The Holy Family

Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, The Holy Family of Nazareth.

Five days ago we celebrated the feast of the Nativity, the birth of a baby boy to his mother Mary who had conceived  Him nine months earlier through the power of the Holy Spirit which took place when this young girl at the invitation of the angel at the Annunciation had said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.”

Not knowing or understanding how such a thing could happen or what it would mean Mary said yes to God. Joseph, her husband, although they had not come together as husband and wife, was even more puzzled than Mary when he learned that she was with child.

The essence of this episode of such great magnitude is the faith and trust in God shown by both Mary and Joseph.

The angel in telling Mary of God’s plans related that her cousin Elizabeth had conceived a son in her old age and was in her sixth month, and then added “For nothing shall be impossible with God.”

To the questioning and skeptical human mind this occurrence might be passed over as mythical or improbable. But the Church which is Christ says this is the way it happened through the divine Plan of Almighty God. One must examine the theology of it and come to see that man could not save himself or make reparation for the effect of his sin to the dignity and awesome majesty of God. It was only by a Divine Person who was both God and man that mans redemption could be brought about. The works of God cannot penetrate the modest intellect of man but they do not assault his reason. And so he is offered the gift of faith so we can accept and live by the ordinances of God. Such is the case here.

Man and woman were made for each other as is related in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Jesus, the Son of God, from the cross said to His mother and to His beloved disciple John, looking at John: “Son, behold your mother.” and to His mother: “Woman, behold your son.” Jesus left His own mother to us, to be our mother through John. We are members of the family of Jesus as we share the same mother.

And so we see that Jesus who had a family wants us to have a family and to that end He made marriage a sacrament so that He can be a part of our family as we are a part of His. Husbands and wives do not relinquish their individuality in marriage but coming together they become two in one flesh and form a union, a family that did not exist before. They will exercise the unitive and procreative power of their gift of sexuality to form a bond, what God has joined man shall not separate, and to bring forth offspring that will take their name and physical identity from their parents but their spiritual indentify, their souls, from God.

Faith, hope and love are the three theological virtues that we must have and must use if we are to advance in our spiritual journey. The seven sacraments of the Church are the well spring and pathway that infuse sanctifying grace into our souls that form us in Christ’s image, for they give us his life which is eternal life.

Our attaining eternal life, heaven, depends on our becoming holy. We have two ways of doing that. Living and dying in sanctifying grace so as to come to holiness in this life and going straight to heaven, that is achieving it in this life. Or, secondarily, at least dying in sanctifying grace and being purified in purgatory, and then attaining heaven.

The vocation of marriage is entered into by the vast majority of men and women and it is thereby their way to holiness to heaven, the formation of families like the Holy Family of Nazareth. The bringing into the world or other souls to give glory to God is a humble calling and it is where the greatest happiness is found in this life, for most of mankind.

The key to the success of any marriage is the thing that Mary and Joseph had even though they did not understand and that was faith and trust in God. If it was God’s will for them then that is what they wanted to do. Mary and Joseph were to be responsible for the Son of God. “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

How does all of this square with the culture of today’s world? It does not. The culture for the most part ignores God and as a consequence many  who call themselves Catholic ignore her commandments and moral and natural law and her precepts. They have taken into themselves without realizing it the ways of indifference to truth.

Christ alone can save us. Not the precepts of the world, of men, but the precepts of the One, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.

Mary and Joseph lived totally chaste lives as a family. Jesus lived a completely chaste life. He was born of His mother Mary who was, and continues to be, a virgin. He took His human nature from her and was over shadowed by the Holy Spirit. For nothing will be impossible with God.

St. Paul in Colossians tells us how we are to live with one another, as husbands and wives, in the sacrament of marriage, and in the single life as well. Chastity must be a part of it. Our human sexuality is a gift to be experienced only in the holy bond and commitment of marriage. The abuse of this gift leads, as it does today, to fornication, adultery, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion. All are mortal sins which separate us from the friendship of God and absent repentance rob us of eternal life.

This wrong thinking has also led to the acceptances by many of gay or lesbian marriage. We find that we have a culture of death. A contraceptive mentality; we live for ourselves.

Mary, the young woman in Galilee when she was approaches by the angel says:”Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”

If we exercise our faith and trust completely in God and cooperate with the grace won for us by Christ, God will do wonderful things in our lives. If we would be disciples of Jesus we must take up our cross every day and follow in His footsteps. The spiritual life is a struggle and a battle with ourselves, and with the ways of the world.