On this last Sunday of the year, December 31, 2023, Mother Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth: the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It is an opportunity for us too to offer all the members of our own families on the altar for God’s blessing. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The shepherds went in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the infant lying in a manger. Amen.”
The Feast of the Holy Family is a relatively new feast in the Church, having been instituted by Pope Leo XIII on June 14, 1892. In the first reading from Genesis, God promises Abraham and his wife, Sarah, who are already well on in years and childless, that they will be blessed with an offspring. He tells Abraham that his descendants shall be as many as the stars in heaven. Abraham and Sarah put their faith in the Lord, an act of righteousness that does not go unrewarded. In the second reading the sacred writer of the Letter to the Hebrews picks up this same story by recalling the strong faith Abraham and his wife, Sarah, have in God’s promise and how, in turn, God grants them their wish of becoming parents despite their old age. In the Gospel, we read from Saint Luke’s well-known passage of the presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple. There, the old Simeon and the prophetess Anna both receive the child Jesus and make revelations about him that baffle his parents. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for all the families of our community, especially those experiencing challenges of one sort or another, that they may see in the Holy Family of Nazareth a model of Christian family unity.
First Reading: Gen 15: 1-6; 21: 1-3
The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”
He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.
Comment:
Genesis, which deals with the origins of the world and the origins of the Israelite people, is the first of the first five books of the Old Testament. The others are Exodus, which tells the story of the escape of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, their wandering in the desert for forty years and the covenant on Mount Sinai; Leviticus, which gives the lists of laws governing the priesthood of the tribe of Levi, Numbers, which gives an account of a census of the Jewish people in the desert, and Deuteronomy, which contains the code of civil and religious law framed by the teaching of Moses and an account of the final preparation for entering the Promised Land. Together, they form a unit collectively known as the Pentateuch, the Greek word for five books, or the Torah, the Hebrew word for the Law.
The passage for our meditation centers around God’s promise of a reward to Abraham for his generosity to Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem and priest of the Most High God, Creator of the heavens and the earth. Abraham has given Melchizedek a tenth of everything and for this, God is happy with him and promises him much reward. But Abraham is childless and needs to appoint an heir who will take over leadership of the clan from him. In what is usually considered the first friendly dialogue between God and Abraham in the Bible, God takes him outside his tent and shows him the countless stars in the sky and tells him, “So shall your descendants be.” Abraham believes God’s promise and the Lord visits Sarah, his wife, who conceives and bears Abraham a son, Isaac. This is the most joyful moment in Abraham’s life, which up to now has been very much marked by trials and tribulations. With the birth of Isaac Abraham’s trust in God grows.
Whenever Abraham is asked to make an act of faith in the word of God, he obeys and this pleases God who reckons him righteous. This makes him the father of all those who believe in God and in his saving word. Abraham is not only the father of the Jewish people according to the flesh, but also the father of those of us, who without being Jews, have become members of the new people of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for a strong faith to trust in God’s word, as Abraham did, so our families too can continue to prosper in holiness. Amen.
Second Reading: Heb 11: 8. 11-12. 17-19
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old – and Sarah herself was barren – because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom he had been told, “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead – and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Comment
As we saw in the first reading of this day, Abraham is “our father in faith”. He is the greatest example, in the Old Testament, of one who puts entire faith in God. Putting all his trust in God’s promise, Abraham gives up all the security and comfort of his native land of Ur of the Chaldeans, to set out for a distant and unknown place, the land of Canaan, which God promises to give to his descendants.
The sacred writer of the Letter to the Hebrews dwells on Abraham and Sarah in this passage. He shows Abraham as a symbol of true obedience to God. Saint Francis de Sales says that “Neither the love for his homeland nor the pleasure of his neighbours’ company nor the comforts of his father’s home were able to weaken his resolve. He set out courageously and ardently to where God willed to lead him. What self-abasement and what abandonment! One cannot love God perfectly unless one renounces all attachment to perishable things” (Treatise on the Love of God, book 10).
Like Abraham, Sarah, his wife, is already very elderly when God announces that she is going to conceive and have a child. At first, she is naturally puzzled because she cannot understand how she can still bear a child at her age. But then her attitude changes into one of faith in God and she receives a child she never thought she would ever get. The conception of Isaac is therefore as miraculous as that of Christ. In his commentary to this passage from Hebrews, Saint Thomas Aquinas says, among other things, that “All the miraculous conceptions in the Old Testament were prefigurements of the greatest of all miracles, the Incarnation of the Word. It was fitting that his birth from a Virgin should be prefigured by other births so as to prepare people’s minds for faith. But there is this difference: God miraculously enabled Sarah to conceive by means of human seed, whereas the blessed Virgin conceived without it” (Commentary on Hebrews, 11, 3).
Abraham and Sarah are quietly enjoying the marvels of parenthood when God again springs a surprise on them. He asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to him. God’s request seems to negate the promise he gave earlier, that of making Abraham the father of a great nation. But, in astonishing docility to God’s will, Abraham obeys and Isaac is only saved from his knife by the timely intervention of an angel of God. His unquestioning obedience to God is the most striking proof of his strong faith in God.
We pray for a strong faith so we too can put our entire trust in God the Most High, Maker of heaven and earth, instead of on human acts and promises. We make our supplication through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Acclamation: "Alleluia, alleluia. Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of God dwell in you richly. Alleluia."
Gospel: Luke 2: 22-40.
When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed — and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.
Comment
Today’s Gospel describes the presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple and shows Joseph and Mary as devout Jews, following the prescriptions of the Law of Moses. The Gospel alludes to several aspects of the Law of Moses: circumcision, the dedication of the firstborn son to the Lord, and the purification of a woman after childbirth.
According to the Law of Moses, as presented in the Book of Leviticus, a woman was considered ritually unclean during her menstrual period and for a prescribed period of time following the birth of a child. After the birth of a son, a woman was considered ritually unclean for 40 days. After the birth of a daughter, a woman was considered unclean for 80 days. In order to be restored to ritual purity, a Jewish woman performed the appropriate rites of purification and made the prescribed ritual offering.
Today’s Gospel notes that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, in accordance with the Mosaic Law. At that time, he was called Jesus, the name he was given by the angel Gabriel. On the 40th day after Jesus’ birth, Mary performed the appropriate purification rites and made her offering at the Temple. Although the Law of Moses required an offering of a lamb, those who could not afford a lamb could substitute two turtledoves or two pigeons. In this scene, Luke identifies Joseph and Mary as being poor, and indeed throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will show special concern for the poor.
Another Jewish rite referenced in this Gospel is the dedication of the firstborn son to the Lord. In remembrance of the feast of Passover, when the firstborn children of the Israelites in Egypt were saved from death, the Law of Moses prescribed that all firstborn males of Israel should be consecrated to the Lord. In this tradition, Mary and Joseph present the infant Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Luke reports that Mary and Joseph encounter two devout Jews in the Temple, Simeon and Anna, who recognize the infant Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel’s hope for redemption. In Simeon’s words we find a prediction of Mary’s witnessing of Jesus’ death on the cross. The Canticle of Simeon, also called by its Latin name, Nunc Dimitis, is prayed at night prayer, or compline, during the Liturgy of the Hours.
The Holy Family of Nazareth is presented as a united family, a model of all Christian families. In a beautiful address on December 28, 2011, at his Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict XVI, of happy memories, spoke of the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth as follows: "The house of Nazareth is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The Holy Family,” continues the Holy Father, “is an icon of the domestic Church, which is called to pray together. The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later. I would, then, like to invite people to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family, following the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth".
These days, the notion of family as made up of a man and a woman and their children has come under considerable strain by the recent declaration of the Dicastery for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, which approves of and recommends that priests can now bless homosexual couples, even without approving of their relationships. This has threatened to drive a wedge in the Church with the bishops of Africa, notably those of Cameroon, and bishops in many other parts of the world, completely rejecting the said recommendation as unacceptable. As someone has so appropriately put it, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
Let us say this prayer for families, understood as male and female, taken from an Anglican Prayer Book: “O God our Father, bind together in your all-embracing love every family on earth. Banish anger and bitterness within them; nourish forgiveness and peace. Bestow upon parents such wisdom and patience that they may gently exercise the disciplines of love, and call forth from their children their greatest virtue and their highest skill. Instill in children such independence and self-respect that they may freely obey their parents, and grow in the joys of companionship. Open ears to hear the truth within the words another speaks; and make the mutual affection of families a sign of your kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
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