THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

Holy Family

8 January 2023

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The Sunday

Sermon

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Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we are reminded that Jesus is both God and Man. We honor the Holy Family here on earth, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God — the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

We follow Jesus from His Incarnation with the feast of the Annunciation and His Birth on Christmas Day to His death, Resurrection, and Ascension into Heaven. In each stage of life, we see Jesus humbly appearing as just another person in this world. In appearance, He does not stand out in any way. He looks human, acts and speaks like other humans, He grows and develops as every other human.

When Joseph and Mary find Him in the Temple, He tells his earthly parents that He must do His Heavenly Father's business. Then He humbles Himself again and returns to His human parents, submitting in all humility and obedience to them. The Scriptures become silent on the Life of Jesus until He begins His public life at the age of thirty.

Mary kept all His words in her heart. Venerable Bede (Confessor, Doctor of the Church, 672-735) says: "The Blessed Virgin, either because she understood, or because she could not yet understand, in either case, kept all these words in her heart, as though to turn them over in her mind and more closely examine them; hence we have: And His Mother kept … Consider the most prudent woman Mary, Mother of True Wisdom, as the pupil of her Son. For she learned from Him, not as from a Child or man, but as from God. More she dwelt in meditation on His words and actions; therefore nothing of what was said or done by Him fell idly on her mind; but as before, when she conceived the Word Itself in her womb, so now does she hold within her His ways and words, cherishing them as it were in her heart; and that which she now beholds in the present, she waits to have revealed with greater clarity in the future. And this practice she followed as a rule and law through all her life."

The mystery of God made Man gives us many things to discern. We distinguish the distinct Natures of Jesus — God and Man, but we see only One Person. In the Person of Jesus, human eyes see His Humanity, but faith manifests to us His Divinity.

Our thoughts are taken up with the Sacrifice of the Son of God as He became one with us. His entire life here on earth is a continual sacrifice. In adopting our human nature and form, He sacrificed His glory, power, and majesty as God. The humiliation of submitting to human parents is a tremendous daily or constant sacrifice.

Every human injustice committed against Him only appeared as a human tragedy or evil. In truth, every offense against the Person of Jesus Christ is an offense against God as well as against Man. Those who reject the Human nature of Jesus sin not just against another man but against God because Jesus Christ is also indeed the Son of God and God Himself.

With the Blessed Virgin Mary, we should strive to keep all the words and actions of Jesus in our hearts and minds. It is suitable for us to ponder them and treasure them. As we consider the development of His Human Nature, we may develop supernatural growth within our souls. The simplicity of the Scriptures is an obstacle to hearts and minds that are proud rather than humble.

If we wish to spiritually grow and understand the Scriptures, God, the Church, and ourselves, we need to seek and find the humility of Jesus and imitate Him. It is never enough to read or hear the scriptures as if they are nothing more than any other book or entertainment. It is not enough to accept the historical reality of Jesus or to believe in Him as a Person.

Faith is a gift (grace) from God, but of itself, it is empty. We must complete what is lacking. Faith without works is dead (St. James 2, 17). In the Scriptures, we should strive to draw nearer to Jesus in both of His Natures. We need to take His Words and keep them before us, pondering them so that we may learn how to think, speak, and act in our lives — imitating Him and following Him — learning of Him to be meek and humble of heart — daily denying ourselves, embracing our crosses.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary teach us to hold and cherish His human words so that we may uncover the Divinity hidden within the Humanity of Jesus. Once we hear Him, we must strive to love Him and His words so that we may imitate and follow Him through this life on earth and into the eternal life of Heaven.