Solemnity of the Holy Family

Gospel Reflection for December 31, 2023 - Luke 2:22-40

And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord:

As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord:

And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons:

And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.

And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law,

He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said:

Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace;

Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples:

A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

And his father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him.

And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted;

And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.

And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity.

And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day.

Now she, at the same hour, coming in, confessed to the Lord; and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel.

And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth.

And the child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom; and the grace of God was in him. (Luke 2:22-40 DRA)

Today is a day of two celebrations: the Sunday of the Octave of Christmas, and the Feast of the Holy Family. While in the secular world, Christmas celebrations being in Advent (or even earlier for businesses), then immediately cease after Christmas Day, Catholics have the privilege of adhering to the ancient Christian tradition of first undergoing a season of penitential preparation before a great feast, such as Advent prior to Christmas or Lent leading up to Easter. The celebration of the holy day itself does not begin until, logically, the day actually comes; then, as with a wedding followed by a honeymoon, the festive joy continues for a certain period afterwards. In the case of Christmas, it is followed by an Octave of eight days but does not fully conclude until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. For this reason, Catholics like myself often keep up Christmas decorations, such as trees and lights, until the season itself ends, to proclaim to the world the true meaning of Christmas and its traditional form of celebration as a holy season.

Today is also the Feast of the Holy Family: the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and Jesus Christ. While the reading for Saturday, beautifully reflected on by Chantal yesterday, focused on the prophetess Anna during the Presentation, the Gospel for this feast day includes one of my favorite biblical saints, Simeon. He is similar to St. John the Baptist in that he is a Jew, a man fully of the Old Covenant, devoted to the Law of Moses and essentially a cloistered monk in the Temple, yet also anticipates the promised coming of the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Due to his righteousness and faithful patience, Simeon is enabled, like St. John, by the Holy Spirit to immediately recognize Jesus as the Redeemer and Savior of the world.

This is a clear demonstration, as Christ Himself would one day teach, that the Law is good, a gift from God which Christ fulfills rather than destroys; though He does remove the weight of guilt brought by the Law, as St. Paul taught, its legal proscriptions and sacramental rites were not false but, as St. Thomas Aquinas taught, were truly efficacious and merited grace in anticipation of Christ by the inworking of God. Going beyond what many Jews of his time presumed, Simeon even understood the prophecies that the Messiah would also bring the Gentiles to worship the one true God, a miracle that would be accomplished by the apostles in fulfillment of Christ's Great Commission to “teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Mt 28:19) Now the God of Abraham is worshiped by Jews and Christians alike throughout the world, and Christ has instituted a new Law of love, a new circumcision of Baptism and a new sacrifice of the Mass through which God is worshiped "in spirit and truth" "from the rising of the Sun to its setting".

Now the righteous man, according to the law, received the Child Jesus in his arms, that he might signify that the legal righteousness of works under the figure of the hands and arms was to be changed for the lowly indeed but saving grace of Gospel faith. The old man received the infant Christ, to convey thereby that this world, now worn out as it were with old age, should return to the childlike innocence of the Christian life. (Bede, Catena Aurea)

As someone whose family life has been both the greatest source of joy in my life, other than Christ, as well as the greatest source of pain and heartache, as I am only close to two members of my family and have been mistreated by many of them, feasts such as this one can be difficult for me and for many others like me. It is important to remember, in the midst of these feelings, that God never wills sin directly; however, He does will it indirectly, but only so that a greater good may come from it and for the sake of our free will, without which we cannot truly love. The Holy Family, like the teachings of the Church and the lives of the saints, is not a mere ideal, something no one can live up to; many today use this as an excuse to sin, saying that such ideals are unattainable and so long as they are not as bad as a Hitler, they are "good enough." But the grace of God enables everyone to live up to these truths.

Christ entered into our fallen world and assumed our frail human nature in order to sanctify it, to elevate it into a channel of grace and sanctification, using its very inadequacy to demonstrate His omnipotence. This is why Christ chose to undergo the rites of the Law and the baptism of St. John, though He needed neither of them, and why He chose to save us through the Cross: so that our sinfulness, our free rejection of Him, may be used to reconcile us to Him through love. St. Athanasius thus wrote,

But when was the Lord hid from His Father’s eye, that He should not be seen by Him, or what place is excepted from His dominion, that by remaining there He should be separate from His Father, unless brought to Jerusalem and introduced into the temple? But for us perhaps these things were written. For as not to confer grace on Himself was He made man and circumcised in the flesh, but to make us Gods through grace, and that we might be circumcised in the Spirit, so for our sakes is He presented to the Lord, that we also might learn to present ourselves to the Lord. (Catena Aurea)

There is no greater image of the Blessed Trinity in this life than the family - and there is nothing that the world, the flesh and the devil more despise and seek to ruin.

Though the family was once cherished and protected by Christian society, since the rise of socialism and feminism it has been attacked from every angle. These attacks persist today, endlessly mutating like a virus to avoid any antidotes employed against them. Sadly, they have even infected many in the Church, including those who promote abortion, the greatest attack on the family; those who say that we should not "breed like rabbits" by having large families; or those who allow for the blessing of couples who live in objectively immoral states contrary to the good of the family as designed by God for our salvation: "For God to bless is to produce something good, and to infuse something good, and so to be a cause. But our speech does not cause things. It rather acknowledges or expresses them; hence, our blessing is the same as recognizing good." (Aquinas)

Catholic families today struggle to remain faithful as spouses and to protect their children from the influences of degenerate art and music, pornography, public school indoctrination, the pollution of social media influencers and countless other fiery darts of the devil, all while receiving little support and even overt confusion from the Church. We must work harder than ever to promote good Catholic families and give them bridges to bypass the road of perdition offered by the world.

The enemies of the family are cunning, and to a large extent they have won the culture war - yet they have already lost the cosmic campaign won by Christ on the Cross. May we, like Our Lord in His humanity, grow in strength and wisdom to resist Satan and his human agents, clinging always to the true, the good and the beautiful and leading the world to God through them, and may the sainted human parents of the Son of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Most Chaste St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, as well as Simeon and Anna, intercede for us and for all Catholic families on this great feast!