Holy Family Sunday (Cycle C) – December 27, 2009

Scripture Readings
First VARIOUS OPTIONS
Second VARIOUS OPTIONS
Gospel Luke 2:41-52

Prepared by: Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

1. Subject Matter
· The Holy Family and the Christian family

2. Exegetical Notes
· Luke 2:41-52: “The piety of Jesus’ parents comes to the fore again in this account, just as it
did in the temple presentations of Jesus (2:21-40)…. The annual character of the family’s
journey to celebrate the Passover is indicated…. Jesus’ parents were faithful adherents to
the traditional faith…. Men were required to go, but the journey was not a requirement form
women. Thus, for a woman to go was a sign of great piety. This note of piety is reinforced in
2:42…. The parents’ taking the twelve-year-old Jesus on the Passover journey is, once
again, a picture of faithful Jewish parents instructing their child in the faith on a very important
holy day. Luke introduces a family problem. Although some pilgrims only celebrated
Passover and then returned after two days, [the text] seems to suggest that Jesus’ parents
stayed for the whole seven-day period of the celebration. The length of the stay also reveals
the family’s devotion to Jewish custom and the worship of God…. Children were to be
submissive and yet Jesus’ submission is worthy of note, because of who he is. Jesus’ piety in
this self-submission is the point.” (Darrell L. Bock)

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

· 1655 Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and
Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of
the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all [their]
household." When they were converted, they desired that "their whole household" should
also be saved. These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an
unbelieving world.

· 1666 The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of
 the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called "the domestic church," a
community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.

· 2205 The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of
the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it
reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of
Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian
family has an evangelizing and missionary task.

· 2204 "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." It is a
community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is
evident in the New Testament.

· 2685 The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the
sacrament of marriage, the family is the "domestic church" where God's children learn
to pray "as the Church" and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular,
daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened
patiently by the Holy Spirit.

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

· Origen: Let us then also ourselves be subject to our parents. But if our fathers are not let
us be subject to those who are our fathers. Jesus the Son of God is subject to Joseph
and Mary. But I must be subject to the Bishop who has been constituted my father. It
seems that Joseph knew that Jesus was greater than he, and therefore in awe moderated
his authority. But let every one see, that oftentimes he who is subject is the greater.
Which if they who are higher in dignity understand they will not be elated with pride,
knowing that their superior is subject to them.

· St. Gregory of Nyssa: Further, since the young have not yet perfect understanding, and
have need to be led forward by those who have advanced to a more perfect state;
therefore when He arrived at twelve years, He is obedient to His parents, to show that
whatever is made perfect by moving forward, before that it arrives at the end profitably
embraces obedience, (as leading to good.)

· St. Basil: But from His very first years being obedient to His parents, He endured all bodily
labors, humbly and reverently. For since His parents were honest and just, yet at the
same time poor, and ill supplied with the necessaries of life, (as the stable which
administered to the holy birth bears witness,) it is plain that they continually underwent
bodily fatigue in providing for their daily wants. But Jesus being obedient to them, as the
Scriptures testify, even in sustaining labors, submitted Himself to a complete subjection.

· St. Ambrose: And can you wonder if He who is subject to His mother, also submits to His
Father? Surely that subjection is a mark not of weakness but of filial duty. Let then the
heretic so raise his head as to assert that He who is sent has need of other help; yet why
should He need human help, in obeying His mother's authority? He was obedient to a
 handmaid, He was obedient to His pretended father, and do you wonder whether He
obeyed God; Or is it a mark of duty to obey man, of weakness to obey God.

· Excerpts from Venerable John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, (Apostolic Exhortation on the
Human Family – November 22, 1981):

· 15 The Church finds in the family, born from the sacrament, the cradle and the setting in
which she can enter the human generations, and where these in their turn enter the
Church.

· 17 The family has the mission to become more and more what it is, that is to say, a
community of life and love, in an effort that will find fulfillment, as will everything created
and redeemed, in the Kingdom of God…. The essence and role of the family are in the
final analysis specified by love. Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal, and
communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God’s love for
humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church is Bride.

· 18 The family[‘s]…first task is to live with fidelity the reality of communion in a constant
effort to develop an authentic community of persons.

· 21 The Christian family is…called to experience a new and original communion which
confirms and perfects natural and human communion. In fact the grace of Jesus Christ,
“the first-born among many brethren” is by its nature and interior dynamism “a grace of
brotherhood” as St. Thomas Aquinas calls it. The Holy Spirit, who is poured forth in the
celebration of the sacraments, is the living source and inexhaustible sustenance of the
supernatural communion that gathers believers and links them with Christ and with each
other in the unity of the Church of God. The Christian family constitutes a specific
revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason too it can and
should be called “the domestic Church.”

· 21 All members of the family, each according to his or her own gift have the grace and
responsibility of building, day by day, the communion of person, making the family “a
school of deeper humanity:” this happens where there is care and love for the little ones,
the sick, the aged; where there is mutual service every day; when there is a sharing of
goods, of joys and of sorrows”

· 21 Family communion can only be preserved and perfected through a great spirit of
sacrifice. It requires, in fact, a ready and generous openness of each and all to
understanding, to forbearance, to pardon, to reconciliation. There is no family that does
not know how selfishness discord, tension, and conflict violently attack and at times
mortally wound its own communion: hence there arise the many and varied forms of
division in family life. But, at the same time, every family is called by the God of peace to
have the joyous and renewing experience of “reconciliation,” that is, communion
reestablished, unity restored. In particular, participation in the sacrament of reconciliation
and in the banquet of the one Body of Christ offers to the Christian family the grace and
the responsibility of overcoming every division and of moving towards the fullness of
 communion willed by God, responding in this way to the ardent desire of the Lord: “that
they my be one.”

· 37 The family is the first and fundamental school of social living: as a community of love,
it finds in self-giving the law that guides it and makes it grow. The self-giving that inspires
the love of husband and wife for each other is the model and norm for the self-giving that
must be practiced in the relationships between brothers and sisters and the different
generations living together in the family. And the communion and sharing that are part of
everyday life in the home at times of joy and at times of difficulty are the most concrete
and effective pedagogy for the active, responsible, and fruitful inclusion of the children in
the wider horizon of society.

· 41 Family fecundity must have an unceasing “creativity,” a marvelous fruit of the Spirit of
God, who opens the eyes of the heart to discover the new needs and sufferings of our
society and gives courage for accepting them and responding to them.”

· 42 “The family has vital and organic links with society, since it is its foundation and
nourishes it continually through its role of service to life: it is from the family that citizens
come to birth and it is within the family that they find the first school of the social virtues
that are the animating principle of the existence and development of society itself. Thus,
far from being closed in on itself, the family is by nature and vocation open to other
families and to society, and undertakes its social role.”

· 43 “The very experience of communion and sharing that should characterize the family’s
daily life represents its first and fundamental contribution to society…. The fostering of
authentic and mature communion between persons within the family is the first and
irreplaceable school of social life, and example and stimulus for the broader community
relationships marked by respect, justice, dialogue, and love….The family is thus…the
place of origin and the most effective means for humanizing and personalizing society: it
makes an original contribution in depth to building up the world, by making possible a life
that is properly speaking human, in particular by guarding and transmitting virtues and
“values.”

· 43 The family possesses and continues still to release formidable energies capable of
taking man out of his anonymity, keeping him conscious of his personal dignity, enriching
him with deep humanity, and actively placing him, in his uniqueness and unrepeatability,
within the fabric of society.

· 47 The Christian family is called upon to offer everyone a witness of generous and
disinterested dedication to social matters, through a “preferential option” for the poor and
disadvantaged. Therefore, advancing in its following of the Lord by special love for all the
poor, it must have special concern for the hungry, the poor, the old, the sick, drug victims,
and those who have no family.”

· 51 The discovery of and obedience to the plan of God on the part of the conjugal and
family community must take place in “togetherness,” through the human experience of
 love between husband and wife, between parents and children, lived in the Spirit of
Christ.”

· 86 “Loving the family means being able to appreciate its values and capabilities, fostering
them always. Loving the family means identifying the dangers and the evils that menace
it, in order to overcome them. Loving the family means endeavoring to create for it an
environment favorable for its development. The modern Christian family is often tempted
to be discouraged and is distressed at the growth of its difficulties; it is an eminent form of
love to give it back its reasons for confidence in itself, in the riches that is possesses by
nature and grace, and in the mission that God has entrusted to it.”

· 86 “The family absolutely needs to hear every anew and to understand ever more deeply
the authentic words that reveal its identity, its inner resources and the importance of its
mission in the City of God and in that of man.”

· 86 “It is through the cross that the family can attain the fullness of its being and the
perfection of its love.”

· 86 “Through God’s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long
years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families. It
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. It glorified God in an
incomparably exalted and pure way. And it will not fail to help Christian families—indeed,
all the families in the world—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 fulfill with joy
the plan of God in their regard.”

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

· St. Thomas More: “St Thomas More is perhaps best remembered as the great English
statesman, humanist and scholar who refused to submit to Henry VIII and, as a
consequence, suffered death on the scaffold rather than compromise his belief in the
spiritual supremacy of the Pope. He was the most highly respected scholar-humanist of
his day and a statesman of international repute. His death was an exceptionally
barbarous act, an event which even the most prejudiced of historians have never been
able adequately to explain away. There is another aspect of the life of St. Thomas More
which also needs to be considered if our appreciation of the man is to be a more
complete one. In an age when family and educational values are under aggressive attack,
it is important that the story of More's life as husband and father, and as educator of his
children, should be told, because it is instructive and reassuring to see how More lived his
Christian vocation as a family man with such exquisite care and effectiveness, despite the
exceptional demands made on his time by professional and state affairs.” (Fr. Thomas
McGovern)

From a letter of Thomas More to his children:

“It is not so strange that I love you with my whole heart, for being a father is not a
tie which can be ignored. Nature in her wisdom has attached the parent to the child
and bound their mind together with a Herculean knot…. Ah, brutal and unworthy to
 be called father is he who does not himself weep at the tears of his child…. But
now my love has grown so much that it seems to me I did not love you at all
before.”

· J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote to his son Michael: “Can’t you see why I care so much about
you, and why all that you do concerns me so closely? Still, let us both take heart of hope
and faith. The link between father and son is not only of the perishable flesh: it must have
something of aeternitas about it. There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here
unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are
continued. We may laugh together yet.…”

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

· “In the Gospel we do not find discourses on the family but an event which is worth more
than any words: God wanted to be born and to grow up in a human family. In this way he
consecrated the family as the fist and ordinary means of his encounter with humanity….
In this way he shed light on the primary value of the family in the education of the
person…. The most authentic and profound vocation of the family…is to accompany each
of its members on the path of the discovery of God and of the plan that he has prepared
for him or her. Mary and Joseph taught Jesus primarily by their example: in his parents he
came to know the full beauty of faith of love for God and for his Law, was well as the
demands of justice…. From them he learned that it is necessary first of all to do God’s
will, and that the spiritual bond is worthy more than the bond o kinship. The Holy Family of
Nazareth is truly the ‘prototype’ of every Christian family which, united in the sacrament of
marriage and nourished by the Word and the Eucharist, is called to carry out the
wonderful vocation and mission of being the living cell not only of society but also of the
Church, a sign and instrument of unity for the entire human race.”

· “Families are the fundamental cell of every healthy society. Only in families, therefore, is it
possible to create a communion of generations in which the memory of the past lies on in
the present and is open to the future. Thus, life truly continues and progresses. Real
progress is impossible without this continuity of life, and once again, it is impossible
without the religious element. Without trust in the God, without trust in Christ who in
addition gives us the ability to believe and to live, the family cannot survive.”

· “Human beings were created in the image and likeness of God for love, and that complete
human fulfillment only comes about when we make a sincere gift of ourselves to others.
The family is the privileged setting where every person learns to give and receive love”

· “The family is an intermediate institution between individuals and society, and nothing can
completely take its place. The family is itself based primarily on a deep interpersonal
relationship between husband and wife, sustained by affection and mutual understanding.
To enable this, it receives abundant help from God in the sacrament of Matrimony, which
brings with it a true vocation to holiness. Would that our children might experience more
the harmony and affection between their parents, rather than disagreements and discord,
since the love between father and mother is a source of great security for children and it
teaches them the beauty of a faithful and lasting love.”
 · “The family is irreplaceable for the personal serenity it provides and for the upbringing of
children. The family constitutes part of the good of peoples and of the whole of humanity.”

· “The family is a school which enables men and women to grow to the full measure o their
humanity. The experience of being loved by their parents helps children to become aware
of their dignity as children.”

· “None of us gave ourselves life or singlehandedly learned how to live. All of us received
from others both life itself and its basic truths, and we have been called to attain
perfection in relationship and loving communion with others. The family, founded on
indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, is the expression of this relational,
filial, and communal aspect of life. It is the setting where men and women are enabled to
be born with dignity, and to grow and develop in an integral manner.”

· “In a healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental elements of peace:
justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents,
loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age,
mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to
forgive them. For this reason, the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace.”

· “The Christian family—father, mother, and children—is called to do these things not as a
task imposed from without, but rather as a gift of the sacramental grace of marriage
poured out upon the spouses. If they remain open to the Spirit and implore his help, he
will not fail to bestow on them the love of God the Father made manifest and incarnate in
Christ. The presence of the Spirit will help spouses not to lose sight of the source and
criterion of their love and self-giving, and to cooperate with him to make it visible and
incarnate in every aspect of their lives. The Spirit will also awaken in them a yearning for
the definitive encounter with Christ in the house of his Father and our Father.”

· “The family is a living organism in which there is a reciprocal exchange of gifts. The
important thing is that the Word of God, which keeps the flame of faith alive, never be
lacking.”

7. Other Considerations
· “Why is it that the Church refers to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as the Holy Family when the
history of the chosen people is full of holy families who loved the Lord and kept his
commandments? What made the Holy Family different was Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us.
God was present in this Holy Family as he had never been present in a human family before.
What makes the Christian family different is the presence of Jesus Christ. God is present in
the Christian family in a way that the holy families of the Old Testament would never have
imagined. Jesus’ presence in the family does not mean that life will be euphoric and problem-
free, but that it will be meaningful. God is a member of every Christian family who is
mysteriously, but really, present in their midst, working out his plan of salvation. The
members of the family are signs for one another of the presence of Christ. My family are
 those people that Christ has chosen for me, those people through whom he has decided to
come to me. The experience of mercy in family relationships, whether it be given or received,
is an experience of the presence of Christ which invites the family members into a deeper
love than would probably have been possible before mercy was called forth. And so,
problems and difficulties cannot obscure the presence of Christ. In his mercy, Christ reveals
himself in moments of trial and weakness even more powerfully and clearly. As we celebrate
the Holy Family, let us honor them as the first place in which God chose to reveal the
unimaginable Good News that he loves us as a father. Let us rejoice in the fact that God
desires so much that we become members of his family that, through the real presence of his
Son, he has become a member of ours.” (Fr. Richard Veras)

Recommended Resources

Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus. Yonkers: Magnificat, 2006.

Biblia Clerus: http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_eng.html

Cameron, Peter John. To Praise, To Bless, To Preach—Cycle C. Huntington: Our Sunday

Visitor, 2000.

Hahn, Scott:
http://www.salvationhistory.com/library/scripture/churchandbible/homilyhelps/homilyhelps.cfm.

Martin, Francis: http://www.hasnehmedia.com/homilies.shtml