Today’s Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph gives us a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on how, through the Catholic Church, we are one supernatural family. This feast is a good opportunity for us to reflect on how, through the Catholic Church, we are the family, or household, of God.
When we are baptized, we are born into this family of God. In the Rite of Baptism, we pray, “This person has been reborn in baptism. He or she is now called a child of God, for indeed he or she is. In confirmation, he or she will receive the fullness of God’s Spirit. In Holy Communion, he or she will share in the banquet of Christ’s sacrifice, calling God his or her Father in the midst of the Church.”
Then, as the rite continues, as a group, we proceed to pray the Lord’s prayer. However, you will notice that when Jesus gave the Apostles this prayer, He did not say, “My Father.” He said, “Our Father”. Jesus knew that when He gave the keys to the Kingdom to Peter and began to build His Church, that He was extending the family of God into the world….first the Apostles, and then to those the Apostles brought to Him through the sacramental life of the Catholic Church.
Ultimately, through the Mass, we are the Covenant Family of God. We cannot accept Jesus, without accepting His family, the Catholic Church.
Covenants form family bonds. Think of it this way, when a couple enters into Holy Matrimony, they are entering into a sacramental covenant where the two become one and the domestic family is created. Each person becomes a total gift of self to the other.
Similarly, at the Last Supper (which is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb), Jesus established the new and everlasting covenant between Him and His Bride, the Catholic Church. Through this covenant, God is making His family. Through the Mass, which is the consummation of this covenant, He is a total gift of self to us, and we give ourselves in total gift of self to Him.
How does this correlate to the Holy Family?
When time had come for Jesus to come into this world, God selected an ordinary man to care for Him, to provide for Him, to teach Him, and to protect Him. This man God selected was of course Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph became the visible father figure for the Holy Family.
Jesus did the same when He started the Catholic Church. By giving the keys of the Kingdom to Peter, He made Peter (and the successors of Peter) the visible father figure of the Family of God. Just as God had said about Eliakim through the prophet Isaiah in reference to the keys of the kingdom, “He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” You can see the Pope is a visible father figure to the household of God, which of course we know is the Church, as stated by Saint Paul in his first letter to Timothy.
Mary was chosen by God to be the Theotokos, the God bearer. She is indeed the mother of God as the blessed fruit of her womb was conceived of by the Holy Spirit.
Not only is she the mother figure in the Holy Family, but she is also truly our mother as it says in the book of Revelation that her offspring are “those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus”.
Pope Saint John Paul II said, “The plan of salvation which orders the prefigurations of the Old Testament to fulfillment in the New Covenant likewise determines that Mary would live in a perfect way what was later to be fulfilled in the Church.”
Holy Mother Church, then, is our spiritual mother who sacramentally conceives us through baptism, nourishes us with the Eucharist, and guides us throughout our mortal lives. The end of our mortal life on earth (which is in the womb of the Catholic Church), is our birth into eternity.
Of course, the Child Jesus is our Lord, our Savior, and our King. However, He is also our brother. As Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister.”
The Child Jesus was obedient to Mary and Joseph, just as we need to be obedient to the Church and the Pope. Through obedience, Jesus “advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man,” as it says in the Gospel of Luke. Through obedience to the Church and the Pope, and by diligently living the sacramental life, we too can grow in virtue (including wisdom). Through obedience we can be more open to grace which will enable us to exploit the full favor God has for each of us.
Every family shares a meal. Unfortuntately, we do not have any recorded meals of the Holy Family. At the same time, we recall the many depictions of the Holy Family with Jesus in the manger.
The early Church fathers were quick to compare the manger of Bethlehem to the altar at Mass. Saint John Chrysostom, for example, said, “You no longer see him in the manger but rather on the altar; you do not see a woman holding him in her arms, but rather the priest. The priest who is standing with the Holy Spirit who flies with great liberality over the offerings placed on the altar”.
But, the reality of all of this lies in the word “manger” itself. The word “manger” simply means “to eat”. But, the context is not ”to eat” in the sense we might picture a civilized person eating. But rather, the word “manger” is far more bestial in nature. In fact, the Gospel of John, which was originally written in Greek, uses the Greek word “trogo” for the verb “to eat”. The word “trogo” is a decidedly more gruesome term that literally means “to chew on” or “to gnaw on,” similar to when an animal is ripping apart its prey.
And so it is then, when we come to Mass, we participate in our family meal. We come together as God’s family to share in the Flesh of the Son of Man to the delight of God the Father.
When we come to Mass, we approach the House of Bread (which is Bethlehem) as we are sacramentally present to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at the manger.
When we come to Mass, we approach Mount Zion as we are sacramentally present to the actual crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We are there, with Mary and John, standing at the foot of the cross.
When we come to Mass, we approach the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We are sacramentally present to countless angels in festal gathering. We are in the presence of the assembly of the martyrs, the virgins, and all the other saints that have gone before us in humbly living the sacramental life.
This is the sacramental Family of God. This is the fullness of the covenant relationship Christ calls us to. We cannot say yes to Jesus without saying yes to His family. We cannot say yes to Jesus without saying yes to his Holy Catholic Church.
Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways, together as the family of God!
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