Dear Friends of the Pastorate,
I can’t think of another feast day in the Church calendar more relevant and needed today than the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. It’s relevant, because it denotes God’s ordered plan for the family: a mother, a father, and children. The simplicity, truth, goodness, and beauty of such a family cannot be redefined or supplanted as some today are trying to do. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is needed, because it reminds us how God chose to unite Himself lovingly to us, the supernatural to the natural: in the midst of a family, God is with us—“Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23).
God knows that none of us grew up in the Holy Family, and that our natural biological family can be plagued by dysfunction, sin, and division. This is why God “adopted” us into the fullness of His own family, the Catholic Church, through baptism. But God also knows that even members of our Church family can be plagued by dysfunction, sin, and division; none of us are as holy as the Holy Family is. Yet even in its holiness, the Holy Family was not immune from suffering, as Simeon in today’s gospel prophesied to Mary: “and you yourself a sword will pierce.” (Luke 2:22-40)
Regardless of the particular state of our biological or church family, and our suffering, God calls us individually and collectively to be united to Him through the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, with its visible and spiritual dimension and its human and divine elements. The Lord knows the weakness of our human nature, yet He lavishes His grace upon us in the sacraments, especially in Holy Communion. We look forward to the Day when those who remain faithful to Jesus will be freed and purged of all effects of sin and become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
In the meantime, we live in the imperfect communities of our biological and church families. God has patience with all of us, with our faults, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).” Today, let us look for inspiration and intercessory help from the Holy Family, and let us be God’s instrument to bestow His love and mercy to our families through the grace we receive from Jesus Himself in Holy Communion. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Father Jim
