Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Opening of the Jubilee Year
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen Live-streaming & T.V. Broadcast
December 29, 2024
Year of Hope
Every family faces challenges and heartbreak. Growing up, I saw this firsthand. Mom and Dad struggled to help my elder brother with special needs. It was more than a learning disability. Suffice it to say, my brother was hard to handle. Back then, options were limited for parents like mine and sometimes the advice they received wasn’t so good. Sometimes Mom and Dad were at wits end, especially as my brother got older. I saw their anxiety and witnessed their tears.
What I never saw was anger or despair. Mom and Dad never said to God, “Why did you do this to us?” In their worst moments, they never gave up hope, and certainly not their faith. If anything, they embraced it more ardently. When possible, Mom went to daily Mass, Dad did too – sometimes attending Mass at the unreasonable hour of 5:30 a.m. Praying the Rosary became part of our family routine.
Not everyone looked on in admiration. An acquaintance said to my Mom, “You won’t get any help from religion. It’s just wishful thinking, that’s all.” Mom wasn’t buying it and neither was Dad. They knew that God loved my brother and that they did too. Even into their late 90’s, Mom and Dad provided for my brother, and when he died, commended him to the Lord with tender love. They saw hope of eternal life shine upon their son. Indeed, they exemplify what it is we celebrate today.
A Holy Confluence
Today, two beautiful things come together in our Holy Catholic Faith. First is the opening of a Holy Year, decreed by Pope Francis, a special year of grace dedicated to the theological virtue of hope. The second is the Feast of Holy Family, celebrating the wondrous mystery that God’s Son not only assumed our humanity but also that he was part of a family, the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. If ever there were parents who hoped and trusted in God, it was surely Mary and Joseph!
Recall what Elizabeth said of Mary, “Blessed are you who trusted (i.e., hoped) that the Lord’s words to you would be fulfilled.” Think of the hope and trust in God that Mary and Joseph needed to believe the angel’s messages, to give birth in a stable, to flee to Egypt. In fact, their hope and trust in God would be tested many times. In today’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph are deeply worried because their Son went missing as they travelled home from the Temple. Every parent can relate to Mary’s gentle exasperation with Jesus: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Even so, Mary reflected on this mysterious event in her heart, and perhaps only later did she grasp its meaning. Thus, Mary and Joseph set the pattern, not only for my parents but all parents, the pattern of trusting in God’s promises and hoping against hope, in whatever circumstances, including those that defy our understanding.
“In whatever circumstances?” you might be asking me long about now. What about parents in extreme poverty or those living in war zones or a single mom trying to survive or a family whose father is incarcerated? What about the haunting uncertainty so many feel about the future? Or the loneliness and isolation so many people experience? How, you might ask me, can you speak about hope in those circumstances? Isn’t hope in God misplaced optimism at best, wishful thinking at worst? Well, if that was said to my Mom back in the late 50’s, think about how many people today reject the virtue of hope as bogus. But you wouldn’t be here nor would you be watching this Mass electronically if, deep down, you really thought that way. Nor would Pope Francis have convoked a holy year of hope if he thought it were merely a band aid or a palliative.
Pope Francis isn’t trying to sell us “pie in the sky”. If ever there were a Pope connected to human suffering it is he. No sooner did he open the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica than he opened a holy door in a prison . . . not to let the prisoners out but to let the light of hope and love in. The first thing he tells us about hope (echoing St. Paul) is that it does not disappoint or deceive. It doesn’t promise to be a panacea for all that troubles us; it doesn’t assure us that all will be well and turn out just as we may wish. Hope means catching sight of the glimmer of God’s glory and our calling to reflect that glory in some particular way. It means that in our pilgrimage through life, amid its joys and sufferings, we are confident that we are being brought, not merely to a better place, but to the very heart of the Triune God, for whose love and friendship we were created in the first place. Hope, then, means picking up our Cross and following the Savior not only to Calvary but all the way to the new and heavenly Jerusalem.
Pilgrimage of Hope
But this something we do not do alone. In today’s Gospel, we meet the Holy Family on pilgrimage. They are travelling in a caravan, going to the Temple in Jerusalem. During the Holy Year, it is a good to go on pilgrimage, if possible, maybe to Rome or to one of the designated churches in the Archdiocese. But even if you can’t, this Holy Year is an opportunity for you and for me to see ourselves and our families and loves ones as pilgrims of hope, journeying together in the Church, however haltingly, towards the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Beatitudes. When we see our lives this way, we live differently. We find it in our hearts to love others, to create bonds of trust & understanding, to sympathize with the problems and challenges others are facing, to console the sorrowing, to love and serve the poor and vulnerable, and to see the hand of God in everything we experience, including those many things in life we’d rather not encounter.
Just as my parents taught me how to hope, so the Holy Family teaches us all of us how to hope, as indeed our Holy Father calls us to be a people of hope, that is to say, a light brightly visible in the darkness of a world searching. May the year ahead be a time of grace, spiritual renewal, peace and joy, for each you and for your families and loved ones!