The Feast of the Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family

Belated merry Christmas to everyone and an early Happy New Year!

I hope that you had a healthy, happy and holy Christmas with your families and friends – but especially with your families because that is what Christmas is all about – celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ – our Saviour and sharing that joy, that celebration with our families. Sharing the story of Christmas with each other in such a way that it is understood by all who hear it, by all who take part in it and to such a degree that they in turn can pass it on to their families and friends.

I wonder how many of us did it in this way?

I wonder what it was like in Jesus house on the great Jewish Holy days. Jesus was a boy of his time. He lived in a family of its time with all of the pressures and demands that went with his family situation.

From the little we know from our Bible, Jesus’ dad – Joseph - was a carpenter in a small town so would have had the demands of meeting customers’ needs and wants. He would also have had the stigma of marrying a girl who was pregnant before the marriage. And what about Jesus’ mum – Mary; what about her life? What would this have been like? She was chosen by God to bear his Son, the Saviour of the world but she was also a young Jewish girl living in a small town with a hard-working husband and a young growing baby.

It may sound daft to say – but Jesus was born into a Jewish family: one where he would have been taught the Jewish faith, Jewish values and taught how to live as a good Jew by the words and example of his parents. And it worked. Jesus was a good, practicing Jew.

He wasn’t English, or white and he wasn’t a Catholic – or even a Christian! He knew all about his faith and its required religious practices. He knew why he was in Jerusalem this particular day. He knew the importance of the feast of the Passover. His mum and dad had taught him this and they – as a family – had practised it every year.

But! But – but he also knew that while he had a mum and dad on earth – his Father was in Heaven and his Father required more of him than to simply play as any other twelve-year old boy. His Father wanted him to prepare for his later life by speaking with his elders, the wise men, the doctors and scholars, to test out his understanding of the scriptures with them. He knew that even at this early age, he had to be about his Father’s business. Jesus knew this.

But what must it have been like for Mary and Joseph – his mum and dad? They didn’t know this! They lost him for three days! Three whole days! Can you imagine their worry, their dread, their fears?

I have to admit that I lost my son Shaun in a shopping centre in Liverpool for about fifteen minutes when he was about six or seven. I was beside myself with worry. He was there beside me one minute and then the next - he wasn’t! Luckily he had only wondered into one of the stores nearby but – I was still a wreck.

Today we are celebrating the feast of the Holy Family – because in so many ways they were like us. How they lived; the demands on them; the example Mary and Joseph set for Jesus; the burdens of day to day living. These are all things that we can identify with. The Holy Family are – for us – an under-used role model that we can aspire to.

When we celebrate Baptisms here in St John’s, I emphasise to parents, to god-parents, to wider family members and friends – that it is their job, their responsibility – to teach the newly baptised – what being a Christian is all about. To teach them the story of Christ by their words but mainly through their actions. To show them in such a way what being a Christian – and what being a family - is all about – just as Mary and Joseph taught Jesus.

At a time when the very idea of marriage and family is under attack, we have to emulate Mary, Joseph and Jesus as a family. We have to love, to learn, to live our lives to the full as Christians – as examples of God’s love in action in our everyday lives.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Pray for us

Bidding Prayers

1.      For all families that they continue to grow in love and care for each other and through this love, grow ever close to God their heavenly Father. Lord in your mercy

2.      That we each grow in our awareness of what God wants from us and strive in our daily lives to deliver this. Lord in your mercy

3.      That we fully appreciate our own mothers and fathers and the work they do every day to keep us safe and secure. Lord in your mercy

4.      That we reach out to those less fortunate than us who have no parents or stable homes and try to offer love and understanding. Lord in your mercy

5.      That we remember all fugitives and refugees as they struggle to find places of safety and security for their families. Lord in your mercy

6.      That we remember all who are sick in whatever way and those that have died recently or about this time, that they are comforted by the Holy Family. Lord in your mercy

7.      That we ask Mary the Mother of our Saviour and the Mother of our church to intercede for us as we now pray together, Hail Mary . . .