family

SUNDAY 28 DECEMBER 2025: FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH.

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Divine Harmony – The Holy Family, Sanctified Souls, Etsy.

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[Joseph].…..departed [from Egypt] for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazorean.      Matthew 2:22-23

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Family: A very common word in English. It has come down to us from Latin (familia) and then French (famille). In fact most western European languages are based in this Latin root: familj in Swedish, familie in German. So clearly there was something about this word which resounded true through many different types of people, at least in that area. And guess what; the root meaning comes from a word for servant or slave (famulus). And that, interestingly, has to resound with the Christian idea of service, each member of a family serving the others, and the youngest learning to do the same. Remember those words of Jesus: “I came to serve, not to be served” (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 13:1-17). And we can take the example of Joseph, the head of the household where the child Jesus lived. He clearly took his divine vocation very seriously, seen in today’s gospel. He now devoted himself to his new vocation, protecting his young (foster) son from Herod’s son Archelaus. King Herod had died and this, his son, became ethnarch (that is, leader of a people) at age 18. It soon became clear that this was not an improvement in the running of the state. In the first year of his reign there was a slaughter of 3000 people within the Temple precincts. You can find out all about that here. It becomes very clear why our Joseph wanted to be very wary of this man. Nazareth was in Galilee where Herod Antipas, one of Herod’s younger sons, had been made tetrach (ruler of a smaller land), outside the rule of his brother Archelaus. Hence Nazareth was seen as a much safer place than, say, Jerusalem. So Jesus became Jesus of Nazareth. Now today’s gospel says this was in fulfillment of the prophecy “He shall be called a Nazorean”. Interestingly, there is no such prophecy in Scripture! Scholars have labored over this, and again look here to see what they say about this whole episode. 

And so the Holy Family settled in Nazareth in Galilee for Jesus’ childhood and early adulthood. Joseph’s care is seen in today’s gospel. Mary’s love was certainly evident in the episode when she and Joseph, returning to Nazareth from pilgrimage to Jerusalem, realized he was not with the usual crowd of youngsters and rushed back to the city to find him with the elders in the Temple: “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously” she exclaimed, clearly expressing her relief, frustration and upset almost all of us can recognize from our own moments of childish mishaps. It was a community of love in which our Savior grew up. 

And it is that thought I want to leave you with. Do you recognize this:

“A bell is not a bell ’till you ring it. A song is not a song ’till you sing it. Love in your heart isn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love ’till you give it away.”

They were written by Oscar Hammerstein II, he the lyricist of Rogers and Hammerstein. It is said they were written for the actress playing Maria in The Sound of Music on a piece of paper by Hammerstein himself, presumably in rehearsal. Do you agree with the sentiment? It seems to talk of potential – we all have the potential for love, but it’s not love until another receives it, and returns it. For Jesus it was clearly his Father in Heaven – everything he said and did was for God his Father, following God’s clear desire that he act always and in every way as the Son of God. That is not to say he ignored everyone else. Hardly. It was the will of his Father that he show his love in every conceivable way, even on the cross itself, forgiving his murderers and the thief next to him, and even ensuring his mother was entrusted to St. John. We believe he is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. With the Holy Spirit (who in Scripture is on almost every occasion of which I am aware, represented by feminine nouns in Hebrew) the Father’s and Spirit’s love eternally generates the Son. The Trinity is the ultimate sign of love, and it is out of that love that each one of us exists today. How on earth could a single god ever love us into existence if that god did not have it to give? Love isn’t love ’til you give it away…. And that same God gave us his most precious gift of all – his Son. That is the great mystery we celebrate in these days. And so we say ευχαριστώ, eucharistō, eucharist – “Thank you” in Greek… 

About My Father’s Business, Stained Glass Inc., Panel #5251.

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SUNDAY 6 JULY 2025: THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her! Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts!    Isaiah 60:10-11.

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The quotation above is possibly one of the earthiest passages in all Scripture! On another level, I haven’t put a second picture above today, because my lead picture “Virgin and Child Enthroned”, I think tells it all. I have found over the years that it is very difficult to find a Virgin and Child picture where both look happy! But wandering through the lovely National Museum in Gdansk (Dantzig), Poland, in March of this year, I saw that statue carved in wood and took a picture of it. Although dating from the 14th century, it looks very human and up to date. The child looks goofy (which seems perfectly natural to me) playing with a ball, in the lap of his happy mother, and both look like normal people, not dazzlingly beautiful, not agonized, not anticipating the worst, but simply content and normal. Quite clearly a happy couple. And I think that speaks to today’s readings. Isaiah seems to be talking about such a couple as shown here, and each of us can imagine ourselves as the happy child, being dangled and jiggled around in the same perfect union of the Christ Child and Our Lady, our protective mother also (and remember we are all called to be Christ to the world). Our Blessed Mother must have had moments like that! Then in the second reading Paul talks of “a new creation. Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God”, again talking of a happy time, and then the gospel describes that “the seventy-two returned rejoicing, and said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name”. Put them together and we are in a world of fulfillment and peace, which, of course, should always be the case.

“Every Child Needs to be Happy…..”, Cathy Yeulet, Psychology Today, June 2016.

All of which talks of a happy life, and how to achieve it. Hopefully we all began with a mother who was perfect, bringing us up with the expression we see on the Virgin’s and the children’s faces above. If not, then to the Virgin we go and request a loving, maternal and guiding hand, even if we are, like me, in our 80s. It’s never too late, though luckily for me I had a mother who was exceptional, despite extreme financial challenges after the war. Then the rejoicing of the 72 in today’s gospel should be reflected in our own life’s work, identifying, developing and utilizing the gifts God gave to each one of us in the service of others. I recall when I was still a Religious Studies teacher, each year I would ask my students in Junior year (it was a Catholic girls’ high school in Brooklyn, New York) to interview their parents and their parents’ friends about their life work. They had to ask if they were happy and fulfilled in that (most were) and then ask why. Overwhelmingly the answer was because, in one way or another, they said my job helps other people. It was hardly ever because “I make the best money there”. In fact, I vividly recall one student who had interviewed her uncle, the wealthiest member of the family; he worked on Wall Street. She asked “Are you happy in your work?” “No”, he said. “It takes all my energy to get up on a Monday morning and get into the city” She was astonished, didn’t have a clue. I had cautioned students to be very careful if you got a response like this. It would mean you are dealing with someone in pain. Be gentle. So when she managed to ask what the reason was, the answer was “I have wanted all my life to be a chef, but when this banking offer was made, everyone said I’d be an idiot if I didn’t take it. So I did.” Now, of course, for him, there was no question of turning back. A chef with a family makes very little in comparison to a Wall Street tycoon! Then came the agonizing last line in her essay: “I now know why, when we have a family cookout, my uncle is there, with his chef’s hat on, cooking and serving, the happiest I ever see him”. 

I did all this hoping to let them trust that God calls us to the happiest life, with full utilization of our gifts in some general field of activity. We should recognize that, accept it and respond with hope and trust, and try hard not to let money be our one and only guide.

And then there is Paul’s reading today, briefly talking about “a new creation”. In the context of these readings, I think we can say that this is a reference to the new life which awaits us at the final call. He says that if we have lived with the example of the Lord before us at all times, then when called from this life we can expect that the “new creation” will be really all we had hoped for. And so, let it be. 

“True Moment of Happiness”, iStock by Getty Images.

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