The Feast of the Holy Family and the Church

Our Lord--because he is the Head--has deemed that the Church should celebrate this feast day during the Christmas season, during the season of Light.  Yes, each individual family is important; however, we need to look higher when reflecting upon this feast day.

Christmas is about the true Light coming to the human race, God becoming man for the salvation of mankind. Now, the Son of God, the God-man, still dwells among us.  He promised that he would remain with us,^[1]  and he does: in the Eucharist.  Christ remains present to the world in the Catholic Church, the holy family of God.^[2]  “As in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”^[3]   “Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we take part in Christ’s Passion by dying to sin (emphasis added) and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life (emphasis added); we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself: [God] gave himself to us through his Spirit.  By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature.…  For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.”^[4]   This means we are a holy family. 

This also gives us Hope, and impresses upon us the significance of each of us to one another and the significance of each of us to the world.  Christ came to die and save sinners.  The Body of Christ is doing the same thing.  Otherwise, it is not the Body of Christ.  Because the Body of Christ is doing this, that entails that we, the members, are also doing likewise in some way—because we are holy members of the holy Body.  In some way, by us living holy lives, God is hallowing his name and drawing people to himself.

When thinking of the human family, we would probably first think of the Father and mother and, finally, the children.  In the Holy Family, it is the Child that is preeminent.  It is the Child, the Son of God, the true Light, the God-man, God becoming man, that makes the Mother, the Blessed Virgin, important and makes the father (for lack of a better term), Joseph, important.  This Child still does this today.  During this season of Light, Christmas, the Child is illuminating his Body, the Body of Christ, the holy family of God, just as he did the Blessed Virgin and Joseph. This Light, the Christ, still shines in the world of humanity today.  Jesus is present in the Eucharist--body, blood, soul, and divinity.  This is why the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life,^[5]   the Church.  By Eucharist, we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body.^[6]  

  Now, in the Eucharist, the host, there are many grains.  These grains represent each and every person in the Body of Christ.  “In the Eucharist, the ‘many’ become ‘one’ and the ‘one’ incorporates the ‘many’—the People of God.”^[7]    “St. Augustine says that as at the Eucharistic Table our Savior offers us to eat and to drink his body and his blood, we should also offer to him our body and our blood by giving ourselves entirely to him, being ready to sacrifice our life for his glory, should it be necessary.  These are the beautiful words of the holy Doctor: ‘You know what this banquet is, and what nourishment is offered you at this table. Since Jesus Christ gives entirely his body and his blood, let no one approach without giving himself entirely to the Lord.’  A little water is mixed with the wine to represent the mixture or the union that takes place in the Incarnation of the Word between the divinity and the humanity, and also to represent the intimate union that is effected in the sacramental Communion between Jesus Christ and the person who communicates—a union which St. Augustine calls Mixtura Dei et hominis (‘A mixture of God and of man’).  Hence. the priest, in the prayer which he recites while mixing the water with the wine, beseeches God to grant that, as his divine Son became partaker of our humanity, we may be made partakers of his divinity.”^[8]    We are offering ourselves with our Lord that God’s will be done, for the salvation of others.

As a result of the Child making each of us important, he illuminates Light through us, through our obedience to him, through our desire that His will be done, that His kingdom come, that He hallow His name through us.  This is what He did through the Blessed Mother and through Joseph, and this is what He is doing through His Church, His Body.  

In the Church, you will find all the characteristics of husband, wife, mother, father, and children.  Jesus is the salvation of mankind.  Therefore, Christ being Savior, He saves humanity through His Body, the Church.  It is He who kept His Mother holy and pure in order that she could give birth to Him.  He is still doing that today in some way, in order that Mother Church may give birth to holy children by way of the Sacrament of Baptism.  “Salvation comes from God alone; but, because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: ‘We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.’  Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.”^[9]   

  We see an example of this in Hannah.  Hannah is barren; she prays for a child.  When God gives her a child, she offers that child back to God, for service to Him (cf. 1 Sam 1:20-28).  This is what the Blessed Virgin does with Jesus, and this is what

Mother Church does in Baptism (cf. Lk 2:22-24).  “St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to an ever more complete participation in our Redeemer’s sacrifice which we celebrate in the Eucharist: This wholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the high priest who in the form of a slave went so far as to offer himself for us in his Passion, to make us the Body of so great a head.…  Such is the sacrifice of Christians: ‘we who are many are one Body in Christ.’  The Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice in the sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it is evident to them that in what she offers she herself is offered.”^[10]  “God created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him.”^[11]  

  People will immediately object, citing the sins of those in the Church. That is exactly that: sins of those in the Church.  The Catholic Church, the Body of Christ has no sins, but those in her do have sins.  It is for this purpose that our Lord, the Head has given us the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  It is He, through the Holy Spirit, that manifests sins in order that there may be repentance and forgiveness.  This is Him "pruning" the vine (cf. Jn 15:1-10).  Some sins He manifests internally, by way of the conscience; others, He manifests externally, publicly.  We see this occurring with St. Peter in Antioch (cf. Gal 2:11-14) and with the man in the Corinthian church (1 Cor 5:1-5).  Christ knows which way better benefits the Body.  Both ways are for the good, that good may result, for the salvation of the Church, the Body, and for the individual.

Because of workings of the Holy Spirit and as a result of the Sacraments, the Lord, through the Church, is also the provider and protector of those members within the Church.  The Church disciplines her children.  She instructs them, "punishing" them when necessary.  God is the Father of the Church; therefore, He gives "fathers" to us, by way of bishops and priests.  They provide and protect us by giving us the Sacraments.  

At twelve years of age, Jesus did not go with his Mother and Joseph, electing to remain in the temple (cf. Lk 2:41-52).  Twelve is a number of completion, of maturity.  For example, there were tribes of Israel and Jesus appointed twelve apostles.  This does mean our children are mature at age 12.  We know better.  People mature at different ages.  There are many adults who are immature.  At 12, Jesus was about His Father's business; nevertheless, that entailed him submitting to his Mother and guardian father.  If the Creator submitted--obeyed--the creatures He created, should we not also submit to our parents, especially the Church?  Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.^[12]  When we submit to the Church, obeying her, we begin to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, increasing in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.  It is this what really makes the Feast of the Holy Family relevant to us.  Is it not fitting that the next feast day is Mary, the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church?

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^[1] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Mt 28:20.

^[2] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed., (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 413, Para 1655

^[3] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Ro 12:4–5.

^[4] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed., (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 481, Para 1988

^[5] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed., (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 334, Para 1324

^[6] Ibid., 336, Para 1331

^[7] John D. Zizioulas, The Eucharistic Communion and the World, ed. Luke Ben Tallon, (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2011), 14.

^[8] Alphonsus de Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, ed. Eugene Grimm, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, (New York; London; Dublin; Cincinnati; St. Louis: Benziger Brothers; R. Washbourne; M. H. Gill & Son, 1887), 35.

^[9] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed., (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 46, Para 169.

^[10] Ibid., 346, Para 1372.

^[11] Ibid., 91, Para 358.

^[12] Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Lk 2:52.