Holy Family Sunday

Sunday, Dec 29

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph | USCCB

Nazareth, School of the Gospel

Pope Paul VI in his address at the Basilica of Nazareth in 1964, reflected on Nazareth as a school for all Christians. He paid attention to Jesus’ beginnings and his life in Nazareth as a school of the Gospel. There, he says, “we learn to observe, to listen, to meditate, and to penetrate the profound and mysterious meaning of that simple, humble, and lovely manifestation of the Son of God… Here we learn the method by which we can come to understand Christ.”

The pope reflects in three lessons that are worth sharing as we celebrate the family of Nazareth and what it teaches us:

Silence

“The lesson of silence: may there return to us an appreciation of this stupendous and indispensable spiritual condition, deafened as we are by so much tumult, so much noise, so many voices of our chaotic and frenzied modern life. O silence of Nazareth, teach us recollection, reflection, and eagerness to heed the good inspirations and words of true teachers; teach us the need and value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of interior life, of secret prayer seen by God alone.”

Domestic life

“The lesson of domestic life: may Nazareth teach us the meaning of family life, its harmony of love, its simplicity and austere beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; may it teach us how sweet and irreplaceable is its training, how fundamental and incomparable its role on the social plane.”

The meaning of work

“The lesson of work: O Nazareth, home of “the carpenter’s son,” We want here to understand and to praise the austere and redeeming law of human labor, here to restore the consciousness of the dignity of labor, here to recall that work cannot be an end in itself.”

As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, we are invited to imitate those lessons practiced in the daily life of Jesus’ childhood home. Silence, a family life grounded in love and simplicity, and the meaning of work continue to be priorities for our families today. They refer to our relation to God, to our relation to others and the way we contribute to the world and fulfill our own calling.

The virtues to which the readings call us today are further instilled in our families when those lessons of Nazareth are taken at heart. And as in any school, all we need is to see with wonder, be open to receive and practice the teaching that is given.

May we be good disciples of Nazareth.