Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
December 31, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

The Christmas season that we are living, as we all know, is a beautiful time of year. And I hope that you are finding time to slow things down and enjoy a little more special time with your families.

Today is also the last day of the year. So, naturally, we are thinking about “new beginnings.” We want to reflect on how we want to make our lives better.

And I think the readings of today’s Mass give us really good advice on how to begin the new year. Because these readings — the Feast of the Holy Family — help us to reflect on the most important blessings and relationships in our lives, that is our relationship with God and our relationship with our loved ones in our families.

As we hear from the Book of Sirach this morning: “Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother.”

So my brothers and sisters, as we know, marriage and the family are the foundations, the “building blocks” of our lives and of our society. Husband and wife becoming mother and father and bringing new life into the world. That’s God’s plan for humanity.

And this is what we see in the passage of the Gospel today.

It was very short, so I’m sure that we all are happy. That’s supposed to be a joke. But it was short and as we heard, Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to Jerusalem and dedicated him to God.

God and his commandments are at the heart of the Holy Family. The most important thing for Mary and Joseph was to do what God wanted for their Child. That is, my dear brothers and sisters, the family’s essential vocation: to bring everything in our lives to God.

So today let us especially ask God for the grace to make our families “holy families.” We need to look to the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the model for our own families.

And as we know, the life of the Holy Family was not easy. They were a working family and so they knew the stress and challenges that we find in every family.

When we read the Gospels during these days of Christmas, we see the Holy Family, what they experienced, their sorrows and poverty, the threats to their lives.

God allowed this suffering in their lives to show that he is close to every family, and especially when we are experiencing hardship and difficulties in our families.

So, it makes sense that in our families, in our own lives, we turn often to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. They understand our challenges. Those of you who are parents especially should be talking to St. Joseph and our Mother Mary every day, asking for their intercession and their guidance. 

And again, the lesson that we learn from the Holy Family is to keep Jesus at the heart of our family, as they did in their family. They prayed every day, and they went to Jerusalem to worship.

And Mary and Joseph raised Jesus and educated him, and they did it with tender love.

The Gospel tells us today that Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”

This is, again, the vocation of the family — to help all of us to grow in holiness and wisdom, to  become stronger in our love for God and our love for others.

So God really wants our families to be holy families, to be a place of joy, where we feel the Father’s love, and where we can discover his purposes, his meaning for our life. 

I was trying to reflect on what is the secret of the Holy Family?

And I came to think that the secret of the Holy Family is prayer. And I think that’s the secret for making our families holy families.

Probably we all remember Father — now Venerable Father Patrick Peyton, who was a priest here in Hollywood — he used to have a saying, that we all know: “The family that prays together, stays together.”

And this is true. Prayer must be the first thing in our lives! And prayer must be the center of our families.

And it’s not complicated. Prayer is not really complicated. Sometimes we think that we have to do something special or have some special knowledge of how to pray or know about theology or something like that. But really when we reflect on it, the only thing that we have to do is open our hearts to God. Just to talk to him, like a child talking to his Father.

Prayer, and we need to find the time to do it, but maybe every morning, maybe every evening, during meals — at some point in our families, to make sure that prayer is the center of our Christian lives.

Then finally, in the second reading today, St. Paul describes the virtues we should have in our families — compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness. But again, at the heart of it, St. Paul says that everything is about prayer.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, this week, as we begin this New Year, it sounds like a good resolution for all of us. Finding the time to pray every day, to talk to God, to listen to God in our lives and in our families. Making sure that our families become holy families — finding time to pray together and pray for each other as we talk and listen to God.

May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph help each one of us and our families — to pray together, and stick together, and live in God’s presence with love and joy.