(Solemnity of the Holy Family—Year B; This homily was given on December 27, 2020 at St. Paul’s Church in Cranston, R.I.; See Colossians 3:12-21 and Luke 2:22-40)
The Solemnity of the Holy Family offers us a great opportunity to reflect upon the Church’s beautiful teachings regarding marriage and family. In his “Theology of the Body,” St. John Paul II refers to marriage as the “primordial sacrament.” What does that mean?
Basically, all the Sacraments are instituted by Christ to bring us back into relationship with God and each other. In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are cleansed of original sin and receive the gift of sanctifying grace; in the Sacrmant of Reconciliation that gift is restored if we have lost it though mortal sin; in the Eucharist we are given a sharing in the very body and blood of Christ and possess the promise of life eternal.
Marriage is different in this one respect: it is the only reality that already existed, in a sense, before the fall, before orginal sin. Adam and Eve already shared in an intimate relationship with God and with each other before the fall. While the gifts of the Eucharist and Reconcliation seek to bring us back into that intimacy, it was already present in the couple before they ever experienced sin. In that sense it is the “primordial sacrament” (obviously there is a significant difference when Christ elevates that relationship in the Sacrament of Matrimony).
With the coming of Christ at Christmas, in the gift of the Incarnation, the human family is likewise changed and elevated. We are invited in Jesus to share in the life of the Trinity and become sons and daughters of God; we are called to be united as brothers and sisters in Christ, extending the intimacy of family life to the entire Body of Christ, the Church.
The readings for this weekend show us the Holy Family: Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. They reveal to us the grace-filled ideal of the family and what the opening prayer for our Mass declares as the “virtues of family life.”
The first thing we learn from the Holy Family is the odedience of love. Five separate times in that brief Gospel passage from St. Luke we hear the same phrase that motivated the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph: “the Law of the Lord.” It was clearly outlined in the teaching of their faith that they must “redeem” their newborn child and make an offering for Mary’s purification. What is important for us to reflect on this weekend is that they would not have merely gone through that practice in order to “check the box” and get it over with. No, they went to the Temple with great love and fidelity; they followed the Law of the Lord joyfully and willingly, because they loved the God who gave it to them.
The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph teach us the fruitfulness of the obedience of love. How could they have known that God made a promise to Simeon? The Lord had promised him that he would not die before he saw the Messiah, the anointed one. God made his promise dependent upon the free and loving choice of Mary and Joseph to follow the Law of the Lord. Because they were faithful and followed the Law, Simeon received the promised child in his arms and gave thanks. Where will our obedience of love bear fruit in the promises God has made to the people that we relate to each day?
The second truth we discover from that encounter with the Holy Family this morning is the tenacity of hope. We are living in a time of the global pandemic where there is a tremendous crisis of hope in the world. People are fearful of the future and all of the many unresolved questions regarding health, the economy and family life in general. Simeon’s encounter with the Holy Family teaches us that hope is real and the promises of God ring true.
Hope is a theological virtue deeply rooted in the memory. When we hope in the presence and assistance of God in our daily struggles, we are not merely crossing our fingers and practicing wishful thinking. Our hope that things will work out is based upon all that we remember about God’s faithfulness in the past. He has always been faithful, always true. God has always loved us, consistently forgiven us, constantly welcomed and cared for us. That same God is with us here and now, and He waits for us in the days ahead. We are never alone, never abandoned, never without hope. Simeon knew that; he was a man who studied the promises of God, and knew the history of Israel. Even though he was a man very advanced in years, he did not doubt that God’s promise to him would be fulfilled. Neither should we.
Finally, that Gospel passage teaches us about the power of silence. Specifically, we look to St. Joseph’s strong and loving custodity of the child Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In all of Sacred Scripture St. Joseph never speaks, yet his actions speak louder than words and his faithful care of Jesus and Mary reverberates from the pages of the Gospel. How desperately we need to emulate this silence and its power to attune the soul to the harmonic plan of God. St. Joseph listened to God’s message for him, and he acted on what he heard. If we want to know God’s plan for our lives and what He is saying to the world around us, then we have to be silent and listen. We have to be men and women of prayer. That is what will allow us to bear fruit in our vocation and find fulfillment in life.
If we look to our readings this weeekend, we can reflect on the passage of St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians:
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives.
—Colossians 3:18-19
That reading always raises some eyebrows when it is read in the Liturgy, and there is much misunderstanding regarding its meaning. The Church has always taught the equality of the spouses in Christian marriage. It is not the case that the woman is submissive to the husband and he is free to do as he pleases. No, there is a mutual submission; the husband must also submit himself to his wife and love her as Christ loves the Church (which is unto death!). The word “submission” can be literally understood as “under the mission of.” Clearly St. Joseph places himself under the mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What is that mission? It is to bring the Messiah into the world and to present Him to us all as the Savior. St. Joseph, in his powerful silence and care, places everything under that mission as he protects the child when Herod seeks to destroy Him. He will devout his life to the care of Jesus and Mary, ensuring that the mission of God is accomplished.
Pope Francis has designated 2021 as the Year of St Joseph. He has written an Apostolic Letter on St. Joseph in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph being named Patron of the Universal Church. This year we seek to imitate this silent love that is always attentive to God and places itself under the mission that God desires to see fulfilled in the world around us.
Jesus Christ has come to transform the human family, beginning with each and every one of us. Where can we discover the obedience of love, the tenacity of hope and the power of silence in our daily lives? May our encounter with the Holy Family continue to lead us more deeply in the “virtues of family life” in these days of celebrating the Lord’s birth.
