Joseph, Mary, and Jesus
A feast of the Holy Family was instituted by the Congregation of Rites in 1921 to build up devotion to family life. It was celebrated on the first Sunday after Epiphany. When the calendar was reformed after Vatican II, the feast was transferred to the first Sunday after Christmas.
Many people in today’s world can relate to the trials and anxieties experienced by the Holy Family. An emperor’s edict compelled Mary and Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem; a king’s cruelty forced the family to flee into Egypt; fear of Herod’s successor made them move from Judaea and settle in Galilee, as we hear in Matthew’s gospel.
Yet, through all this, they placed themselves in God’s hands and followed where God called them to go. They retained that spirit of thankfulness which is expressed in Mary’s Magnificat and extolled by Paul.
In today’s Gospel we see the story of Jesus in the Temple as a boy. In the last line of the Gospel we read ‘ And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and man’. The prayers of the feast ask God to ‘help us to live as the holy family, united in respect and love’, to ‘live as Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in peace with you and one another’. No special Preface is provided for the celebration and one is chosen from the three prefaces for Christmas.
Both the placing of the Feast of the Holy Family in the octave of Christmas and the prayers for the feast firmly situate the mystery of the Holy Family in the context of the incarnation. The Son of God is truly one like us in all except sin. He has experienced all human conditions, including being subjected to the rulers of this world and the perils of human existence. Despite this, in fact because of it, he accomplished the will of his Father and the work of salvation. The Son of God voluntarily submitted himself to the plan of the incarnation.
In the same way, it is not by fleeing reality that we find God and are saved. God is to be found in the vagaries of human existence; in the ups and down, the joys and sorrows, of family life. The feast of the Holy Family emphasises the humanity of Jesus Christ: ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1: 14). In Jesus we see a God who stands in solidarity with us all. (Excerpt from Liturgy Lines)
