Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Today's Mass Readings

“In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son” (Heb. 1:1-2). This reveals a central truth of Christianity: God is Trinity. Our God is a communion of divine Persons. This tri-personal God revealed by Jesus is Father, Son, and the love between them is the communion of the Holy Spirit. The inner life of the Trinity is and always has been relational.

If our God’s inner life is relational, then it’s no wonder that the Second Person of the Trinity came as he did. He did not come as a mysterious secret; He did not come as a tree-spirit; He did not come as a brain in a jar! Our Savior became a flesh and blood human being with all the emotions, vulnerabilities, and experiences – save sin – that we know. Part of that was being born into a family.

The Holy Family is analogous to the communion of Persons in the Trinity. St. Joseph obediently follows his heavenly Father’s will. Yet he also uses human wisdom as head of the household to avoid returning to Judaea after the Flight into Egypt. Mary is Mother of God, but she also a human mother. While she provides the human nature of Christ, she also provides the human nurture that we know from contemporary developmental psychology is essential for adult wellbeing. Also, modern science tells us that the bond between mother and child is not simply emotional – every child leaves some of its unique cells inside its mother’s body so that they are always united.

From this divine-human starting point, St. Paul takes pains in his correspondence with fledgling churches to explain that they are not simply cardholders of a new fad. Every baptized Christian is a “new creation” and make up the members of the Body of Christ that is diminished unless “brought to full stature” by the whole. We are made adopted sons and daughters of the Father and heirs to an eternal inheritance. Furthermore, we are baptized in the name of the Trinity and therefore brought into the communion of the Church. It is because the Church creates a new family that Paul must remind them how it interacts. This new family has a higher standard to live up to than the family according to the flesh. Fr. Jonathan Robinson writes: “Like a mirror, a community holds up the faults of its members, and without the reflector it is easy to obtain a distorted view of ourselves” (Spiritual Combat Revisited 54). However, as this mirror of the Church created anew reflects imperfections to be set aside, it points us to the icon of Christ to embrace the grace of new life. Paul says we let Christ’s peace rule our hearts and praise God instead of lament the world that is passing away.

Relationality is the nature of God’s inner life, and how He chose to reveal His Son among us. We, then, should not isolate ourselves or seek singular perfection at the expense of charity and support. After all, this communion is both the nature of heavenly life and how we go to God. Therefore, on this feast of the Holy Family, we pray for our communion: “Lord Jesus, who wanted to be born as the first of many brothers and sisters, grant us the grace of true brotherhood. Help us to become like you. Help us to recognize your face in others who need our assistance, in those who are suffering or forsaken, in all people, and help us to live together with you as brothers and sisters, so as to become one family, your family” (Benedict XVI).

Reflection Question: So many parents suffer from watching their children stray from the practice of the Faith. What are the concrete ways that you deliberately express your own relationship with the Lord Jesus so that your family, friends, and colleagues may have your witness?

Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB