HOLY FAMILY-2023

One of the most iconic Catholic traditions of Christmas is the Christmas crèche, or the nativity scene. This year marks the 800th anniversary of the first crèche, erected in 1223 by none other than St Francis of Assisi. St Francis’ pioneering crèche featured real animals and a real family, not resin or plastic figurines. The crèche was St Francis’ attempt at bringing Bethlehem to our doorsteps as it was no longer safe for pilgrims to make a journey to the Holy Land, because of the Muslim attacks to visit the holy shrines.

The Christmas crèche is not like any other Christmas decoration. In fact, it’s not meant to be a decoration. It is a prayer corner. Here, we are invited to prayerfully contemplate the various figurines contained within the scene, the members of the Holy Family at its very heart and centre. And so, we see the humble figures of Mary and Joseph kneeling before the manger, gazing lovingly upon their newborn son. One could say that this must be one of the most ancient family portraits. The whole scene reaffirms two wonderful truths. The first reminds us of God’s immense trust for this couple, that He would deign it fitting to entrust His only Son to two human beings, a woman and a man, wife and husband. The second is that if a family was the cause of humanity’s downfall, another family would be at the heart of humanity’s redemption.

Joseph and Mary’s family life was far from ordinary or even ideal by modern standards. The beginnings of their married and family life were already marked by disastrous omens – a suggestion of conception out of wedlock, the threat of divorce, dislocation and homelessness, economic poverty, and, to top it all - a hostile environment that posed the greatest threat to both the safety and welfare of the couple and their newborn child. In today’s world, all these would be interpreted as unfavourable factors that would warrant either delaying the marriage, postponing the start of a family, calling it quits or even justifying the abortion of the foetus within the womb. In fact, it would take much less these days to justify any of the above actions. But something amazing took place. Instead of turning their backs on each other and on the child, Mary’s fiat and Joseph’s acceptance of the Incarnation – indeed the man and woman’s loving obedience to God’s will, triumphed at the end.

The necessity of celebrating such a feast where the family is the focus is more apparent today when we consider how counter-cultural marriage and family life have become. Contemporary culture is challenging the most vital aspects of the existence of the human being, in ways that go so far as to overturn our understanding of human nature, and particularly of human sexual identity and relations between the sexes. Contemporary culture is proposing and imposing models for sexual identity and relations between the sexes that would ultimately mean redefining marriage and the family, to the extent of destroying both. Contemporary culture cannot accept that man is made in the image and likeness of God. (God did not take a rib from Adam to create another man like Adam).

There has been some confusion since last week when Rome allowed the blessing of same-sex couples. As far as I understand, it is not a blessing for couples who want to live in same-sex relations. Blessing the same sex couples would be approving that relationship, which would be disastrous for them in the same way Judas received holy communion at the Last Supper. When Judas received holy communion, his resolve even got stronger to betray, and he immediately went out to betray Jesus. When one has no intention of turning away from sin, from the evil one is in, then receiving God’s grace via communion or other means is going to harm them rather than do any good for them. So, I presume, and hope and pray too that it is not a blessing of couples who live in sin.

Going back to the gospel reading, we find a young couple bringing their child to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as parents today bring their children to the church for baptism to present them to the Lord. Guess who comes for baptisms besides parents and godparents?, the grandparents. As the grandparents brought way back their children to the Lord for baptism, those children, now adults, are bringing their children to the Lord, and the grandparents want to be part of this important religious moment. There is no reference to Jesus’ grandparents in today’s gospel reading, but there is mention of a man and a woman, Simeon and Anna. Anna, we are told, is eighty-four years of age, having been a widow for much of her adult life. We are not given Simeon’s age, but the sense is that he too had lived a long life. He had probably been looking forward to Israel’s comforting, for many years. We are told that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon and that Anna never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. It is often the way that in a family, the lives of children and their parents are blessed by the strong faith of grandparents. Simeon and Anna represent all that is best in the religious tradition of Israel and, likewise, grandparents often represent all that is best in the church’s tradition. As people of prayer, grandparents often keep the light of faith burning brightly within them and offer it to the generations below them. These days, church is mostly attended and supported by grandparents rather than children and their parents. As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, besides appreciating the sacrifices the parents take for their children as Mary and Joseph did for Jesus, let’s also appreciate the good role models our grandparents are to our families and younger generations in the Church.

The only way to heal and restore the family’s dignity is by emulating the Holy Family of Nazareth as our role model. So, let us pray: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, make our families like yours.