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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. It is a beautiful feast and an opportunity for us to reflect on the importance of family. It is amazing to stop and think that God chose to send his Son into the world, into the context of a family. How much Jesus must have learned from Mary and Joseph. Pope St. Paul VI when reflecting on the Holy Family writes: “May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplify its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings, in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children – and for this there is no substitute.” To further aid our reflection on family, I would like to share the words of Pope Francis when he visited Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families. Allow me to quote extensively:
We are celebrating the festival of families. The family has a divine identity card. Do you see what I mean? God gave the family an identity card, so that families could be places in our world where his truth, love and beauty could continue to take root and grow. Some of you may say to me: “Father, you can say that because you’re not married!” Certainly, in the family there are difficulties. In families we argue. In families sometimes we throw dishes. In families children cause headaches. Families always, always, have crosses. Always. Because the love of God, the Son of God, also asked us to follow him along this way. But in families also, the cross is followed by resurrection, because there too the Son of God leads us. So the family is – if you excuse the word – a workshop of hope, of the hope of life and resurrection, since God was the one who opened this path. Then too, there are children. Children are hard work. When we were children, we were hard work. Sometimes back home I see some of my staff who come to work with rings under their eyes. They have a one or two-month-old baby. And I ask them: “Didn’t you get any sleep?” And they say: “No, the baby cried all night.” In families, there are difficulties, but those difficulties are resolved by love. Hatred doesn’t resolve any difficulty. Divided hearts do not resolve difficulties. Only love is capable of resolving difficulty. Love is a celebration, love is joy, love is perseverance. […] The family is beautiful, but it takes hard work; it brings problems. In the family, sometimes there is fighting. The husband argues with the wife; they get upset with each other, or children get upset with their parents. May I offer a bit of advice: never end the day without making peace in the family. In the family the day cannot end in fighting.
May God bless you. May God give you strength. May God inspire you to keep moving forward. Let us care for the family. Let us defend the family, because there our future is at stake.
~ Fr. Aaron Kelly, Parochial Vicar
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