The Holy Family

Each of our readings today gives us a glimpse into the complications of family life
and those glimpses let us know we are not alone in our trials and tribulations. Our family can be the source of our greatest joys, but also sometimes the source of our greatest sorrows. From the earliest days of Israel’s history, God was interceding in the difficulties of family relationships: commanding the honor and respect of parents by children, and of children by parents; and promising faithfulness to those who abided in faithfulness to him; instructing us in what it means to love as Christ loves; and ordering the family to the raising of children and the placing of God at the center of their lives.

We are also reminded today of the importance of the fact that through the Incarnation, Jesus Christ was born into a human family, and that offers us hope for making Christ the center of our own families. God could have chosen any number of ways to enter into human history, and the way he chose was to have Jesus be incarnate of a woman
the Blessed Virgin Mary
and be raised by her and Joseph in a household common to that time. In other words, God did not just take on human form in the person of Jesus, but entered into every aspect of human life, engaging with the authentic human experience of family life. Family life is sanctifying and as Jesus sanctified his own human family, he will also sanctify ours when we welcome him in. Following the example of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph can strengthen our resolve to grow our families in faith and joy, and give us the confidence to weather the storms of the challenges that family life sometimes offers.

On Friday we celebrate not only New Year’s Day, but also the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Yet this feast day is as much about understanding who Jesus is as it is about understanding the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the time of the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 AD, there were theologians led by Nestorious who claimed that Mary was the Christotokos (Greek for “Christ Bearer”) or, mother of Christ, but not the Theotokos (Greek for “God Bearer”) or, mother of God. This could be seen as denying the divinity of Jesus. The whole question of whom Jesus is as well as the importance of understanding his divinity gave rise to the great theological declaration by the bishops of the Council of Ephesus that Jesus is the Son of God as well as the Son of Mary. Although Mary is fully human, she is also the Mother of God. Through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, Mary conceived within her womb the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity who has both a divine nature and a human nature. And so we pray, “Holy Mary, Mother of God,” and we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

Mary was a woman of faith; complete faith. She had faith that somehow God would care for her in her pregnancy, in the childbirth, throughout her life, at the foot of the cross, and beyond. On the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, we pray for faith real faith. Not a faith that demands proof and is therefore a very weak if not nonexistent faith, but a faith that God is working his plans in and through us in mysterious ways. Let us pray with Mary, the Mother of God. We ask her to intercede with her son on our behalf so that we also might have the courage, the humility, and the faith to proclaim with the Church that Jesus is Lord.