ANGELUS TODAY
This Sunday, as tens of thousands thronged St Peter’s Square,
Pope Benedict XVI marked the Feast of the Holy Family today with a prayer for all the families of the world - that parents “seriously concern” themselves with their children’s education, that they realise that every child is “an incomparable gift from God”, and that they are neither “friends nor masters” of their children’s lives but “guardians” of this gift.
In English, he said:
Today the Church throughout the world celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. May Jesus, Mary and Joseph bring greater love, unity and harmony to all Christian families, that they in their turn may be a firm example to the communities in which they live. May God bless you and your dear families!
Here is a full translation of the Pope's reflection today:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In the liturgy, the passage from the Gospel of Luke presents us the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, who, faithful to tradition, went to Jerusalem for the Passover together with the 12-year-old Jesus.
The first time Jesus entered the Temple pf the Lord was 40 days after his birth, when his parents offered for him “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Lk 2,24),, namely, a sacrifice such as that which the poor offered.
"Luke, whose entire Gospel is pervaded by a theology of the poor and of poverty, makes us understand... that the family of Jesus was among the poor of Israel; he makes us understand that it was precisely among them that the promise [to Israel] could mature to fulfillment" (L'infanzia di Gesu, 96).
On this day, Jesus was back in the Temple, but this time in a different role, which involves him directly. He was fulfilling, with Mary and Joseph, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem as prescribed by the Law (cfr Ex 23,17; 34,23ff), even if he was not yet 13 - a sign of the profound religiosity of the Holy Family. [Thirteen is the age when Jewish boys are considered accountable for their actions under the Law.]
But when his parents went back to Nazareth, something unexpected happened. He, without telling them, remained in the city. For three days, Mary and Joseph looked for him and found him in the Temple, speaking to the teachers of the Law (cfr Lc 2,46-47); and when they asked him for an explanation, Jesus responded that they ought not to have wondered, because he was where he ought to be, in his house, with the Father who is God (cfr L’infanzia di Gesù, 143).
"He professed to be in the temple of his Father", wrote Origen, "the Father whom he revealed to us and of whom he said he was the Son" (Homily on the Gospel of Luke, 18,5).
The concern of Mary and Joseph for Jesus is that of every parent who educates his child, introduces him to life and to understanding reality. That is why today it is our duty to say a special prayer to the Lord for all the families of the world.
Imitating the Holy Family of Nazareth, parents must be seriously concerned with the rearing and education of their own children, so that they may grow up to be responsible and honest citizens, without ever forgetting that faith is a precious gift to nourish in their children through their own personal example.
At the same time, let us pray that every child is welcomed as a gift of God, and may be sustained in the love of his father and mother, in order to grow up, like Jesus "wisdom, age and grace before God and men" (Lk 2,52).
May the love, the faithfulness and the dedication of Mary and Joseph be an example for all Christian spouses, who are not the friends nor masters of their children's lives, but guardians of this incomparable gift of God.
May the silence of Joseph as a 'just man' (cfr Mt 1,19), and the silence of Mary, who kept everything in her heart (cfr Lk 2,51), allow us to enter into the mystery full of faith and humanity of the Holy Family.
I wish for all Christian families to live in the presence of God with the same love and the same joy as the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
