Feast of the Holy Family, December 31, 2006

Scripture: Sirach 3:2-6,12-14. Psalm 128. Colossians 3:12-21. Luke 2:41-52. Each year I enjoy reading the short homily that Pope Paul VI gave on January 5, 1964 which he called "Nazareth." It is found in the Prayer of the Church (breviary) and this morning these are the lines that seemed to match my own thoughts from the Scriptures: "The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God's inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers. Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God." The first three readings are used each year for this feast. The Gospel is chosen from the three year cycle of A,B,or C and this year it is C that is our passage from Luke. I focused on the Entrance antiphon taken from Luke 2:16 which sets the background for the feast.It tells us that Jesus,too, though being the Word of God from all eternity, was born into a human family: "The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger." Luke always help us to reflect on the "poor" or the 'Anawim of the Lord. Here the shepherds are the first to come to find the child with his Mother Mary and her saintly spouse Joseph. Matthew will have the Wise Men or the Magi from the Far East bring gifts to the family while they are in a home in Bethlehem: "They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshipped him. They brought their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him."(Matthew 2:11). Such differences show us the inspired gifts of the writers of the Infancy Narrative and help us to overcome a tendency to give in to a fundamental reading of the Scriptures. Here the respect for the individual Evangelist enables us to appreciate their proclamation about Jesus as Lord and develop their own theological purposes in such proclamations. We are blessed with both Matthew and Luke giving us the content for our prayer and meditation in their Infancy Narratives which are appropriate content for this season of Christmas and Epiphany. I was impressed with the opening prayers called "collects" for this feast of the Holy Family. These prayers are directed toward peace and respect for family life. The second collect has a remarkable petition,"Teach us the sanctity of human love, show us the value of family life, and help us to live at peace...that we may share in your life forever." Finally, in the "C" cycle of readings, we concentrate on the very last episode of Jesus' life in the Infancy Narratives, that of his being in the Temple and found there by his parents, Mary and Joseph. We see they were quite devout in all of the observances of the Torah and that they were accustomed to go up for the Feast of the Passover each year. We see that at the age of twelve, Jesus is in transition toward being considered a young man in his culture and in those times so different and so simple compared to ours. As we ponder and meditate these scenes from both Matthew and Luke this season, we come to realize the experiences of the Holy Family and of the child Jesus. These events are more real than we can imagine and we, too, should as last lines of the Narrative Gospel tell us..."progress steadily in wisdom and age and grace before God and people." Amen.