Solemnity of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph - 29 December 2024
29th December 2024
“To all fathers of families, Joseph is verily the best model of paternal vigilance and care. In the most holy Virgin Mother of God, mothers may find an excellent example of love, modesty, resignation of spirit, and the perfecting of faith. And in Jesus, who was subject to His parents, the children of the family have a divine pattern of obedience which they can admire, reverence, and imitate.” - Pope Leo XIII
A reflection on today's Solemnity by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Mary is, first of all, the model of the family. In the Annunciation story, there appears the action of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father sends the angel to announce that He will send His Son to be conceived in her, and that this will take place through the Holy Spirit. When Mary accepts, a new society begins; a human family among human families, which is at one and the same time an ideal and an earthly Trinity. In all other families there is father, mother, and child. In this family there is Child, Mother, and Father. It is the Child Who makes the family; it is the Child Who created the parents. Next to Him comes the Mother, for she alone, through the Holy Spirit, conceived the Son in her virgin womb. Finally comes Joseph, the foster father chosen by God to be protector of the group and, for that reason, protector of the Church, which is the expansion of that original family. All through the preceding ages, from the crudest wigwam where spouse lighted fire for spouse, to the castle of the prince and princess wherein the two looked down on heirs of earthly kingdoms, mankind has been either looking forward or backward to that Divine Family, in which God veiled the glory of His Divinity and became Flesh through the selfless love of Mary under the strong and reverent wardship of Joseph.
"After finding the Divine Child in the Temple, St. Luke tells us: ‘But he went down with them on their journey to Nazareth, and lived there in subjection to them, while his mother kept in her heart the memory of all this. And so Jesus advanced in wisdom with the years, and in favour both with God and with men.’ (Luke 2:51, 52) A triple humiliation is here revealed. ‘He went down’; was a miniature of the Incarnation when God came down from heaven and became man. Physically, Nazareth was below Jerusalem in the topography of the country. Spiritually it was lower too, for the Creator now goes down to His creatures. ‘To Nazareth.’ ‘Can anything that is good come from Nazareth?’ (John 1:46) was asked by one of the Apostles on hearing that the Messiah came from that tiny little village. He was born in ‘the least of the cities of Israel’; now he would live in a scorned town, but the ignominy of His death and His apparent defeat He would proclaim in the great city of Jerusalem. ‘And He was subject to them.’ Here the sculptor obeys his chisel, the painter is subject to his brush, the winds obey the dictates of the leaves. Two decades later men will see Him washing the feet of His Disciples. ‘So it is that the Son of Man did not come to have service done him; he came to serve others, and to give his life as a ransom for the lives of many.’ (Mark 10:45)
"What makes the obedience of this Child all the more impressive is that He is the Son of God. He Who is the General of humanity becomes a soldier in the ranks; the King steps from His throne and plays the role of peasant. If He Who is the Son of God makes Himself subject to His Mother and foster father in reparation for the sins of pride, then how shall children escape the sweet necessity of obedience to those who are their lawfully constituted superiors? The Fourth Commandment, ‘Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother,’ has been broken by every generation since the dawn of man. At Nazareth children would be taught obedience by Him who really is the Commandment. In this particular instance, where the Child is Divine, one might think that at least He would have reserved for Himself the right of ‘self-expression.’ Mary and Joseph, it seems, could have with great propriety opened the first ‘progressive school’ in the history of Christianity, in which the child could do whatever he pleased; for here the Child could never have displeased. ‘And He Who sent me is with me; He has not left me all alone, since what I do is always what pleases Him." (John 8:29)
"But there is no evidence that He gave to Mary and Joseph just the nominal right to command. ‘And lived there in subjection to them.’ God subject to man! God before Whom the angels, principalities, and powers tremble, is subject to Mary, and to Joseph for Mary's sake. Two great miracles of humility and exaltation: God obeying a woman; and a woman commanding God. The very fact that He makes Himself subject endows her with power. And this obedience lasted for thirty years. Three hours He spent in redemption; three years in teaching; thirty years in obedience. By this long span of voluntary obedience, He revealed that the Fourth Commandment is the bedrock of family life. In a larger way, how else could the primal sin of disobedience against God be undone except by the obedience in the flesh of the very God Who was defied? The first revolt in God's universe of peace was the thunderbolt of Lucifer: ‘I will not obey!’ Eden caught up the echo, and down the ages its inflection travelled, worming its way into the nook and crevices of every family where there gathered a father, mother, and child.
"By making Himself subject to Mary and Joseph, the Divine Child proclaims authority in home and in public life to be a power granted by God Himself. From this disclosure follows the duty of obedience for the sake of God and one's conscience. As, later on, He would tell Pilate that the civil authorities exercise no power except that given them from above, so now by His obedience He bears witness to the solemn truth that parents exercise their authority in the name of God. The parents have the most sacred claim on their children, because their first responsibility is toward God. ‘Every soul must be submissive to its lawful superiors; authority comes from God only, and all authorities that hold sway are of His ordinance.’ (Romans 13:1)"
(Three to Get Married)
Prayer for the Feast of the Holy Family
God our Father, in the Holy Family of Nazareth You have given us the true model of a Christian home. Grant that by following Jesus, Mary and Joseph in their love for each other and in the example of their family life, we may come to Your home of peace and joy. Amen. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for our families. 🙏💖💐