Feast of the Holy Family and New Year 2024
On this last Sunday and last day of the Year of the Lord 2023, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This liturgical observation is very meaningful, as it shows what an important place a family has in God’s plan of salvation. God the Father has placed his only begotten Son, Jesus, into a human family. The Holy Family was living life like so many other families, struggling with adversities and wants, being forced into exile and experiencing poverty. The Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is the ultimate model for our families today that we need to follow if we want to have strong and loving marriages and families. Holy Family intercedes for us and blesses us today as we conclude the year and head into a new one.
The Church’s teaching on the human family is very extensive and rich. The Vatican II Council in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes reflects on fostering the nobility of marriage and the family: “The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family… Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a father or a mother. For this reason, Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state” (GS, 47.48).
Pope St. John Paul II wrote the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio on the role of the Christian family in the modern world (1981). In it, he analyzes dangers and changes that a modern family is experiencing, assuring of the Church’s role of being close and at the service to the family: “Knowing that marriage and the family constitute one of the most precious of human values, the Church wishes to speak and offer her help to those who are already aware of the value of marriage and the family and seek to live it faithfully, to those who are uncertain and anxious and searching for the truth, and to those who are unjustly impeded from living freely their family lives” (FC, 1).
More recent Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, signed by Pope Francis in 2016, is dedicated to the theme of love in the family. The document follows the Synods on the Family held in 2014 and 2015. In the exhortation we read about the joys, struggles and hopes of the institution of marriage and family: “The Joy of Love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church. As the Synod Fathers noted, for all the many signs of crisis in the institution of marriage, the desire to marry and form a family remains vibrant, especially among young people, and this is an inspiration to the Church. As a response to that desire, the Christian proclamation on the family is good news indeed”.
Tomorrow, on New Year’s Day, the Church observes the solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. The maternity of Our Lady is celebrated as a great gift for each child of God and for each family.
Since 1968, the World Day of Peace is also observed on January 1 each year. This year, the theme of the 57th World Day of Peace is “Artificial Intelligence and Peace.” Pope Francis addresses the challenges that the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) creates in modern world and how it could be used to build a fairer and more fraternal human society. In his tweet of December 14, Francis wrote: “We must make sure that Artificial Intelligence is put at the service of peace in the world, rather than being a threat, and that it make a beneficial contribution on humanity future. I have dedicated the Message for the World Day of Peace to this. #WDP2024 @vaticanIHD”.
As we enter the New Year of the Lord 2024, may we all, with the grace of the Lord and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, build strong, faithful and loving families and communities and thus foster peace, justice and kindness in our world. Happy New Year to all!
Fr. Cyprian Czop, O.M.I.