I hope you all are having a wonderful celebration of Christmas and enjoying the opportunity to spend extra time with your friends and family. This holy time is centered on families and that’s one of the reasons the Church designates the Sunday after Christmas as the feast of the Holy Family. None of us come from perfect families but by the wisdom and grace of God, it is the place where we learn so many holy and important lessons, virtues, and life skills.
There’s a story, written by Bret Harte in 1868, called the Luck of Roaring Camp. It takes place in a community of gruff, hard drinking, fierce, miners looking for gold. They were the type of guys who were always looking out for themselves and had no problem using cutthroat tricks to get ahead and make their fortune. One day a pregnant woman named Cherokee Sal stumbled into camp. She died giving birth, but incredibly the child survived. Deaths were common in Roaring Camp but a birth was something unheard of. The men of the camp took responsibility for the baby. They began taking turns caring for him. They decided to build him a clean cabin; he was their baby, and they were determined to give him a proper home. To hold him and sing to him was considered a privilege. They demanded previously foreign things like decent language, quiet, cleanliness and moral order. The men began to shed their roughness, anger, and selfishness. The little child transformed this outpost of rough, crude miners into a community of generosity, tenderness and compassion. The baby called forth from these reckless characters a dignity, a purpose, and sense of beauty, wonder and joy.
Children will do that to people. Many young couples refine their lifestyles when a baby comes. They want the baby to be brought up with the best they have, by being the best people they can be. Many people who had been away from church return to their faith after the birth of a child. They want their baby to grow up with a real loving relationship to God and be a part of a worshiping community. Children can bring out the best in their parents and I’ve certainly seen this happen as my siblings have formed families of their own.
This is what God has done for us through the birth of His son. He has called us from living self-centered lives to lives of compassion, peace and joy. Jesus Christ has transformed humanity, making humanity holy, just as He is holy.
Let's look a little closer at the members of the Holy Family and their relationship to each other. We begin with Joseph. In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph develops into a fierce defender of the family, who does everything possible to keep the Holy Family together. He could have sent Mary away to have her baby without the scrutiny of the neighbors at Nazareth. This seemed like the most logical path until the angel appeared to him in a dream. Thankfully Joseph had the faith to trust God and form a family with Mary and Jesus. When danger threatened the life of the child, he didn't leave the family to protect himself, nor did he send Mary and Jesus away to fend for themselves. He took them to Egypt, and then, keeping the family together, returned to Nazareth. Joseph is presented as a protecting and unifying figure.
During her pregnancy Mary was a vigilant mother. After Jesus' birth, she remained ever-watchful and present. St. Luke said Mary pondered in her heart everything that involved her child. She was present during the Lord's ministry, waiting and watching to see what would take place. She was present standing beneath the cross, supporting and loving her son, through it all. Mary's role in the Holy Family is to nurture with holy encouragement, support and guidance. Mary was not, as some would like to say, a single mother. She took her place in the Holy Family alongside Joseph and together as a team they fulfilled their roles as husband and wife, mother and father.
Jesus is the center of the Holy Family. All children have the right to be the center of their family’s love and care. As an infant and a child he depended on his mother and father and is subject to them. He also knew that their every move will be for his well-being and development. His is the Love that made the Holy Family holy even before his human nature was able to preach the good news of salvation.
So here we have the Holy Family as a model. The Father fights against anything in the world that would destroy his family. The mother creates the home and nurtures the family. The child is the love around which the family revolves.
For this reason, the Church offers the Holy Family as a model to our families. Perhaps the roles of mother and father may merge or differ, but the basic action of being a community of love that protects and nurtures children is quite realistic. Like Joseph, our fathers, along with their wives, must protect their families from the forces of the world that try to destroy the family. We might not be dealing with a murderous King Herod, but the forces of evil have sent drugs, licentiousness, and materialism to kill the souls of our young people.
Like Mary, our mothers, along with their husbands, must embrace their role to be present and nurture their children with a watchful spirit. This is more than just providing the basics of food, education, and shelter. Equally, if not more important, is the task of helping children learn how to seek and find the presence of God in their lives. Mothers, along with fathers, must nurture their children with spiritual food. As children witness their parents choosing right over wrong, giving over selfishness, caring for people who are hurting, this example will feed children the spiritual food that transforms a Christian into a follower of Christ.
Our families should revolve around the love of children. They are only yours for a brief time. They demand the best of who you can be. Then they will leave to form their own families, but because of them, their Moms and Dads have grown into better people and through years of family life, have made the love of God real for the world.
At Roaring Camp, the presence of the baby transformed rough men from being self-centered to being self-less. In a sense, the baby called those men to holiness and formed them into a sort of family. On the Feast of the Holy Family we pray we all may hear the cries of the Infant Jesus, calling us to the humble holiness that is the heart of the Catholic family.
