Celebrate Sunday Mass - 12.31.23
DECEMBER 31, 2023 -- Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
12/31/2022 (1 year ago)
By Deacon Keith Fournier
My friends, brothers, and sisters in the Lord,
During the Octave (eight days) of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family in the Latin Rite calendar of the Catholic Church. The significance of the Feast becomes much clearer when we consider the deeper truths it reveals. Yes, it teaches us about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But it also speaks to each one of us, inviting us to live differently in our own families, by making Jesus Christ the center of our life together.
Through our Baptism, we were invited to live our lives in Jesus Christ by living them in the Church - which is the Risen Body of Jesus Christ, and thereby continuing His redemptive mission. The Church is the place where we learn, as the Apostle Paul reminded the Colossian Christians, to "put on love, that is, the bond of perfection". (Col. 3:14)
The Church, as sacrament, instrument, and sign of the Kingdom of God, mediates and reveals the Lord's life to us, in the Word proclaimed and the Sacraments communicated. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. He is the Head of the Church. The Head and the Body cannot be separated. He continues his ministry through His Church. As the Catechism states with such simplicity and profundity "The Church in this world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and the instrument of the communion of God and men." (CCC# 780)
Our first reading at Holy Mass this Sunday is an excerpt from the Book of Sirach. In it, as well as in our Responsorial Psalm, we are reminded that marriage and the family are an integral part of God's loving plan for salvation. Further, that all of the relationships within the family present us with an invitation to learn how to love and grow in holiness.
In the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we have the family redeemed by grace, elevated to the level of a Sacrament, a source of grace for others. In our own age, when marriage and the family are under assault from anti-Christian forces, it is urgent that Catholic and other Christian families recognize once again that the family is God's loving plan, and by His grace, seek to live as holy families, calling the world away from a rejection of God's loving plan to a new response of embracing that plan and finding the true happiness which the Lord offers.
Our Second Reading is an excerpt from the Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. During the Octave (eight days) of Christmas, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family today. The significance of the Feast becomes much more meaningful when we consider the deeper truths it reveals. Yes, it teaches us about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But it also speaks to each one of us how to live differently in our own families.
Through our Baptism, we are invited to live our lives in Jesus Christ by living them in the Church - which is the Risen Body of Christ, continuing His redemptive mission. The Church is the place where we learn, as the Apostle Paul reminded the Colossian Christians, to "...put on love, that is, the bond of perfection". (Col. 3:14)
Christian families, since the earliest centuries of the Church, have been called the "domestic church." Do we live our family life this way? We can if we ask the Lord for the grace we need to do so. Our Gospel reading, on this Feast of the Holy family, is taken from the Second Chapter of the Gospel of St Luke. Jesus is brough to the temple. Certainly, this was to fulfill the prescriptions of the Jewish Law. But it means so much more. Listen again to these words:
"Now in Jerusalem there was a man named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to the restoration of Israel and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord. Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said:
"Now, Master, you are letting your servant go in peace as you promised; for my eyes have seen the salvation which you have made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel..." Simeon knew, the child Mary and Joseph presented was the very Son of God, the Messiah."
After the Presentation in the temple, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus back to Nazareth. Jesus spent 30 of his 33 earthly years in Nazareth. Some spiritual writers have called these the "hidden years," because there is so little written about them in the Gospel narratives. However, they reveal the holiness of ordinary life and show us how it can become extraordinary for those who are baptized into Christ.
In the holy habitation of Nazareth, Jesus transformed daily family life. Already blessed as God's plan for the whole human race and the first society, marriage and the Christian family has been elevated in Christ to a Sacrament, a vehicle of grace and a sign of God's presence. The Church proclaims Christian marriage, and the family founded upon it, is a vocation, a response to the call of the Lord. In the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we can learn the way of love in the School of Nazareth.
Have a Blessed Lords Day,
Deacon Keith Fournier
Deacon Keith Fournier, JD, MTS, MPhil
Dean of Catholic Online School
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