet redeeming—and to give it proper respect.  I would remind everyone that work has its own dignity.  On the other hand, it is not an end in itself.  Its value and free character, however, derive not only from its place in the economic system, as they say, but rather from purpose it serves.
 
St. Paul VI closed his address in Nazareth by expressing his deep regard for people everywhere who work for a living.  He pointed out that Christ their brother would be their great model and prophet in every cause that promotes their well being.
 
Let me wish everyone a Happy New Year! 
 
Until next week,
Fr. John