Feast of the Holy Family

The first Sunday after Christmas in the Catholic Church is the Feast which honors the holy family; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.   All three of these persons are holy, to be sure!  Now that Jesus has come to us, we can invite Him into our families and make our families truly holy.  Wherever Jesus is invited and dwells, He brings truth, goodness, love, and holiness. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has much to say about the traditional human family.   “Marriage and family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children.   The loves of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.”  CCC#2201

“A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family.  This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it.  It should be the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.” CCC#2202

“The family is the original cell of social life.  It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life.  Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society.”  CCC#2207

The make-up and purpose of the traditional human family was established by God Himself and revealed to us both through natural law and Revelation.  It is not in our power to change these truths.  With understanding, love and compassion for those persons who are not living in this state, the ideal must still be proclaimed, taught and sought.  We all have people we love whose lives have been tragically affected by fractures within the family.   

The Catholic Church has been here for 2,000 years, and she has proclaimed this teaching on the human family unceasingly.  The Franciscan Georgia martyrs were killed, less than a hundred miles from here, for proclaiming that polygamy is not the teaching of Christ, and that those who choose to be Christians could only have one wife.   They were killed for proclaiming the truth of the human family.  

Some of you, like me, were blessed with a very stable, healthy Christian family growing up, and some of you were not.  In my family, we had meals together often three times a day; certainly, supper, and the television was not turned on!  Nor was I allowed to look at my cell phone (since they had not been invented yet!).   We actually had meal conversations as a family.  We went to Mass every Sunday, said night prayers together, and had chores! (a lot of chores, since we raised tobacco!).  No family is perfect, and mine certainly was not either, but Jesus was the center of our family life.  I am sorry for those who did not have this arrangement since dysfunctional family life can leave lifetime wounds.  The Good News is that Jesus can heal all wounds and fix anything that is broken in our families.  

The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us of the great gift of family!  It is “an intimate community of life and love” (St. John Paul II), and the ideal place for raising children to be healthy, happy, and holy.  Let’s all renew our invitation to Jesus to come into our families and to make them holy.   There is no situation broken which Jesus cannot fix.  There is no family so twisted that Jesus cannot untwist it.  

Come Lord Jesus into our families!  We love You and we want to be holy. 

Fr. Brett Brannen

Pastor