Following so closely on the celebration of the Lord’s birth, with all the associated commercialisation and the relief of a holiday in the middle of a dark winter, there is a danger that the family life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph might be romanticised in the popular imagination. I remember the horror on people’s faces when I showed an icon I had been given during one of my visits to Palestine/Israel. It depicted the familiar nativity scene, the only difference was that the child Jesus was lying, not in a manger, but in a stone coffin. Today’s narrative around the Lord’s birth, with the implied threat from Herod the Great, has threads pointing to the Lord’s death in Jerusalem which continue throughout the Gospel. And today’s Gospel narrative is no exception.

The whole process of Jesus’s birth and infancy was surrounded by difficulty and today’s Gospel contains one memorable element. We know that Herod the Great was an insecure, ruthless and cunning man. He was an effective builder – he rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple – but he was cruel, vicious and violent. He murdered members of his own family and, following the Holy Family’s ‘escape to Egypt’, he slaughtered the ‘Holy Innocents’ whose feast would have been today.  Jesus escaped but history tells us that he could have been in real danger.

In our time and culture, family life has its joys and its sorrows. The members of the Holy Family experienced tribulation as well and our celebration of their memory today invites us all to have courage and hope whatever the difficulty we face. The example of the Holy Family, and of Mary and Joseph particularly, speaks of a faith and trust in the goodness and providence of God that perseveres. It speaks of patience and that fruit of prayer which is to recognise the hand of God guiding us and bringing everything to a good outcome.

Family life will encounter the challenges of life in their many forms. One of those challenges, as we know too well, is separation and brokenness. Relationships do not always persevere in stability and unity. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to manifest compassion, forgiveness, welcome and support for all those whose family lives are seriously disrupted. And as catechists, and those who support the faith development of the young, we must be diligent in our care for those who suffer family breakdown and even abuse.

In our parish communities, that same welcome and support must be offered to those who find themselves living without the support and affection of a family. For many, the parish community is their only family.

The scripture today offers many avenues for thought and development. Jesus appears as the ‘New Moses’ in the journey to Egypt and his eventual return to the ‘Promised Land’. The wise men or Magi, who were not kings, and there may not have been three of them, speak of the search for truth. Astrologers in Jesus’s time were scientists and people to be respected for their wisdom. Their journey to Jerusalem and their discovery of Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, raise for us the ongoing question about the interface between science, social sciences, human learning and the development of doctrine and Church teaching. As Pope St. John Paul II reminded us in his ‘Fides et Ratio’[1],there is much scope for us to continue in our development of the relationship between faith and reason.

The Magi, coming as they do from the East, remind us of the universal human search for truth, for God and for human life to the full.  They remind us of our mission ‘Ad Gentes’.

One more thing, not directly connected to the scripture, but directly connected to the feast. Each time we celebrate infant baptism, the parents of the child are reminded that they “accept the responsibility of training their child in the practice of the faith. It will be their duty to bring up their child to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbour”. The two words ‘responsibility’ and ‘duty’ are heavyweight terms because they indicate how indispensable the family is in imparting the faith, both in terms of knowledge, and a living relational faith in Jesus, to a child. The Church is clear in presenting ‘Family Catechesis’ as prior and foundational. It comes before any other formation or education that we offer as a diocese, a community or the Church. Nothing can replace it and if it is missing other efforts and resources spent on the catechesis of the young will lack full effectiveness. The vital elements of kerygma and catechesis are to be embraced by families who have their children baptised. The question emerges: How effective and generous are we in encouraging and supporting Catholic parents in this fundamental responsibility? We had a clergy formation day recently on spiritual direction. We were reminded that our efforts in adult catechesis are lacking.

I will finish with a quotation from the Directory for Catechesis which does not seem to me to be inappropriate today: “The family is a community of love and of life, made up of a complex of interpersonal relationships….married life, fatherhood and motherhood, filiation and fraternity – through which each human person is introduced into the ‘human family’ and into the ‘Family of God’, which is the Church. The future of persons and of the human and ecclesial communities depends to a large extent on the family, the basic cell of society.”[2]

[1]Fides et Ratio, Encyclical of St. John Paul II, in 1998, see paragraph 100 andconcluding notes.

2Directory forCatechesis, paragraph 226

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The Feast of the Holy Family falls on the Sunday during the Octave of Christmas. It is therefore a feast intimately connected with the celebration of the Lord's Nativity, of the Incarnation of the Word of God. At Christmas we adore the Word made flesh, the mystery of the Son of God assuming a human nature, whole and entire.

But the Incarnation is much more than a metaphysical fact. The Child Jesus was not simply God in human substance; he lived a fully human life and that means a family life. Human life is social life, and the family is the fundamental form of human society. And because Jesus has made this life his own, it is saved and sanctified; he has made of the family, the domestic Church.

The Church in the beginning was Mary. At the virginal conception of her Son, Mary did not simply receive the Word made flesh into her womb; in addition, Christ, the Head of a new humanity received Mary into union with himself; Mary became the beginning of his Mystical Body. Afterward, Joseph was drawn into the mystery: a just and faithful man, a fit guardian for the nascent Church.

And then this Church went out into the world. Almost immediately the Holy Family had to flee the murderous king Herod and seek refuge in Egypt. According to an ancient tradition pagan idols fell down before the Child, false images crumbled before the Truth in person; and then wild beasts came out of their caves to worship the Lord, meek and humble in his presence. The saving power of the Incarnate Word reaches out from the midst of his family giving light and peace to the whole creation. He does so even now, today!

BIDDING PRAYERS

Let us pray for Christian families, that Jesus, Mary and Joseph may dwell in their midst, teaching them the meaning of love.

Let us pray for the renewal of family life, the firm foundation of every society worthy of the name.

Let us pray for the faithful departed, that the Holy Family may welcome them into their heavenly home.

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These hymns have been chosen from different sources:

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O little town of Bethlehem (CFE540, L127, LHON526, TCH27)

Once in royal David’s city (CFE577, L128, LHON536, TCH30)

See, amid the winter’s snow (CFE630, L151, LHON601, TCH34)

Sing of Mary, pure and lowly (CFE652, L341, LHON622)

The light of Christ (CFE703, L747, LHON657)

Key

CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone

L – Laudate

LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)

TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)nto us is born a Son (CFE755, L152, TCH39)

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