Gospel Commentary: Feast of the Holy Family

By Fr. John De Celles
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 12/23/04)

Today’s Gospel text is taken from the readings for Holy Family Sunday — the Sunday after Christmas. It records the flight into Egypt, the Holy Family fleeing King Herod’s efforts to kill the Baby Jesus. While in one sense this story is about all three members of the Holy Family, and in another sense it is about Jesus (the center of the Gospels and all of Scripture), there is a sense in which we can say the central figure is St. Joseph.

This text is one of our principal Scriptural sources about the life of St. Joseph. And like every other text in which St. Joseph is mentioned, it highlights his role as husband and father of the Holy Family. As such, God presents him to us as the father of the first Christian family and the archetype or exemplar of all Christian fatherhood.

And what does St. Joseph teach us about Christian fatherhood? First, he is obedient to God: when the angel relays God’s message to him, Scripture (using sentence parallels) emphasizes that he complies exactly and immediately to God’s command: "The angel … said ‘Rise and take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt … ’ Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt." Christian fathers are called to listen and obey God’s commands as they learn them from Scripture and the Church and as they discern them through prayer. They are called to obey completely, without hesitation or question. And all Christian fathers are called to do so with absolute faith, confidence and trust in God, just as St. Joseph went into a strange land and stayed there until the angel reappeared and told him to return to Nazareth.

We also see that St. Joseph was called to consider the well-being of his family as his primary vocation. His principal duty in life was not to his career, or to his parents or cousins in Nazareth, but to his wife and son. He was called, as are all Christian fathers, to be willing to sacrifice everything necessary to keep his family from all harm — physical and spiritual. Today, how many fathers are truly willing to sacrifice their careers, big salaries, reputations, comfortable homes and friendships, in order to provide what is best for their families — both physically and (more importantly) spiritually?

On another level, St. Joseph also shows us that a Christian father is supposed to center his life on Christ, and then bring Christ into his home and center the whole life of the family around Him. The father is supposed to assure that his children know Jesus in the most full and intimate way they can, by personally educating them in the importance and meaning of Scripture and Church doctrine, teaching them how to live life in imitation of Christ, and how to pray to and worship Him, especially through the Mass and the sacraments. Moreover, they are like St. Joseph to accomplish this in and through the Virgin Mary, teaching them to love her and depend on her their mother, who will always lead them to Jesus.

Finally, St. Joseph teaches us that fathers are charged to protect both their families and, in a certain sense, Jesus himself against the attacks of secular forces that wish to eliminate Jesus or Christianity from modern society. In this regard, for example, a father must make certain that his children understand that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Savior, and not another mere secular holiday. They must defend — and teach their children to defend — their right and duty to practice and proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ.

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