2023

December 31, 2023 – YEAR B

ᐊHOMILIESTOPICSCONNECTIONSPAPAL HOMILIESᐅ

Feast of the Holy Family B

The main theme of this Sunday seems to be faith. The first reading (OPTION: Gen 15: 1.6; 21: 1-3) deals with Abraham’s faith, an unyielding faith that has been put to the test. This same faith is the object of the second reading in which the author of the letter to the Hebrews [in the second reading (OPTION: Heb 11: 11-12.17-19)] makes a true apologia of the great men of faith in the history of salvation. Finally, the Gospel highlights the faith of the Virgin Mary, in listening to the words that Simeon addresses to her son: “…in the sight of the nations … glory for your people Israel,” and in the words he addresses her: “… and a sword will pierce your soul too.”

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

Feast of the Holy Family B

"It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going ... It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise was faithful to it" (Heb 11: 8.11). God promises Abraham land and descendants, and Abraham, having faith in God, does not for one moment hesitate to leave his homeland and expect what is humanly impossible (first reading). Mary and Joseph contemplate Simeon who is holding the child in his arms and says of him wonderful and surprising things. But Mary is a woman of faith, she is the mother of believers, and does not accept the smallest doubt as to the destiny and grandiose mission of her child, at this time a small and needy creature.

We clearly see both in Abraham’s and Mary’s case that "nothing is impossible for God" and that "everything is possible for him who has faith." God’s promises do not end with Abraham’s and Sarah’s family, or with that of Mary and Joseph. God’s promises continue: the great promise of salvation, the promise of new heavens and a new earth in which justice will reign... Does the family of believers have faith in these promises made by God? As God fulfilled the promise made to Abraham and Mary, because they believed, he will fulfill his promise to men and women who wish to enter the space of faith.

God does not spare any believer the tests of faith; they are part of the same "divine" logic. Would a faith without tests be faith? Abraham, the father of all believers, was put to the test; the patriarchs, and Moses and David were put to the test, as were the prophets... And, when the fullness of time came, the Virgin Mary was put to the test: "...destined to be a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce your soul too" (Lk 2: 34-35). God puts our faith to the test, not because he wants to tempt us. Rather, he does so as an educator and father who wishes to evaluate and perfect our total abandonment to faith. Before the tests of faith, a Christian’s attitude should be like that of Abraham and Mary.

As each blood family can show its family tree, there is also the family of faith, with a family tree and a concrete history of its own. Perhaps we cannot document this family tree or this history, but it exists, it cannot be deleted, though it may be unknown. In chapter 11 of the letter to the Hebrews, we are introduced to great figures of this family tree in the history of Israel. Each Christian church also has a family tree of its own. Let us recall the early churches, for example: Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, Corinth, Rome. Every nation and every particular church (diocese) today also takes pride in its "father in faith". The feast of the Holy Family makes reference, first of all, to every blood family, but it also includes this family of faith, for Mary, the believer, is Mother of the Church, and Joseph is its special patron.

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

Feast of the Holy Family B

Natural parents give life, but that is not enough. To be true Christian parents, they must also give faith. The first school of faith, since the beginning of Christianity, has been the family, and it will have to continue being so. How can a family in which the parents are not "practicing" be a school of faith? What can a family in which the parents are unconcerned with the religious education of their children expect of them when they grow up? In a family in which the parents believe but there is no consistency between life and faith, what kind of a model is being offered to the children? For Chrsitian parents, passing on their faith is not an option, nor is it a responsibility that they can transfer to teachers or catechists in the parish. Nor is it less intersting than the study of other "more important" subjects. For Christian parents, transmitting their faith is inherent in the very act of giving life. If all Christian parents transmitted the faith of the Church to their children, with words and examples, something would change in this world...

As humans, we may create different images of the Church, which underscore real aspects of the Church: the Church as institution, the Church as sacrament of salvation, the Church as charism, the Church as a perfect society, the Church as a people... On this day dedicated to the Holy Family, it would be worthwhile stressing that the Church is a family. The family of God among men and women, a family of brothers and sisters that love and help one another in their faith and Christian life, a family hurt in its unity, but that seeks it sincerely and ardently. A family that has the same faith, the same baptism, the same God and father, the same Lord and the same Spirit. If as a Church we are a family, let us all live in a spirit of family, with our behaviors, attitudes, thoughts and words. In our intra-ecclesial and ecumenical dialogue, let us focus more on all the things that unite us rather than those that create differences and separate us.

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Imitation of the Holy Family

27 December 2020 | Library of the Apostolic Palace

Feast of the Holy Family B

A few days after Christmas, the liturgy invites us to turn our eyes to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It is good to reflect on the fact that the Son of God wanted to be in need of the warmth of a family, like all children. Precisely for this reason, because it is Jesus’ family, the family of Nazareth is the model family, in which all families of the world can find their sure point of reference and sure inspiration. In Nazareth, the springtime of the human life of the Son of God began to blossom at the moment he was conceived by the work of the Holy Spirit in the virginal womb of Mary. Within the welcoming walls of the House of Nazareth, Jesus’ childhood unfolded in joy, surrounded by the maternal attention of Mary and the care of Joseph, in whom Jesus was able to see God’s tenderness (cf. Apostolic Letter Patris Corde, 2).

In imitation of the Holy Family, we are called to rediscover the educational value of the family unit: it requires being founded on the love that always regenerates relationships, opening up horizons of hope. Within the family one can experience sincere communion when it is a house of prayer, when affections are serious, profound, pure, when forgiveness prevails over discord, when the daily harshness of life is softened by mutual tenderness and serene adherence to God’s will. In this way, the family opens itself up to the joy that God gives to all those who know how to give joyfully. At the same time, it finds the spiritual energy to be open to the outside world, to others, to serving brothers and sisters, to cooperation in building an ever new and better world; capable, therefore, of becoming a bearer of positive stimuli; the family evangelizes by the example of life. It is true that there are problems, and at times arguments in every family. “Father, I argued…”. But we are human, we are weak, and we all quarrel within the family at times. I will tell you something: if you quarrel within the family, do not end the day without making peace. “Yes, I quarrelled”, but before the end of the day, make peace. And do you know why? Because a cold war, day after day, is extremely dangerous. It does not help. And then, in the family there are three words, three phrases that must always be held dear: “Excuse me”, “Thank you”, and “Sorry”. “Excuse me”, so as not to be intrusive in the life of others. “Excuse me: may I do something? Do you think I can do this? Excuse me”. Always, not being intrusive. “Excuse me”, the first phrase. “Thank you”: so much help, so much service that we do for one another within the family. Always say thank you. Gratitude is the lifeblood of the noble soul. “Thank you”. And then, the hardest one to say: “I am sorry”. Because we always do some bad things and often someone is offended by this: “I am sorry”, “I am sorry”. Do not forget the three phrases: “excuse me”, “thank you”, and “I am sorry”. If there are these three phrases in a family, in a family environment, then the family is fine.

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Parents are Guardians not Owners of their Children

31 December 2017 | Saint Peter’s Square

Feast of the Holy Family B

On this first Sunday after Christmas, we are celebrating the Holy Family of Nazareth, and the Gospel invites us to reflect on the experience lived by Mary, Joseph and Jesus, as they grow together as a family in mutual love and in trust in God. The rite performed by Mary and Joseph, in offering their son Jesus to God, is an expression of this trust. The Gospel states: “they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22) as Mosaic Law required. Jesus’ parents go to the Temple to attest that their son belongs to God and that they are the guardians of his life, and not the owners. And this leads us to reflect. All parents are guardians of their children’s lives, not the owners, and they must help them to grow, to mature.

This gesture emphasizes that God alone is the Lord of individual and family history; everything comes to us from him. Each family is called to acknowledge this primacy, by protecting and educating children to open themselves to God who is the very source of life. From here passes the secret of inner youth, paradoxically witnessed to in the Gospel by an elderly couple, Simeon and Anna. The elderly Simeon, in particular, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says in regard to the Child Jesus: “this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against […] that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed” (vv. 34-35).

These prophetic words reveal that Jesus has come to tear down the false images that we make of God and also of ourselves; to “speak against” the worldly certainties on which we insistently rely; to make ourselves “rise” to a true human and Christian journey, founded on the values of the Gospel. There is no family situation that is precluded from this new journey of rebirth and resurrection. Each time that families — even those that are wounded and marked by frailty, failures and difficulties — return to the source of the Christian experience, new roads and unexpected opportunities open.

Today’s Gospel narrative recounts that when Mary and Joseph “had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew” — the Gospel says — “and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him” (vv. 39-40). Children’s growth is a great joy for the family, we all know it. They are destined to grow and become strong, to acquire knowledge and receive the grace of God, just as happened to Jesus. He is truly one of us: the Son of God becomes a child, agrees to grow, to become strong; he is filled with knowledge, and the grace of God is upon him. Mary and Joseph have the joy of seeing all this in their son; and this is the mission to which the family is directed: to create conditions favourable to the harmonious and full growth of its children, so they may live a good life, worthy of God and constructive for the world.

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Uniqueness of the Holy Family

28 December 2008 | Saint Peter’s Square

Feast of the Holy Family B

On this Sunday following the Nativity of the Lord we are joyfully celebrating the Holy Family of Nazareth. It is a most suitable context because Christmas is the Feast of the family par excellence. This is demonstrated by numerous traditions and social customs, especially the practice of gathering together as a family for festive meals and for greetings and the exchange of gifts; and how can the hardship and suffering caused by certain family wounds which on these occasions are amplified go unnoticed? Jesus willed to be born and to grow up in a human family; he had the Virgin Mary as his mother and Joseph who acted as his father; they raised and educated him with immense love. Jesus’ family truly deserves the title “Holy”, for it was fully engaged in the desire to do the will of God, incarnate in the adorable presence of Jesus. On the one hand, it was a family like all others and as such, it is a model of conjugal love, collaboration, sacrifice and entrustment to divine Providence, hard work and solidarity in short, of all those values that the family safeguards and promotes, making an important contribution to forming the fabric of every society. At the same time, however, the Family of Nazareth was unique, different from all other families because of its singular vocation linked to the mission of the Son of God. With precisely this uniqueness it points out to every family and in the first place to Christian families God’s horizon, the sweet and demanding primacy of his will, the prospect of Heaven to which we are all destined. For all this, today we thank God, but also the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, who with much faith and willingness cooperated in the Lord’s plan of salvation.

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