The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Jan 24 2025

The Ancient Promise Is Fulfilled

Look at me. The skin on my hands is so thin that I can see my veins and my bones. My feet shuffle so slowly that everyone rushes past me in the street. The ache in my back never stops. Isn’t it enough already, you who have been our hope for ages past? Long ago, you said that you would not take me to you until I had seen your Messiah. I felt then that it was a wonderful promise. But extreme old age is a burden heavy to bear. All that I love is gone. I have waited so long.

What’s that? This is the day? Go to the temple?

Look at her. Her cheeks are fresh, gleaming with joy, as she holds that boy. She is young. Yet a sword will pierce her heart. The babe is light in her arms. She doesn’t know how heavy it will be to hold a lifeless child. The man stands behind her, a holy family. She doesn’t know the hole left in your heart when your spouse dies. O Lord, I have seen too much. The heaviness of earth weighs me down.

What’s that, you say? This is the One? The child?

Look at him. His tiny head nestles in the crook of my arm. His eyes briefly open. His eyelids flicker as he looks into my eyes. This, this is the one who will set your people free? Joy rises within me. We your people have waited so long. This baby so small will be our hope for years to come? My ribcage swells in jubilation. My aches are gone. I feel like dancing!

Now, Master, please, set me free. Let me come to you in peace. You have fulfilled your promise! Bless you, bless you, my God!

Consider/Discuss

God works miracles through the very old. Abraham and Sarah, Simeon and Anna—they were faithful for so many years. The Lord’s promises to them were fulfilled. How have you seen the beauty of God through eyes of those who have lived long?
God works miracles through the very young. The Holy Family is a sign of promise for years to come. How have you seen the beauty of God through the lives of those who are very young?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of the heavens, you asked Abram to count the stars, to trust you for descendants. You asked Simeon to trust that the Savior of the world would come. You ask us to trust that you do fulfill your promises. You came to us within a human family. So this day, we entrust our families and all those we love to you to hold and keep safe. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us!

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The story of Israel commences with an elderly, childless couple to whom God promises countless descendants. The Lectionary reading begins with the initial promise to Abram, made in response to his complaint that all of the blessings he had received will pass to his servant—an unsubtle critique that the promise of descendants has not been fulfilled. In an intervening passage (Genesis 17) God makes this already improbable promise even more unlikely by insisting that ninety-year-old Sarah will be the mother of those countless descendants. The increasingly implausible promise of descendants, however, is finally fulfilled, setting the biblical precedent that God has the power and the will to bring life where it does not seem possible.

In his Letter to the Hebrews the author here focuses on the faith of Abraham, who trusted in God’s promises (Genesis 12:1–7). When God told Abraham to leave his family and go “to a land that I will show you,” he went. Abraham also believed that God would produce an heir through Sarah—and so it happened. The most difficult act of faith came when God, without explanation, commanded Abraham to sacrifice that very same heir (Genesis 22). Although the Genesis account reveals nothing of Abraham’s thoughts about this command, the author of Hebrews draws on the tradition that Abraham trusted God to raise up his sacrificed son, a symbol of the resurrection of God’s own sacrificed Son.

The central theme of the Gospel reading is fulfillment. The Holy Family fulfills the law, obeying it by circumcising Jesus (2:21) and now presenting him to God. According to Exodus 13:11–16, the firstborn male was to be set aside exclusively for God. Usually, the child was redeemed, “bought back,” for five shekels. Jesus is not redeemed, however, because he will remain consecrated to God. The purification of the mother, who became ritually unclean during childbirth for seven days, lasted for thirty-three days after that; then she could once again enter the temple. Jesus himself fulfills God’s promises to Israel. Both Simeon and Anna represent pious Jews who trusted in these promises. They thus represent also those who would recognize and favorably receive Jesus as the Christ.

Jan 13 2025

Becoming a Holy Family

Today’s Gospel story reveals that God’s Son was born into a dangerous world. From the beginning, those in power saw the child as a threat. Herod was a ruthless king. Because Joseph listened to his dream, the child was saved from Herod’s murderous rage. The parents of Jesus played a crucial role in God’s plan from the beginning.

The Christmas season is traditionally a time for families getting together and enjoy each other’s company. But this doesn’t always happen because divisions occur even within families. Today’s feast invites us to reflect on what holds a family together and what loosens and even destroys the family bond. How does the mystery of the Incarnation, of Christ being born in us in our own day, enter into the dynamics of family life? The first two readings provide a focus on the family.

While Sirach focuses on the honor and respect that children owe their parents, Colossians also urges fathers—and mothers—not to discourage their children. And the relationship between husbands and wives is to be marked by mutual love and respect. The call for wives to be “subordinate” is an unfortunate choice of words, given today’s reality of spousal abuse.

At the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation is that all our relationships should bring the presence of Christ to the world. We do this when we put on the virtues of compassion, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and, above all, love. When these are found in family life, then Christ once again is born in our family.

Consider/Discuss

Do you think that the Holy Family was a perfect family?
What makes for a holy family in our day?

Responding to the Word

We can pray for all families in our world, families of blood and families of choice. We pray for the family of nations, especially where division has resulted in hatred and violence. We pray for the virtues that will draw us closer together in the Church so the world may see us clearly as part of God’s family.

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Sirach is instruction about family life, identifying the kind of living that results in family harmony. As wisdom instruction, Sirach lists the blessings that follow such a way of life. The child who respects and obeys both father and mother is promised life itself, remission of sins, riches, the blessing of children, and the answer to prayer. The entire teaching about respect for parents takes on a completely different perspective when we remember that it is addressed to an adult offspring, not a youth.

Paul’s exhortation to virtuous living is introduced with the stated rationale for such a manner of life. Because Christians are God’s chosen, holy and beloved, they should act accordingly. The virtues themselves are all relational, directed toward others, requiring unselfish sensitivity. While the author still insists that wives must be subject to their husbands, he instructs the husbands to act toward their wives with love and thoughtfulness. Children are still told to obey their parents, but fathers are advised to be moderate in the training of their children lest discipline become oppressive. This means that in Christ, the relationships between man and woman and child have been radically altered.

The Gospel reading consists of two discrete narratives, the flight to Egypt and the return. They contain many echoes of the Exodus tradition. The family’s flight into Egypt, precipitated by the hatred of Herod, recalls Joseph’s escape to that same land because of the hatred of his brothers. Both the Holy Family and the family of Jacob/Israel remained in Egypt until the death of a ruler persuaded them to return to their land of origin. Just as Israel’s return resulted in its being shaped into the “people of God,” so Jesus returns to his homeland, there eventually to establish the reign of God. This reading emphasizes the early Christians’ belief that the active presence of God directed the events in the life of Jesus.

Jan 07 2025

Scripture Study for

Traditional biblical wisdom holds that order and stability promote human flourishing. Here the focus is on family roles and what is due to each member of the household: Duty toward parents is a common Wisdom trope, appearing often in Proverbs. Sirach reflects in particular on the challenge of dealing with an elderly parent, and closely binds duty toward God with honoring parents. It is God who set the father and mother over the family; honoring one’s parents brings favor from God. At the same time, the language of comfort, consideration, and kindness points to a sense that caring for one’s parents is ultimately grounded in basic human decency as much as the hope of divine reward.

The emphasis in the second reading is on decent behavior toward all, which reflects one’s experience of having been transformed by Christ. Precisely as “God’s chosen ones,” who have put away “earthly” vices (Colossians 3:5–10) and been transformed in Christ, Christians should behave in a manner that reflects the character of God, who is compassionate, patient, forgiving, and loving. Marked by these traits, those gathered around Christ support each other, learning together from him and strengthening each other through admonishment, common worship, and especially gratitude. In the final section the writer exhorts his listeners to honor the family order as ordained by God. Christian family life also is to be marked by mutual care, without bitterness, provocation, or discouragement.

In the Gospel reading, Joseph fulfills his duty as protector of God’s Son and his mother. Jesus’ vulnerability is highlighted by six references to him as “child.” Prompted three times, Joseph responds with quick obedience. Not only does Joseph lead mother and child away from danger, his actions also allow for the fulfillment of prophecy. The more significant of these is the first, from Hosea (11:1), which refers to the redemption of Israel, God’s son (Exodus 4:22), from Egypt. It is applied now to Jesus, God’s Son, as exemplar and perfect representative of Israel.