May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. We are once again presented with the model of
St. Joseph. On the first of January, we
will celebrate the feast of Mary, the Mother of God. These two feast days, occurring so close
together in the calendar, give me the opportunity to preach about St. Joseph
and fatherhood today, and the Blessed Virgin Mary and motherhood on Wednesday. Essentially there will be one homily about
fatherhood and motherhood, given in two parts and on two different days. And because the first of January is a Holy
Day of Obligation, I am confident that everyone who is here for the celebration
of Mass this weekend will also be here for the celebration of Mass on Tuesday
afternoon or Wednesday morning, and will hear the second part of this homily.
St. Joseph provided for the Lord Jesus and he provides for us
an image of the heavenly Father. In his
life and in his actions St. Joseph gives a model for those of us who have
received the gift of fatherhood through nature or grace. St. Joseph teaches us how to be a father.
Our reading from the Gospel today is the story of the flight
into Egypt. This event occurs after the
visit of the magi and just before the slaughter of the holy innocents, when
many young boys in Bethlehem were killed by the order of Herod. Like the patriarch Joseph in the book of Genesis,
the will of the Lord is made known to St. Joseph in dreams. Today the angel of the Lord appears to him in
a dream and tells him, “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt
and stay there until I tell you.” After
several years in Egypt, St. Joseph is told in another dream, “Rise, take the
child and his mother and go to the land of Israel.” This is the first thing that we learn about
St. Joseph and about fatherhood. St.
Joseph listened carefully and prayerfully to the will of God. The father must be a man who listens to God
and to the family entrusted to his care.
Having listened carefully and prayerfully, St. Joseph acts in
obedience to the will of God. He takes
the child and his mother to Egypt. He
does not send them to Egypt. He takes
them with him to Egypt. St. Joseph
exercises his fatherhood in obedience and by being present to the child Jesus
and to his mother Mary. The father is
obedient to God and present to his family.
Acting in obedience, St. Joseph suffers for the sake of his family and
he protects them. This is the mission
that the Almighty Father had entrusted to St. Joseph. He was to be the protector of the Virgin Mary
and the child Jesus. He would sacrifice
himself for the good of his family.
St. Joseph teaches us that a father must be a man who listens
carefully and prayerfully to the will and the word of the Lord. He teaches us that being a father means being
a man of obedient action and also being a man who is present to his
family. St. Joseph teaches us that the
role of the father is to protect the family entrusted to his care and to offer
himself and his own will as a sacrifice for the good of his family. And St. Joseph teaches us that the father
looks forward to the future. After their
years in Egypt, St. Joseph brought his family to Nazareth so that the words of
the prophets would be fulfilled. This is
the ultimate task of the mission of a father: to prepare his children for their
own mission.
May St. Joseph intercede for us that we may listen, that we
may act, that we may be present and willing to sacrifice, and that we might
prepare the family, or the flock, entrusted to our care for the mission of
proclaiming the Good News to all of the children of God. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe, NC
