Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 30th December 2022

Today we keep the feast of the Holy Family, which is usually kept on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, but this year, as Christmas fell on a Sunday and next Sunday is January 1st, the Solemnity of the Mother of God, we keep it today, 30th December. How complicated it all sounds: I frequently wish our faith were somewhat simpler! In all depictions of the Nativity or of the flight into Egypt or the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, we see Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus. However, interest in the Holy Family begins at the very end of 15th century and is only formalised in the 17th. The feast of the Holy Family was inserted into the Roman Calendar in 1921 by Pope Benedict XV, so it is a modern feast, that’s been moved around several times even in my own lifetime. Today it takes on a new significance with the breakdown of family life and the corrosion of traditional values, whether they are Christian or of other religions. It is important to lay emphasis on the fact that Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, because of his Incarnation, belonged not only to the Divine Family of the Holy Trinity, but also to a human family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family of Nazareth.

 

​The Gospel chosen for the feast this year is that of the Flight into Egypt, which itself was a feast in the Calendar at one time and still is among Eastern Christians. It is taken from Matthew’s Infancy Narrative, (Mt 2: 13-15; 19-23).

“After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

I called my son out of Egypt.

After Herod’s death, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he left for the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled:

‘He will be called a Nazarene.’”

 

​We notice how God continues to communicate with Joseph in dreams by means of an angel. His motive is to protect the child Jesus from an early death due to persecution. The child and Mary its mother are to be kept safe and Joseph does all he can to fulfil his promise to the Lord. Matthew also explains why the family do not return to Bethlehem, but rather go north to Galilee and the town of Nazareth, where eventually Jesus will begin his ministry after being a disciple of John the Baptist. Joseph prepares Jesus and Mary for what will eventually happen, by which time he disappears from the scene, probably dead and buried. Like Mary, Joseph accomplishes his duty in silent humility, always obedient to the will of God. Jesus learns the ways of God in the home of Mary and Joseph.