Mary and Joseph lead our families to deeper faith, adoration, trust and intimate love for your Divine Son Jesus really and truly present, physically, corporally, in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist; so that, our families may one day enter into the Holy Eucharist unveiled in the Holy Family of Heaven—the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, along with all the angels and saints. Amen.

The Solemnity of the Holy Family. Sunday December 28th, 2014

Merry Christmas! Yes, we are or still should be, celebrating Christmas, Christmas is far from over! The Solemn celebration of Christmas ends with the Baptism of the Lord. Today, within the Octave of Christmas, eight days of solemn celebration, we celebrate family, and the Holy family in particular. The Holy family is the model and image of what our families should strive to be. Now before you begin thinking that this is unreasonable, impracticable or impossible, let us take a closer look at the Holy Family; God doesn’t give us a model to follow without providing the means to imitate it in our own lives and family.

In the thirty hidden years of Nazareth we discover that the Holy Family was in a sense an Ordinary family. There was nothing out of the “ordinary” in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family even had turmoil, as seen in the flight to Egypt, and when Joseph and Mary “lost” Jesus for three days.

Mary, even though the Mother of God, lived her life as a traditional Jewish homemaker providing for the needs of her family. She loved Joseph, She was submissive to her husband in the true sense of that word. She sacrificed and worked hard to make her house a home. Most of all, she loved Jesus with her whole heart, and so loved God above all things, in words and most importantantly in deeds. She was the most faithful disciple of the Lord.

Joseph was an ordinary skilled labor who provided for his family. Jesus was known as the son of this carpenter. Joseph loved his wife as he loved his own body, and so lived a manly life of chastity. Most importantly, St Joseph, was the spiritual provider, “head” of the family. He loved God above all; and in his home and in his work, Joseph served the Lord. And so, as he held and cradled Jesus the son of God in His arms, St Joseph also held the Child Jesus close, intimately, to His Heart (this is a hint to the relationship all fathers should have to Jesus, they need to receive in Him and hold Him closed to their heart…true men are men of Christ for Christ was the True- the Full Man).

For His part, Jesus, lived like any other inhabitant of Nazareth, working the same trade as St. Joseph and earning his living by the sweat of his brow. He worked hard and even became tired…imagine! God became tired! Speaking of Jesus’ life at Nazareth the Gospel sums it up by telling us, “He was obedient to Joseph and Mary.” Even though He was God in the flesh, Jesus lived as an obedient child, obedient to the fourth Commandment, to honor thy Father and Mother, thus showing his love for his parents on earth. Jesus has given the perfect example of how all children should treat their parents, and of how all spiritual children should treat their spiritual fathers in Christ.

So even though having lived an ordinary life, what are the great secrets of the Holy Families’ hidden life at Nazareth? Secrets we can discover to help us to imitate their true and happy family life. Secrets we can follow in our own lives with the Holy Families help.

First, is the secret of its silence. Nazareth was a place of peaceful rest from the noise of the outside world. It was a womb so to speak, where the members of the family could grow in love for one another and in love for God. Our families should be the same; they should be a place of peace, of place of respite from the noise and clamor of the outside world that is always trying to distract our attention from the things that really matter—love of God and love of family. Frequently, we need as a families to shut the T.V. off, turn the internet off, and put the cell phones and Ipads away and spent quality time in each other’s company before the Lord.

In this, we discover the secret that Nazareth was the perfect place for the rearing of Children. Nazareth as we have said is the perfect model of what family life should be. Jesus, Mary and Joseph loved another, they always deferred to one another out of loved, putting the needs of the other before their own. It was a mutual submissiveness for the good of the family. We need the grace to to the same. In our family life, we should always ask ourselves in: “Is what I am thinking, saying and doing, is what I want, truly for the good of the family and for the salvation of souls.” By the way, what I say for our families goes equally as well for our parish families and why we need to be part of and take an active part in Parish family life.

The family should be a community of true love and sharing, a place for perfecting all of the human virtues such as patience, kindness, responsibility, magnanimity, honesty, respect and trust to name but a few. And on of the most important virtue, the virtue of forgiveness. This is the basic holy and enduring function of family in society, to be unit or cell of love in the wider community, a “Domestic Church.”

The family is, in fact, known as the seedbed of the virtues because it is in the family that they can grow the most. However, this doesn’t mean it’s easy to practice the virtues in the family. In fact, as we all know, the family is where it is actually the hardest to practice the virtues; it takes tremendous effort, self-control and self-denial, and patience and so grace. But remember, where it is the hardest to practice the virtues, that is where they can grow the most. I like the saying of Blessed Matt Talbot, “When in company guard your tongue; when alone guard your thoughts, and when in the family Guard your temper.”

And finally, the Holy Family’s secret was that it was centered not just around the life of a child and the activities of the child, but around and on the life of the Child who was God-Jesus. Mary and Joseph loved Jesus more than anything, and so they loved God more than anything. Their love for one another had in fact, it’s very source in Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus was the center of their family. And so the Holy Family was a family of prayer, a family that drew its life blood from Jesus- who was God and was truly present in the flesh, bodily and physically in their midst.

Like the Holy Family, the source of the love between the members of our families must be Jesus and His Sacred Heart; that is, if we are truly to be enabled to love another as we ought as we truly desire; it is impossible otherwise. The Sacred Heart of Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist, is the very source of the love we absolutely need in order to love one another in our families.

Our families like the Holy Family then need to love Jesus and draw close to His Loving Heart more than anything, and so love God more than anything. So, like the Holy Family, spending time in our homes with Jesus in prayer be at the center of our family life. And spending time with Jesus in the temple, in the house of God must be the most important event in our family. Prayer in the True Presence of Jesus and His Sacred Heart in the Holy Eucharist, must be at the heart of our family life…And so, as families we need to work hard at making the most important event in our family participating actively, fully, consciously and fruitfully in the most perfect of all prayers--the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (and attending the Sacrament of Confession as a family in order to be made worthy to attend the Holy Mass with pure souls).

It is at the Holy Mass that we too just like the Holy Family have Jesus, Emanuel, truly in our midst…not just spiritually but corporally physically present in the Holy Eucharist…no less present to us than to the Mary and Joseph. It is at the Holy Mass, that we can give our heart fully to the Christ Child in order to receive His Heart fully at Holy Communion. Faith in the Holy Eucharist as Jesus truly Present in His human body still with us, trusting that He is there and that He love us more than we can imagine is exactly how we keep Jesus, and His Love for us, at the center and the focus of our entire family life.

Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord! Let us not lose hope for joy and peace and greater unity and love in our families. Let us ask, the entire Holy Family to help us imitate their love and their holiness. Jesus, Mary and Joseph we love you. Jesus, Mary and Joseph help our families to be holy, peaceful, loving families like your own. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, save the souls of the members of our families. Mary and Joseph lead our families to deeper faith, adoration, trust and intimate love for your Divine Son Jesus really and truly present, physically, corporally, in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist; so that, our families may one day enter into the Holy Eucharist unveiled in the Holy Family of Heaven—the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, along with all the angels and saints. Amen.