By Leon Bent –
As we draw close to a new Calendar Year, during the Octave of the 8 days of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We can learn the meaning and mystery of this Feast and apply it to our own lives and that of our family. The path to holiness is found in living our ordinary family life with Jesus at the centre of it all, and family is where progress and development in the Christian life. Our choices not only affect the people and the world around us, they make us become the people we are and will metamorphose into.
Through our Baptism, we are invited to live in Jesus, in our family, in the Body of Christ, the Church and the World. The Holy Family is seen as the model for the human family, the religious community, and the Church itself. In the Holy Family we see the ordinariness of the life Jesus lived, and the simple acceptance of Mary and Joseph, of the marvels of God. In the daily life of family and community we can touch the divine, we can come close to God. But we have to learn to live centred on God, with respect, mercy and love for each other, for every person. (Cf. ‘Liturgical Calendar for Ireland’, p.36).
May Nazareth serve as a model of what a family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplify its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing and for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings – the perfect setting for rearing children – for which there is no substitute (From an address given by Blessed Paul VI in Nazareth, January 5, 1964).
On pilgrimage to Nazareth, Pope Paul VI reflected, “Nazareth is a kind of school. . . . How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple, yet, profound school that is Nazareth!” He explained that there are three key lessons to learn from Christ’s childhood:
• It offered silence. “We need this wonderful state of mind,” the Pope said, “to combat the pressures and noise of the world”.
• It was “a community of love and sharing.” Nazareth serves as “a model of what the family should be . . . 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.”
• It taught discipline. “In Nazareth, the home of a craftsman’s son, we learn about work and the discipline it entails” (Office of Readings, Dec. 26).
Pope Paul VI said that building a “community of love and sharing” is crucial to teaching children virtues. This begins with each family member’s willingness to offer himself for the sake of another. Parents are called to be the first examples of self-giving. Our lives are to be ordered to the service of others. Mary understood this. Consider how she dropped everything and travelled to visit her relative Elizabeth. Even though she was pregnant herself, Mary willingly went and served the needs of her elder cousin (Luke 1:39–56).
There’s no doubt that the family is under attack today in many ways. The list of corrupting influences and active enemies is lengthy, including adultery, divorce, “same-sex marriage,” contraceptives, the mass media, the digital world, and much more. Families with more than two children are often mocked as being either religious zealots or simply stupid, while those who believe children are best raised by a mother and a father are regularly labelled as “narrow-minded.”
Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 encyclical, “The Gospel of Life,” noted that “human life is a gift received, in order, then, to be given as a gift” (par 92). The family is the human communion by which life is received and love is given—and then offered to others. The family is the core of social and relational life, and without it, humanity ceases to exist. As the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity stated, “This mission—to be the first and vital cell of society—the family has received from God” (par 11).
A holy family is our greatest weapon against the influences of the world, and our most effective way of transforming it. The Second Vatican Council called the family, “the first and vital cell of society” (Apostolicam Actuositatem 11).
The Holy Family’s life was steeped in Scripture. Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), for instance, shows a thorough knowledge of the Bible. It draws from many books of the Bible, and was spontaneously strung together in such a beautiful way that, it is clear that Mary had a profound knowledge of the meaning of the words she spoke. Christ, too, quoted Scripture constantly throughout the New Testament.
Daily readings of Scripture and participation in the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours should have a place in Catholic homes. In fact, the Holy See has taught that praying the ‘Liturgy of the Hours’ helps families to live the life of the Church fully: “It is fitting . . . that the family, as a domestic sanctuary of the Church, should not only offer prayers to God in common but also, according to circumstances, should recite parts of the Liturgy of the Hours in order to be more intimately linked with the Church” (Institutio Generalis de Liturgia Horarum 118).
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-13, reflects on the God-given nature of the family, including the specific roles of the father, mother, and children. It refers to “honour,” “authority,” “reverence,” and “obedience,” notions often ignored or even scoffed at today. Likewise, in the reading from St. Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, numerous other godly qualities are encouraged, including humility, gentleness, forgiveness, and gratitude. Yet the culture of death, so pervasive and entangling, loathes such attributes. It insists instead that. relationships are about getting, not giving, and that arrogance, rudeness, and anger are acceptable when things don’t go my way.
Now, this gold nugget! Let us turn with trust to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in whom we contemplate the beauty of faith and love, God’s plan for every family! May the Holy Family of Nazareth hear our prayers for our families and all families across the globe!
And, this final flourish! On the Feast of the Holy Family we must learn to love, pray and live in the School of Nazareth.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.