Blessed Are They Who Fear the Lord

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

Psalm 128 is one of fourteen different Psalms that are categorized as Psalms of Ascent, forming a collection of Psalms used by pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem where families went to celebrate the holidays of the Jewish religion. They are short songs that are easily memorized so that the pilgrims could sing them freely as they walked to Jerusalem and the Temple or as they walked home after the celebration. Each of them sings of the blessings of family life and usually begins with a beatitude. Today we hear, “Happy are all who fear the Lord, who walk in the ways of God.” In the context of such a pilgrimage, Psalm 128 is a blessing used before returning home, celebrating the joys of daily life: satisfying work, prosperity, and family happiness. The final verses of the Psalm extended this vision to include the entire nation of Israel. God’s blessing on each family is a share of the covenant blessing on the whole people.

St. Paul expands this vision in his Letter to the Colossians. The verses that we proclaim today is from the part of the letter that is called the “parenesis.” Such exhortations follow a regular pattern that is widely believed to reproduce the structure of a primitive Christian catechism. We are told to “put on” various virtues. This language reflects the vesting of the candidate as he or she came up out of the baptismal font. These virtues help us to find the raw materials for the formulation of the Christian ethic for a society that is not organized or hierarchical.

The Gospel recounts the story that we call the “flight into Egypt.” Egypt was a traditional place of refuge for Judeans because it was under Roman rule and was beyond Herod’s jurisdiction. Upon returning to Israel, Joseph chooses to take the family to Nazareth rather than Bethlehem. Though Matthew calls Nazareth a city, it was a small hamlet with a population of approximately one hundred people. There were a few families at most, very likely all related to each other. Located in the area of the sea of Galilee, Nazareth would have been more peaceful than Bethlehem which was set in the area ruled over by one of the sons of Herod. They would most probably have been living with Joseph’s extended family – his brothers, their wives and children.

Each of the readings for this day remind us that the family is the basic unit of society. Even today, the family is referred to as the domestic Church in which children learn to live according to the commandments. Although we know precious little about this family’s life in Nazareth after returning from Egypt, Matthew portrays Jesus as quite capable of functioning effectively in the public world of the male. He surrounded himself with other Jewish males, creating for himself another extended family in which he served as the patriarch. St. Luke extends that image by including various women in the grouping as well.

As we celebrate this feast, we give thanks to God for our own families, and we pray for the families of today. Throughout human history, the family unit has been faced with many different problems. Despite the fact that the problems of our times are different, the virtues that have been enumerated by St. Paul in today’s reading are still the best remedies for facing those difficulties.