As we continue to celebrate the Christmas mystery,
the Church now puts before us for our contemplation
that mystery that is known as the Holy Family.
And indeed, it is a mystery that cannot be separated from the Christmas mystery.
Indeed, all human endeavors in some way have familiar relations.
We often miss this point, even in the hierarchy of the Church.
But if we understand especially the European expressions for the Vicar of Christ,
words like Papa, then we realize that it is rooted in the scriptural understanding of fatherhood.
For does not our Lord himself call God his father, Abba,
which Papa is a form of because it is a very familial term.
And so, the Vicar of Christ looks over the household of God.
And so, he is a true father in the spiritual order.
And being a true father, he has brought to the intention of modern society its need to return,
return to a mystery, the mystery that is rooted in God's attachment to us.
For when the Lord came to save us,
mankind, he did not come by way of detachment, but he came by way of attachment.
That is, he attached himself to our humanity and the sacred humanity
that Christ received from the Mother of God in her womb.
And so, we ought to attach ourselves to Christ,
for he will reveal to us the mystery of the redemption of the family.
And so, the Vicar of Christ have in our modern times constantly pointed out,
especially in earnest,
that God is a true father in the spiritual order of the world.
And so, we ought to attach ourselves to Christ,
and have continued up to our present time.
Pope John Paul II, indeed, wrote many encyclicals and apostolic exhortations.
Amongst them were included the Redeemer of Man, that is, an encyclical on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
the Mother of the Redeemer, an encyclical on the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and St. Joseph, the Guardian of the Redeemer,
an apostolic exhortation on the life of St. Joseph,
and St. Joseph, the Guardian of the Holy Family.
And so, the Vicar of Christ has asked us to return to a proper understanding of what the human family is.
And that understanding can only be received through the Church
and through the mystery that is the Holy Family.
For the mystery of salvation is a mystery of the reclamation of the family,
lost in the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve,
reclaimed, recapitulated in the new Adam and the new Eve, Christ and Mary.
And so, we have much to do, for our perception of the family has been tainted,
has been tainted by a modern cultural phenomenon known as the media.
And so, we perceive the family to be some form of what is presented to us,
either the Cleavers, or the Flintstones, or the Clampetts, or the Bunkers,
or the Bradys, or the Simpsons, or the Osbournes, or the Simmons.
The latter two made their fortune precisely in rebelling against the family
and in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end.
Indeed, one of them would take as the philosophy for his band,
my name is Lucifer, please take my hand.
And indeed, that is exactly what happened to our first parents in their fall.
Lucifer presented himself to them, and they took his hand.
And so, the human family was corrupted, and it would remain corrupted
until that blessed event that would transpire in the cave at Bethlehem,
that event when the Savior of the world would come to us,
in visible form, so that we could see him.
As St. John tells us, he saw him and touched him in the flesh.
And so, he truly attaches himself to us in a most extraordinary way.
And what happened while the Savior of mankind came to the cave in Bethlehem?
Bethlehem slept, and in Bethlehem, the world slept,
because the world has a superficial understanding of the family,
and it seeks an understanding of the family,
that is contrary to the dignity of the family.
And we all know that by the very fact that our modern culture
is at this very moment attempting to change the definition of the family.
But the family is rooted in a supernatural reality,
and that supernatural reality, the holy family,
will always stand in the way of the world's attempt
to destroy the family and family values.
For Christ came in order to reclaim the family, and reclaim it he will.
And he...
He intends to do that, to the members of his mystical body.
But we must turn to each and every member of that family to see our place.
And most especially, we must turn to the blessed Virgin Mary.
For in the holy family, she holds its most prized possession.
And she will tell each and every one of us, and each and every generation,
I have our help here in my arms, because she too is a daughter of Eve,
preserved by that singular God, which is the Holy Spirit.
She is the grace from all stain of original sin,
but nonetheless a true daughter of the human family.
Indeed, the firstborn daughter of God the Father,
because she is truly and authentically a human being,
because she always does the will of the Father.
And so, in our modern lust for our pursuit of pleasures,
in our modern lust for entertainment,
we have diminished, superficialized the family and its role.
But when we...
when we use such terminology, that we have superficialized the family,
we are really making excuses for our cooperation in the most depraved of sins.
And indeed, we can see in every modern presentation of the family
that comes to us through the media,
that one of the things that is noted,
is that all family members are involved in depraved and sinful practices.
And indeed, on many reality shows, it is the very parents,
who introduce their own children into the corruption that they exercised
when they rebelled against the family and family values,
particularly shows like the Osbournes in the Simmons.
And so, our hearts must be pierced like the heart of the mother of God,
fathers and mothers leading their children into depravity and violence spreading over the world.
And Bethlehem slept.
When the restoration of the family came to it.
And so, we must look at that family life,
if we are not, as it were,
to cooperate with the world and its assault on the family values.
And let us not mistake in ourselves,
whether we cooperate in the corruption of the families explicitly or implicitly,
we are cooperating in Satan's assault on the holy family.
For every assault on the family,
and family values as defined by God,
are an assault by Satan on that most sacred of institutes,
the family, which provides to the church,
vocations to the priesthood,
vocations to the religious life,
vocations to the married life,
vocations to the papacy.
It all begins when family values are held up to the esteem that God wishes us.
And so,
we must not have an imagined sanctity.
Because an imagined sanctity is no sanctity at all.
A religion that exists in hypothetical circumstances
cannot endure the pressure of actuality.
To presume to a service of God
that the present framework of life does not allow is sheer pride.
Saint Joseph, when he was asked to take that blessed family into Egypt,
didn't worry.
About having the casinos taken away from him.
He didn't worry about having decadent television taken away from him.
He didn't worry about having drugs and depravity taken from him.
Because he had a focus.
And he did not allow his designs and his plans
for the pursuit of happiness to interfere with the will of God.
Because he was always the vigilant guardian of the holy family,
looking always and everywhere
to discern the will of God.
And when the will of God was
that he protect the family
from the assault of Satan
by fleeing into a pagan land,
he did not hesitate
in his obedience to God.
And so,
if our families are being assaulted
and our Lord is commanding us
to work out our salvation in pagan lands,
we must do so,
but not by way of compromise,
but by way of the example
that Saint Joseph gives us.
He took that family into a most depraved culture.
And yet,
that family lived in holiness
because the Father was the guardian and protector of it.
And so,
men must learn again
that they are the guardian and protectors of their family.
And if they do not stand up for family values,
if they do not stand up even to their beloved spouse,
when she is corrupted
by the greeds of the modern world
and the Bibles that she seeks,
then he is abandoning his role
to imitate Saint Joseph.
It is a presumed service.
It is an imagined sanctity.
And so,
we must see
that the function of the Father and the Mother
is laborious.
We cannot deny that.
For the Christian must live in reality.
And it is quite true to say
that the function of the Father
and of the Mother
is laborious.
But it is laborious
because it is gigantic,
not because it is minute.
Because it is an awesome responsibility
to raise their children
as citizens for heaven.
And so,
there is great labor involved in the work.
It is the labor
that Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother took out.
And so,
if we say
that it is impossible
for us to serve God
when we are weary
about the matters of the home,
then we have not even begun
to enter into that holy home at Nazareth.
For did they not labor extraordinarily?
Did they not work
at all the works
that transpire
in all the homes throughout the world?
They did
with one distinction.
They did not see them
as contrary to their vocation,
but as an essential part.
If children are viewed
as an obstruction
to their parents' holiness,
then it is the parents
who are in more grave peril
than even their children.
For we cannot separate
our duties as Christians
at every level.
Does not the vicar of Christ
have great responsibilities
towards the family,
both in the spiritual
and the temporal order?
If not,
then why was it
that Pope John Paul II
publicly admonished the world
and certain members of this world
who were using food
as an instrument of war
to get other nations
to do his bidding?
Why did he publicly
come out and say,
if you do not stop such sins
right now,
then you will most likely
go to hell?
Because it is the responsibility
of the father
to see that the finest details
of family life are preserved.
And one of the most essential needs
for human beings
is the nourishment of the body,
so that we can take prudent
care of ourselves.
And so, again,
the Holy Family reminds us
the work of mother and father
is a laborious work
because it is a gigantic
and an awesome work.
And so, we must not think
that our responsibilities
are a detriment to our holiness.
For if we do,
then we are only seeking ourselves
in prayer
and we become clanging symbols.
Do we not come to prayer
to beg God for the grace
to do the ordinary things
in our lives
in an extraordinary fashion?
And what is the extraordinary fashion
that we are after?
It is to do them
in the manner of Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph.
It is to do them
as they did them in Egypt,
as they did them in Bethlehem,
as they did them in Nazareth,
and ultimately,
as our Lord would do it on Calvary.
It is always and everywhere,
in every detail of our lives,
to do the will of God the Father.
And so, the Holy Family
is a mystery intimately linked
to the mystery of Christmas indeed,
inseparable from it.
For it was into a family
that the Savior came
in order to redeem the world.
And it is only through the family
that the world will be redeemed.
And if we do not accept this truth,
then we have only to turn
to the Vicar of Christ
who says very clearly
that this is a truth of our faith.
All that you succeed in doing
to support the family
is destined to have an effectiveness
that goes beyond
its own spear
and reaches other people too
and has an effect on society.
That is,
the works we do right now
in imitation of the Holy Family
have ramifications
long beyond
the time we will part from this life.
Long beyond.
Because they have ramifications
for that time
that we all long to wait for
when the Savior comes to judge
the living and the dead.
And we hopefully
join the angelic choirs.
And he continues,
the future of the world
and of the Church.
The future of the world
and of the Church.
For the Church's future
is intimately linked
to the vocations she receives
from Catholic families.
As the mother of Pope St. Pius X
so eloquently understood
when she saw that blessed offspring
have just a touch of pride,
not by way of even venial sin,
but just a little
indeliberate venial fault
against pride
when he was elevated
to the bishopric
and came to his mother
to quote unquote
show her his ring.
And when she detected it,
she simply said,
Beppe, wait here a moment.
And she went up into
her bridal chamber
and retrieved her wedding ring
and held it up to her son
and said,
son, remember always
that without this ring
you would not have your ring.
For it is through the Church
that through the family
that vocations are provided
to the Church.
And so he says,
the future of the world
and of the Church
passes through the family.
The more the family
imitates the life
of the Holy Family at Nazareth,
the more the world is sanctified.
The more we settle down
and work out our salvation
in the family,
not isolating ourselves,
for you cannot isolate
Christian family living
from the world.
As some of the families
who come here
have pointed out,
when two families,
the smallest one
being of eight children,
went into a restaurant
and had their children
sit down and behave
like good Christian children,
having fun,
but yet mortified and behaved,
they were approached
by a teacher
who said,
I wish to pay your bill.
To which the fathers declared,
You know how many that is?
How many are here?
He said,
I'm paying the bill.
And they asked him why.
And he said,
I have not seen
in thirty years
children behaving
in such a manner.
Children truly joyful,
but yet children
truly respectful.
And so,
it cannot help,
it cannot as it were help,
but influence the world
when the world sees
all members
of Catholic families
imitating the life of Jesus,
Mary and Joseph.
And so,
the future of the world
truly passes through the family,
but not the family
as the world is seeking
to redefine it,
but the family
as it is defined
by the Blessed Trinity,
that is,
the Holy Family at Nazareth.
And so,
will we one day
have to tell the Lord
that when He came
to our cities
and our towns,
we slept
like they slept
at Bethlehem,
because they did not understand
that God does not come to us
through catastrophe.
He does not announce His presence
with thunder and lightning
and bolts striking us down.
He announces His presence
with the subtle beam
of a miraculous star.
He announces His presence
with the angelic hymns
of the angels
singing glory to God
in the highest
in order that we may come
not out of fear,
but out of love,
love filled with hope
that what transpired
in the cave at Bethlehem
can transpire
in every home
and in every family
in the world
so that all homes
and all families
are truly
on the way to salvation,
taking as it were
not the hand of Lucifer,
but the hand of Jesus,
the hand of Mary,
and the hand of Joseph,
walking with them,
going with them,
everywhere they lead us.
And they lead us
by the example,
by the life they lived.
They are the cause
of family life.
They are the exemplar
of all true family living,
and outside of them
there is no family.
There is no hope.
There is only the despair,
the taking of the hand of Lucifer,
and ultimately
the loss of souls,
untold millions,
and always and everywhere.
It is not the fault
of the millions who are lost
for abandoning
true family life.
It is the fault
of the members
of the mystical body
who have refused,
refused
to truly
enter into the cave
at Bethlehem.
They have slept
to the subtle sounds,
the beckoning call
of the holy family
in Bethlehem,
but have woken up
to the siren song,
the loud clamoring
of Satan
and pleasure.
And so
let us return
again
so that we do not,
as it were,
sleep,
while the Savior
and his mother
and Saint Joseph
wish to draw us in
to a mystery
beyond our comprehension,
the mystery alone
that got Saint Teresa
the little flower
through her trials
and tribulations
when she underwent
the severe trial
of doubting her faith.
It was the mystery
of the holy family
that kept her
on the royal road
because she said,
there is no story
in the annals
of human history,
whether they be pagan
or whether they be
the stories told
by the patriarchs
and prophets of old
that even come close
to the story told
in the cave
at Bethlehem,
that God,
all-powerful,
came in order
to attach himself
to us
so that we
may attach
ourselves
to him.
And in so doing,
not simply walk
through this life
to heaven,
but fly
with the wings
of angels
showing the world
what is impossible
for men
is truly
possible
with God.
And so,
the only catastrophe
that the holy family
has brought
into the world,
the only catastrophe
is
the catastrophe
to sin
because the holy family
is its destruction.
However,
the meaning of death
and its tidings
is currently
out of the question
of the spiritual world.
It's happening
even outside
of it.
Those who witness
the