Dear Friends in Christ,
Merry Christmas! While the rest of our world has already moved on from the lights and Santa Claus, the Church has only begun to sing with the joy of the birth of Jesus, the
Savior. The traditional “twelve days of Christmas” are filled with feasts which serve to unfold the beauty and richness of the mystery of the Incarnation. Today, we celebrate
the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
This holy family of Nazareth was ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. To outward appearances, they would have appeared like the family of any other common laborer in the provincial town of Nazareth. They would have lived in simplicity (even poverty), ate together as a family and with extended family, and prayed to Adonai, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as faithful Jews. Jesus did not choose to be born into affluence and fame, but humility and obscurity. In fact, the Holy Family spent a significant amount of time living as exiles in Egypt. (A Coptic pilgrimage site that claims to be where Jesus took his first steps speaks to these years.)
How can our families be more like the Holy Family of Nazareth? Ultimately, it means putting God first in our lives rather than filling that hole with other pursuits and concerns. Many call ours a secular age: secular, from the Latin meaning “of the times.” That is, we focus so much on the here-and-now that we often fail to see the grace of God at work in our lives. The humility, silence, and prayerfulness of the Holy Family show us what this beautiful life is meant to be. Their persecution at the hands of Herod also shows the great need for our civil leaders to work diligently to protect the rights of the family. You know the list of threats is grave: widespread divorce, lack of openness to life, economic situations which leave children in poverty, and men who fail to assume their responsibility in caring for a wife and children. It takes courage to be like the Holy Family—I know. But God bestows his blessings upon all those who, amid their own struggles and burdens, seek to joyfully and faithfully live the beautiful vocation of the “domestic Church.”
May Mary, the Mother of God, and good Saint Joseph intercede for us all with Christ our Lord, whose birth brought them joy, just as it does for us in these days of Christmas.
May the Lord grant you peace!
—Father Eric Banecker
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