_{Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies}

 _{Feast of the Holy Family}

The celebration of this Feast of the Holy Family is relatively new, having been put on the Roman Calendar in 1921. The date of the celebration was changed four times before finally, in 1969, being set on the Sunday after Christmas. This feast is different from our other feasts and holy days in that it does not celebrate an event in the life of Jesus or Mary, nor does it celebrate a doctrine like the feast of the Holy Trinity.

We know very little about the Holy Family. We know a little from Matthew and Luke and their stories of the marriage of Joseph and Mary and the birth of Jesus. Matthew tells us of the flight into Egypt and the family's return from exile. Luke tells us about the presentation of Jesus in the Temple and of Jesus' being "lost" in the Temple when the family made the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This is all!

The Feast of the Holy Family finds its modern roots in the late 19th century. Family life and morality were in a state of crisis. Laws concerning marriage were undergoing change as the state began taking over the responsibilities for marriage through new legal requirements making civil marriage something independent from the Church. In addition to these particular issues, it was apparent that society, especially then in Europe, was becoming less "Christian."

The response to many of these issues began on local levels with the formation of various Holy Family associations. Pope Leo XIII centralized these associations in the 1890's, creating a global Holy Family Association. This enabled the Church to shine the light of Scripture and the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on marriage and family life.

Jesus constantly used marriage as a sign of His covenant describing the Church as His bride. Through the centuries, as this direction from Jesus grew, family life itself has taken on hugely important significance as, in an attempt to better understand the Holy Trinity, the Trinity began to be described in terms of the perfect family of love. The family also has come to be called the "domestic church," the place in which parents, by word and example, are the first preachers and teachers of faith to the children.

Reflecting on this, Pope John Paul II saw in the life of the Holy Family a model for the Christian family. John Paul II acknowledged that Jesus spent many years in a hidden life not recorded in the Gospels. But the Pope saw in this a model. The life of the Holy Family "was unique in the world. Its life was passed in anonymity and silence in a little town in Palestine. It underwent trials of poverty, persecution, and exile."

Joseph was "a righteous man" and the family faithfully practiced their Jewish faith, and John Paul II went on to say that the Holy Family "glorified God in an incomparably exalted and glorified way. And it will not fail to help Christian families to be faithful to their day-to-day duties, to bear the cares and tribulations of life, to be open and generous to the needs of others, and to joyfully fulfill the plan of God in their regard."

Sirach, from whom we read today, taught at the time when Palestine was dominated by the successors of Alexander the Great. Egypt and Syria were seeking to impose Greek culture on the lands they had conquered. Sirach watched his people struggle to maintain their sense of identity against formidable pressure to adopt a Greek life-style, which included Greek philosophy and religion. Sirach's book was an attempt to help his students remain faithful to their sense of identity which was rooted in their faith in the God of Abraham.

Sirach knew that honoring father and mother was the cornerstone of biblical ethics, being the first of the Ten Commandments that deal with our relationship with others. This was a powerful grounding in identity.

Greek culture had an entirely different sense of family values than that of the Jews. Sexual values and behaviors were different as well. St. Paul also faced the challenge of introducing Christian values to a competing culture. And today, Christianity competes with a culture that is rapidly growing even more foreign to the values taught by Scripture.

We have been given a model that, if followed, can and will make a difference in the world. We see a family that defined itself by its faith and worship, parents who put their child's need above their own, and a child who sought to learn from His parents.

It was good that the Church established this feast. While not about what happened in our faith history, it is about what can be in families today. The life of the Holy Family is a great model, testimony, and example for the Christian family today!