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Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
Christmastide is a season when many families gather. Family life is a blessing, but often a mixed blessing. Our family life can bring us our greatest joys: the deep love between spouses and between parents and children, as well as grandparents and grandchildren. But family life can also bring us our greatest sorrows: our anxious concern for a loved one who is sick in mind or body, or our pain at a family relationship that has gone sour, or finally the pain of losing a beloved family member. Today we pray for God’s blessing on our families, in times of both joy and sorrow, as we hear of the family life of Mary, Joseph, and the child Jesus.
Today’s gospel continues the wonderful Christmas story. We hear of the holy family going up to Jerusalem to present the child Jesus in the temple, fulfilling the Torah command (Exodus13:11-15). This consecration of a firstborn son foreshadows Jesus’ later self-offering on the cross. It was also necessary to fulfil the rite of ceremonial purification for Mary, forty days after giving birth to her son (Leviticus12:2-8). Although described in the Torah as purifying from ritual “uncleanness,” in fact this regulation provided forty days for a mother to bond with her new born baby, without the many distractions of other family duties.
Today there is a choice of first and second readings. The standard first reading comes from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach),promising blessings for the person honouring father and mother, as the Decalogue commands (Exodus 20:12). Such honouring is not just a matter of words, but it means caring for them when they become older and more frail. Even at a time of mental decline or dementia, we are called to show sympathy to an elderly parent.
The standard second reading today comes from St Paul’s letter to the Colossians, calling for the virtues needed in family life: kindness and humility, gentleness and patience, compassion and forgiveness.
The alternative first reading from Genesis tells of the elderly Abraham’s faith when God promised him a child through his wife Sarah. When this promise was fulfilled, the couple had the joy of welcoming their own son Isaac.
The alternative second reading from Hebrews also reflects on the faith of Abraham and Sarah. By faith, the elderly Sarah was enabled to conceive a son, because she believed that God could fulfil his promise. From Abraham and Sarah came countless physical descendants, including the people of Israel through Isaac and other Middle Eastern people through Ishmael. From this one couple emerged their spiritual children—all who have faith in their promised offspring, Jesus our Saviour (Galatians 3:16-29).
As a whole, the readings for this feast-day speak of the blessings of family life but also its challenges. Our prayer today is for God’s loving help for our families and the wider community.
The Holy Family
Catholicism of the Catholic Church References:
CCC 531-534:the Holy Family
CCC 1655-1658, 2204-2206: the Christian family,a domestic Church
CCC 2214-2233: duties of family members
CCC 529, 583, 695: the Presentation in theTemple
CCC 144-146, 165, 489, 2572, 2676: Abraham andSarah as models of faith
Devotion to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, sometimes portrayed also with Saints Joachim and Anna, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, originated in the late Middle Ages and grew in popularity in the 17th Century.
Originally a local observance, the feast was made a universal observance by Pope Benedict XV in 1921, and assigned to the Sunday after the Epiphany. In 1969 the new General Roman Calendar assigned the feast to the Sunday after Christmas Day.
The theme of the feast is that the Holy Family be invoked as an example of ‘the virtues of family life and the bonds of charity’(Collect), and that Mary and Joseph intercede that God may ‘establish our families firmly in your grace and your peace’ (Prayer over the Offerings). The Holy Family serves as a promise of eternal life, so that imitating them, ‘after the trials of this world, we may share their company for ever.’ (Prayer after Communion).
This year, the Gospel is the account of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, whose proper location is with the Feast of Candlemas (February 2nd).
No proper Preface exists in the Roman Rite for this feast, and an appropriate Christmas preface is used. Perhaps Christmas Preface3 would be appropriate for this feast, as it links the human and divine natures of Christ, ‘humanity’ being such a feature of the devotion to the Holy Family.
The list of hymns have been selected from the Laudate hymnbook:
131 Angels from the realms of glory
143 The Aye Carol
144 In the bleak midwinter
147 What shall we give
243 Into one we are all gathered
341 Sing of Mary, pure and lowly
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
