Juntos en el camino: Palabras semanales del Arzobispo Hebda
Merry Christmas! Along with the Church universal, we continue our celebration of the Lord’s birth during this Octave. How wonderful that we still get to pray or sing the Gloria at Mass all week. The mystery of the Incarnation is too great for a one-day observance.
Throughout these days, the Church’s liturgical calendar reminds us that we are never alone in our celebration. Much as I was looking forward to spending a few days with my family, so too the Church celebrates with our heavenly family. We have been joined this week at the stable, along with the shepherds, by some amazing witnesses to the child Jesus. On Dec. 26 we celebrated the feast of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen (referenced in one of my favorite Christmas carols, “Good King Wenceslaus”). Then on the 27th, we celebrated the feast of the beloved apostle, St. John (my Confirmation saint), and the Holy Innocents were remembered on the 28th. We were certainly in good company.
We were particularly blessed by yesterday’s celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family. Every year on the first Sunday after Christmas, the Church holds up for us the example of the Holy Family: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. We recall that it was God the Father’s plan that Jesus, his son, would be born into a family. While he is rightly recognized as the all-powerful King of Kings, as we recalled last November on the Solemnity of Christ the King, he was nonetheless born a vulnerable child and needed a father and a mother to care for him. Yesterday’s readings were all about the relationships shared between fathers and mothers and their children. Calling us to real self-sacrifice, the readings always prompted plenty of elbow pokes in our family as we heard the readings declare that parents need to be honored and children nurtured, with all of us benefiting from the witness of the self-giving love shared by husbands and wives. We called it “Nudge Sunday” in my family.
We know from the Catechism that the “Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church” (2204). Likewise, the Catechism teaches that “the family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society” (2207). The Church can’t emphasize enough the importance of the family.
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph continues to be an excellent model for families today. At first glance, this might seem like an unfair comparison since Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin and Jesus was fully divine (as well as fully human). But the challenges that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph faced as a family were not unlike the everyday challenges that are faced by families today as we continue on the pilgrimage of life. I love that the readings for Holy Family Sunday speak not to the peaceful beauty of the Holy Family but rather to one of the greatest challenges that they faced, as Mary and Joseph had to search for their “lost” son until he was found in the temple. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus can clearly relate to us, and indeed intercede for us.
It is surely significant that Pope Francis asked each Bishop to open the Jubilee Year in dioceses around the world on the feast of the Holy Family. The Holy Father offers to us Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as our companions on the “pilgrimage of hope” that is the Jubilee experience. With that in mind, let’s be sure to get our pilgrimage off on the right foot by celebrating Mary on January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, which is a holy day of obligation. She never lets us down, so let us be faithful to our obligation to honor her as well, either by going to a vigil Mass on New Year’s Eve or to Mass on Wednesday morning.
If you’re a night owl, it would be great to see you at the Cathedral at 11 p.m., where we will have the opportunity to ring in the new year in the context of Holy Mass. I love being part of a Church that provides so many opportunities to celebrate. Blessed New Year.
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